Mac Skelton is Director of the Institute of Regional and International Studies (IRIS) based at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani, and concurrently he serves as Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE) Middle East Centre. While at IRIS he has overseen donor-funded projects on conflict and politics... Read More

Zainab Hamid Mera is a Senior Program Officer at IRIS, where she oversees the finance and administration division of IRIS. She joined IRIS in September 2017, prior to which she worked with IRIS as a Program Assistant for the 2017 Sulaimani Forum and the post-ISIS security project. She graduated from... Read More

Dr. Zmkan Ali Saleem is Program Manager, Research at IRIS. In that role, he has served as lead researcher for projects funded by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and the Norwegian Research Council. He holds a PhD in Politics and International Studies from the University of Leeds/UK and teaches in the College... Read More

Adnan Sadik joined IRIS in October 2019 as Program Manager of the Iraq Leadership Fellows (ILF) , where he plans and oversees the various activities of the program. Prior to that, Adnan managed many different projects in trading companies, media outlets, and think tanks. He is a Software Engineer and... Read More

Shvan joined IRIS in October 2019 as Program Manager, External Relations , where he oversees the annual Sulaimani Forum. Prior to joining IRIS, Shvan worked in the Human Resources department for eight years, where he supported IRIS and served as a co-organizer of Sulaimani Forum for six years. Shvan is... Read More

Hamzeh Al-Shadeedi joined IRIS in January 2020 as a Policy Researcher . In this capacity, he focuses on issues of security and the role of law in Iraq. Before joining IRIS, Hamzeh worked for the Conflict Research Unit of the Clingendael Institute, where he researched issues of local governance in... Read More

Lana Sardar joined IRIS in January 2020 as a Program Coordinator . In her capacity, she is part of the annual Sulaimani Forum organizing team. She holds a MA in International Business from Regents University, London UK and a BA from the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani specializing in International... Read More

Dr. Renad Mansour serves as Senior Research Fellow at IRIS, where he has worked as a key researcher and expert on IRIS’ collaboration with the London School of Economics and the Department of International Development’s (DFID) Conflict Research Programme. He is concurrently a Research Fellow in the Middle East and... Read More

Saja Al-Nahi will be an IRIS Visiting Researcher from September 2019 to March 2020. Saja holds a bachelor and master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Texas at Dallas. She is a doctoral student at the University of Sussex, where she is also a researcher at the Centre... Read More

Ahmed Tabaqchali is Senior Fellow at IRIS. Mr. Tabaqchali is the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of AFC Iraq Fund and a board member of the Credit Bank of Iraq with over 25 years of experience in US and MENA markets. He formerly served as the Executive Director of NBK Capital,... Read More