John Sfakianakis is a senior scholar at Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge and an associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House. He is the chief economist and head of research of the Gulf Research Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He previously was director for the Gulf region of the Ashmore Group and chief investment strategist for MASIC, a diversified family office in Riyadh. He also held the position of chief Middle East economist for Credit Agricole C.I.B. and group general manager and chief economist for Banque Saudi Fransi as well as chief economist for the Saudi British Bank/HSBC and chief regional economist for Samba Financial Group. Sfakianakis has lived in Saudi Arabia for many years and has traveled throughout the Middle East and North Africa, working on a variety of asset management and private sector-led tasks for large international and regional conglomerates. He is a frequent commentator for Bloomberg, CNBC, BBC, CNN, and others. In addition, he has published articles in the Financial Times, The New York Times, Bloomberg, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and the Daily Telegraph.