Dr. J. Mac Skelton is Director at IRIS. Skelton is an anthropologist and Middle East analyst with field research and programmatic experience in Yemen, Lebanon, and Iraq. While at IRIS he has overseen research projects on conflict and stabilization funded by the UK Department of International Development (DFID) and the... 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

Christine van den Toorn is Senior Advisor of IRIS. She also serves as the Executive Director of External Relations and Policy for AUIS. She has fifteen years of academic and professional experience in the Middle East, nine of which have been spent in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). She... Read More

Dr. Zmkan Ali Saleem is Senior Researcher 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 of... 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

Rahman Aljebouri is Senior Fellow at IRIS and the president of the Political Leadership and Governance Development Academy. He previously served as Associate Director for the Middle East and North Africa at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Currently based in Baghdad, he connects IRIS with policy makers in the... Read More

Dr. Renad Mansour serves as 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 North... Read More

Zainab Hamid Mera is a Senior Program Officer at 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 AUIS in 2017 with a B.A in Information Technology. She... Read More