ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Afshin Molavi is a Fellow and Director of the upcoming Middle East Global Initiative at the New America Foundation, a non-partisan, Washington-based think tank. A widely acknowledged expert on the geopolitics and economies of Iran and the Persian Gulf States, he is currently examining the "New Silk Road" of trade and energy investments between Asia and the Persian Gulf. He has written widely on the Middle East and provides strategic counsel to investment banks, governments, and multilateral institutions. His articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, the Financial Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Business Week, Newsweek, and Foreign Policy, among others. He is also a regular commentator on the Middle East on CNN, the BBC, CNBC, Al-Arabiya, Al-Jazeera, and National Public Radio (NPR). Mr. Molavi is the author of The Soul of Iran (Norton 2005) and was recently selected by the World Economic Forum in Davos as a Young Global Leader. A recipient of a Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars fellowship, he holds an MA from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Fareed Mohamedi a Partner and Head of the Markets and Country Strategies practice, which houses PFC Energy's expertise in country risk and petroleum sector policy. He also works closely with PFC Energy's economics team, and is an expert on national oil companies and the challenges they face. Mr. Mohamedi has been at PFC Energy since 1990. He left the company briefly in 1998 to join Moody's Investors Service, where as Vice President/Senior Analyst he was the lead country analyst for a number of petroleum and gas producing countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kazakhstan. He returned to PFC Energy again in 2000 as Chief Economist. Before joining PFC Energy, Mr. Mohamedi worked as an economist at the Institute of International Finance in the Middle East and Asia departments, at the World Bank's Africa department, at Wharton Econometrics Forecasting Associates' Middle East service and at the economic research section of the Ministry of Finance and National Economy in Bahrain. He holds an M.A. from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Terry A. Newendorp, Chairman and CEO of Taylor Dejongh, has more than 30 years of experience in international capital project development, global financial structuring and project financing. He has negotiated and closed deals in 75 countries, aggregating more than $35 billion, mostly in emerging markets. He has extensive experience structuring transactions for capital markets and private placements of debt and equity, particularly for major energy projects globally. He was awarded the honor "Superstar Team, Asia/Middle East Oil and Gas," and received the "Independent Energy 25-year All-Star Award" for energy finance. Mr. Newendorp is an internationally recognized authority on bilateral and multilateral financing institutions such as the U.S. Export-Import Bank, OPIC, the World Bank, IADB, JBIC, SACE, and has served as advisor to multiple chairmen of U.S. Export-Import Bank. He was the overall leader for advisory teams that have won twelve "Deal of the Year" awards in the past six years. Mr. Newendorp received his J.D. cum laude from The George Washington University School of Law and his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University.

Jean-François Seznec is a Visiting Associate Professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. His research centers on the influence of the Arab-Persian Gulf political and social variables on the financial and oil markets in the region. He is focusing on the industrialization of the Gulf and in particular the growth of the petrochemical industry. He is Senior Advisor to PFC Energy in Washington, DC, and has published and lectured extensively on Petrochemicals and energy based industries in the Gulf and their importance in world trade. He is interviewed regularly on national TV, radio and newspapers, as well as by the foreign media. Dr. Seznec has 25 years experience in international banking and finance of which ten years were spent in the Middle East, including two years in Riyadh at SIDF and six years in Bahrain covering Saudi Arabia. Dr. Seznec is a founding member and Managing Partner of the Lafayette Group LLC, a US based private investment company. He uses his knowledge of business in the Middle East and the United States to further his analysis of the Arab-Persian Gulf. Dr. Seznec holds a MIA from Columbia University and Ph.D. from Yale University. 

Please contact Esther Petrilli Massey (202) 473-1949 for more information.