Dr Luay Al- Khateeb is joining IBBCs advisory council and brings his energy expertise to the council. As a long-standing friend of IBBC Dr Luay has chaired energy panels at IBBC major conferences. As an independent Iraqi politician he was the former Electricity Minister and member of the Federal Energy Council in the Government of Adil Abdul-Mahdi  between 2018-2020. Prior to this, he was the founding director of the Iraq Energy Institute, a think tank producing scholarship and analysis on current, historic and future energy, economy and technology trends in Iraq, as well as organizing high-level fora on energy reform in Iraq and the region.

A frequent commentator on Iraq’s energy strategic policies and an advocate of sector-wide reforms, Al-Khatteeb is currently a non-resident Distinguished Fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy (Columbia University–SIPA.), Honorary Professor at the University of Exeter, former foreign policy fellow at Brookings, and has written articles and published reports for a range of publications include   The New York Times,  Harvard University, Columbia University,  CNN, MEES, the Petroleum-Economist and The National among others.

Previously, he served as honorary advisor to the Federal Parliament of Iraq on Energy and Economy. Between 2014 and 2016

Al-Khatteeb has held several longstanding positions on energy in Iraq and the region, being an outspoken advocate of modern gas to power strategies, eliminating gas flaring and providing feedstock for power and linked industries, particularly in Iraq.

In conversation with Dr Al-Khateeb, we asked the following questions:

Q; What are your hopes for involvement with the Advisory council?

A; I look forward to support the IBBC business community in Iraq as well as help guiding the IBBC organisation to navigate its way to explore better opportunities that will contribute to the development of the country and its reconstruction campaign,

Q: Do you have any key issues you’d like to pursue via IBBC such as Energy transition or specific reforms?

A: Energy development, energy security and energy transition are all priority topics on the agenda to promote and strengthening the ties between the United Kingdom and Iraq,

Q: Would you like to comment on the recent Mansion house panel you chaired?

A: The participants at the energy panel that took place at the 15th IBBC annual conference demonstrated the level of progress in the energy sector across Iraq, including gas, power, upstream and downstream as well as renewable energy development. It was great to see such progress and that Iraq will eventually end gas flaring by 2028 while capturing such important commodity and utilising it for industrial development and feedstock supply for power generation, saving Iraq billions of dollars a year from expensive imports and contributing significantly to the country’s GDP.

The IBBC advisory council serves to strengthen and spread IBBC’s knowledge and influence and allows IBBC to access some of the most experienced minds who have been involved in Iraq over the years. This access allows us to connect where necessary with High-ranking officials, draw on the expertise and experience and develop our thinking and ideas. Recent member additions include Riad Chehayeb of Serco, Professor Frank Gunter of Lehigh University’s report on De-dollarisation and Dr Shamal Mohammed of Silal.

Mr Christophe Michels. MD IBBC says’ Dr Luay is well known to IBBC members, and we are delighted he is augmenting the advisory council with his expertise in energy and Iraqi politics’