Title Financial Economist Company U.S. Department of State Bio Omar Parbhoo serves as a Financial Economist for the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. He leads on the bureau’s economic policy formulation for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and provides strategic guidance to the Assistant Secretary on MENA regional affairs. Parbhoo also coordinates the Department’s position for multilateral development bank engagement in the Arab world, working closely with the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Parbhoo is a leading voice on data-driven economic analysis for the State Department, and has contributed to innovative methodologies designed to inform the policy decision-making process. He is also the creator and host of Inside Economic Diplomacy, a podcast series that offers a unique view of the Department’s global economic tools and priorities. Within the U.S. government, Parbhoo has held positions at the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the Social Security Administration, and served overseas in Jerusalem and Tripoli, Libya. He is also a co-author of the MCC Tunisia Constraints to Growth Analysis, which was conducted and published shortly after the Arab Spring. Parbhoo received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Louisiana State University in 2005 and a Master’s degree in International Economics from University of California, San Diego in 2009.