Safiya Ghori-Ahmad is senior director with APCO Worldwide leading the firm’s global public affairs work in Washington, D.C. Ms. Ghori-Ahmad most recently served as senior managing director and partner at McLarty Associates, a global consulting firm based in Washington, where she advised Fortune 500 companies on policy issues and market entry strategies in South Asia for six years. She also served as a global client manager to several McLarty Associates clients, where she supported clients on reputation management, and leveraged multilateral forums for brand building and thought leadership opportunities.
Ms. Ghori-Ahmad previously served on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, covering South and Central Asia. She also served in the State Department as an advisor on Pakistan and Afghanistan in the Office of the Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan (SRAP) under Secretaries Clinton and Kerry. She began her State Department career in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Prior to joining McLarty Associates, Ms. Ghori-Ahmad led global business development at an international law firm where her work took her to Southeast Asia and beyond.
Ms. Ghori-Ahmad regularly speaks on topics related to DEI, women’s empowerment, and foreign policy, including at the Aspen Ideas Festival, SXSW, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Festival of the Diaspora. She currently serves as a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center, a founding member of CHIEF DC, a network of female executives, and on the Concordia Advisory Board. She was recently appointed to the Dean’s Advisory Board at the Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas.
Ms. Ghori-Ahmad is an Arkansas native and received her JD/MA from the University of Arkansas. She is a native Urdu and Hindi speaker, with intermediate Arabic skills.