Sherif El-Ashmawy is a Dubai-based Associate Analyst with Control Risks’ Global Risk Analysis team. Sherif leads the firm’s analysis on North Africa. He also provides political, security and operational risk analysis for the wider Middle East and North Africa region. He writes daily analytical updates for our online risk monitoring platform, CORE, tracking political and security developments and their implications for commercial activities.

Examples of Sherif’s recent work include: 

• Conducting a comprehensive market-entry assessment, mapping of local communities, stakeholder mapping and benchmarking exercise for a European oil and gas company operating in Libya.
• Monitoring political and security risks for a regional sports federation, focusing on how political rivalries and security issues in the Gulf region impact the viability of holding sports events there. 
• Conducting a physical and reputational threat monitoring, using a combination of social media and digital media analytical tools, for a client operating in Saudi Arabia.
• An assessment of the corruption risks facing foreign companies in Algeria’s automotive sector for a global car manufacturing company.
  
  

Prior to joining Control Risks, Sherif completed one year of military training. He also completed research internships at the Washington DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Cairo-based Arab Forum for Alternatives. 

Sherif holds a master’s degree in international relations from Sciences Po Paris and a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Cairo University. He attended Sciences Po on a scholarship awarded by the French government’s Eiffel Excellence Scholarship Programme. Sherif speaks fluent English, French and Arabic, alongside some Hebrew and Spanish.