AIX: Gas 2016 panellist.
David was correspondent in Beirut for Interpress Service in 1980 followed by editor of Middle East Economic Digest from 1984, where he was responsible for running a specialist weekly business magazine providing detailed, up-to-date information and analysis on contracts, government programmes and policy in all the countries of the Middle East.
His work at the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) from 2002 was mainly taken up with country analysis. He also edited the Business Middle East newsletter, which comprised analytical articles on business themes and a digest of recent regulatory developments. As chief energy analyst, he was responsible for checking the content of all of the material on electricity and energy in the EIU’s Country Forecast series (covering 60 countries) and producing regular articles on major energy themes.
On becoming the EIU’s Middle East regional director in July 2007 he took responsibility for the publication of regular reports on 20 countries in the MENA region, and was in charge of a team of seven editor/economists and two sub-editors. During his time at the EIU he had regular interaction with clients, and presented at and chaired numerous conferences and seminars.
He left the EIU in February 2012 and since then he has continued to perform economic and political analysis of the Middle East for numerous clients, including the EIU, Chatham House, Oxford Analytica, Dun & Bradstreet, MEED and the IISS, as well for private corporate clients. His main focus has been on Egypt and Syria, but he has also worked extensively on Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Algeria and Morocco, as well as providing a monthly contribution to the EIU on global natural gas trends.
Since September 2012 he has been an associate fellow in the Chatham House Middle East and North Africa Programme. As part of the Chatham House programme he regularly chairs meetings on Middle East topics. David has a BA from Oxford University and MA from Sussex University.