We Are Red Sea Experts

Srivastava is a former senior Indian diplomat and Middle East expert with extensive experience across the region, having served in Cairo, Jeddah, Riyadh, and Tripoli. He served as India’s Ambassador to Iran from 2011 to 2015, where he negotiated the MOU for Indian participation in Chabahar port. He also held ambassadorial positions in Libya and the Czech Republic, and served as India’s High Commissioner to Malta. Additionally, he represented India in Washington and Brussels, with eight years of experience working with the United Nations. Beyond diplomacy, he has deep expertise in the oil and gas sectors. He served on the Board of Directors of Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL), India’s largest gas and LNG company, from 2017 to 2020. He also worked as a Senior Advisor to ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) and served on the Board of Directors of India Ports Global Ltd. (IPGL) from 2017 to 2021. Srivastava is the author of Forgotten Kashmir: The Other Side of the Line of Control (Bloomsbury) and Pakistan: ideologies, Strategies, and Interests (Bloomsbury). He speaks Hindi, Arabic, French, and Farsi.

Roy Facey has been a lead advisor on port master plans, feasibility studies, concession tender documents, accident investigations, and dredging assessments up and down the Red Sea and the Gulf over 40 years. Trained as a Master Mariner, Facey's expertise covers large and small commercial port operations, shipping route planning and supply chain risk, port improvements, capacity assessments, and tariff optimization. Facey holds an MSc in Offshore Technology and Marine Structures and a BS in Engineering Maritime Studies. He speaks English, French, Spanish, and Arabic.

Lange Schermerhorn has been a career diplomat with more than 30 years' experience in economic and political matters, cross-cultural negotiations and trade promotion across the Middle East, the Red Sea, and Europe. She served as U.S. Ambassador to Djibouti (1997-2000) during the Arta Accords, and was Deputy Chief of Mission Brussels (1993-1997) following postings to Saigon, Colombo, Tehran, London, and Brussels. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and the prestigious National War College, with specialized economic training from the Foreign Service Institute. She has written on security in the Horn of Africa and Red Sea.

During a 36-year Foreign Service career Patrick Theros served across the Middle East in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria, and the UAE. His postings included Deputy Chief of Mission in Jordan; Deputy Coordinator for Counterterrorism; Political Advisor to the Commander of CENTCOM (1991-1993), and Ambassador to Qatar (1995-1998). Theros received the President's Meritorious Service Award and the Secretary of Defense Medal. From 2000-2017 he led the US-Qatar Business Council and is currently a strategic advisor to the Gulf International Forum. Theros is a graduate of the Georgetown School of Foreign Service.  He is fluent in Spanish, Arabic, and Greek.

Peter Kennedy is a founding principal of The Futures Strategy Group, with 25 years managing scenario-planning across automotive, transportation, healthcare, financial services, telecommunications, and consumer products for organizations like the U.S. Coast Guard, NASA, FEMA, and the State Department. Prior to FSG, he was a senior manager in the Deloitte Consulting Strategy practice and Director of Emerging Markets at Futures Group. He has contributed to business strategy journals and is a guest lecturer at Fordham and Copenhagen Business School. Kennedy holds an MA in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, and a BA in History from Le Moyne College. He is fluent in English and Spanish.

Nasser Bin Nasser is a prominent Middle East security expert and entrepreneur. He founded Ambit Advisory in 2022 to address cross-sectoral risks at the intersection of security and development. Currently, he serves as Senior Advisor to UNIDIR, leading research on ballistic missiles, drones, and weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, and sits on the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council on Complex Risk. From 2010-2022, Nasser directed the Middle East Scientific Institute for Security (MESIS) in Jordan, focusing on chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats. He simultaneously headed the Middle East Regional Secretariat under the EU’s Centres of Excellence initiative, collaborating with regional governments on CBRN risk mitigation. Earlier in his career, Nasser worked in King Abdullah II’s office as Senior Analyst in the Foreign Affairs Directorate, managing bilateral relations and analytical studies. He holds a master’s degree in Near Eastern studies from Princeton University and an undergraduate degree from Clark University.
Recognized as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2015, Nasser chairs Princeton’s alumni committee in Jordan and serves on various boards. He has been a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute and contributes as a columnist for Jordan News Daily.

Abdi Farah is an international development professional who has led public policy initiatives in environment, health, and sustainable development. She served as Director of Planning and International Cooperation at the Ministry of Health in Djibouti, where she oversaw national health strategies, managed partnerships with the World Bank and UN agencies, and advanced programs promoting equity, women’s empowerment, resilience, and inclusive growth. She has collaborated with institutions such as the World Bank, UN agencies, and Harvard’s Center for International Development, contributing to research and thought leadership on governance and resilience. Recently, Ms. Abdi Farah completed an MIT fellowship at the Special Program for Urban and Regional Studies, where she focused on developing effective policies for fragile contexts and supporting countries in strengthening their resilience. Noura is passionate about building bridges between local and global initiatives, supporting environmental leadership, and promoting innovative approaches to resilience. Fluent in Somali, Arabic, French, and Portuguese, she brings a unique perspective shaped by experience across government, academia, and international organizations. She holds a Master’s degree in Environment and Development from the University of Lorraine, France.

Dhaimish is director of Red Sea Futures’ forthcoming Big Red magazine and directory and Substack, highlighting the work of Red Sea professionals. Inspired by his late father, Libyan satirist Hasan Dhaimish, Sherif founded Pendle Press in 2021 to seek out unique stories that spark inspiration and authentically represent culture, both in written and visual forms. He defines his work as cultural preservation, storytelling, and championing the unconventional. Past Arabian and European collaborators include publishers including CentreCentre, Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers, Medina Darf Publishers, and cultural heritage publisher Kulturalis. Sherif's writing has appeared in New Lines Magazine, and he has spoken at national and international events on cultural representation and cross-cultural understanding. He holds a BA in Communication Studies from the University of Leeds and an MA in Critical Theory from King's College London

Dr. Blair Fowlkes Childs is a specialist in Roman and Greek art, archaeology and religion across the ancient Middle East, including Arabia, with extensive curatorial, publication and university teaching experience. At the Katonah Museum of Art, she curated Stories of Syria's Textiles: Art and Heritage across Two Millennia (2023-24), supported by the Barakat Trust, Coby Foundation and Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she co-curated the award-winning 2019 international exhibition The World between Empires: Art and Identity in the Ancient Middle East.
Her current book project examines Syrian and Phoenician sanctuaries in imperial Rome. She holds a fellowship at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, where she guest-curated "Photographs from Dura-Europos: 1922-2022 and Onward" for the Yale-French Excavations' centennial. She has taught at Royal Holloway University of London, Columbia, Yale and New York Universities.
Fowlkes Childs holds a B.A. from Princeton and M.A. and Ph.D. from NYU's Institute of Fine Arts in classical art and archaeology, with a minor in Islamic art and architecture. She speaks French and Italian.