Leadership & Management

Riad Kahwaji

INEGMA's Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Riad founded INEGMA in Dubai in October 2001, and has since been in charge of the company’s offices in Dubai and Beirut. INEGMA is a research house that provides consultancies on areas related to Middle East geo-political security, defense and energy. He also founded SEGMA in 2015, a leading organizer or specialized events in the fields of security, defense, energy, healthcare and new technologies. Until October 2008, he was also the Middle East Bureau Chief for Defense News, The largest selling international defense publication. He worked for Jane’s Defense Weekly as Middle East Correspondent from 1999 to 2001. He also contributed on regular basis to various Jane’s publications like Jane’s Intelligence Review and Jane’s Sentinel and Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst. He frequently publishes defense analysis/articles in pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper and professional periodicals. In 2008, he founded the first Arabic language news website called Security and Defense Arabia – www.sdarabia.com - that is dedicated to military affairs, He also has few publications in Arabic, the last one was on “The Basis of the Lebanese Defense Strategy,” produced by An-Nahar Press in Beirut in December 2009. He has been working as a professional journalist covering the Middle East since 1988. Riad has an MA degree in War Studies from King’s College, the University of London, and a BA in Mass Communication from Phillips University, Oklahoma, USA.