Nizar Manek is Managing Director at Periplus Research Group, a London-based advisory firm enabling institutional clients to navigate commercial strategy, governance, and negotiations across Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.

Drawing on over a decade of expertise in human-source networks and strategic analysis, Nizar has built and led associate teams across complex jurisdictions, delivering hundreds of commercial mandates in diverse industries from telecommunications to mining and transport for top-tier intelligence advisory firms under confidentiality frameworks. As a senior adviser on network capabilities, strategy, and qualitative assessments, his teams have provided strategic support to European foreign ministries throughout Track II diplomatic negotiations in civil and international armed conflicts. Nizar maintains OSCE accreditation as an international election observer across his focus regions.

Previously, Nizar was an award-winning international correspondent with Bloomberg News and Businessweek, leading interrelated coverage of the Horn of Africa, Red Sea, and Gulf regions, and with Africa Confidential, focusing on North Africa, the Sahel, and West Africa. Over eight years, he reported thousands of articles for these publications and contributed to the Financial Times, Jane's Intelligence Review, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Le Monde Diplomatique, and the London Review of Books. His work received honours from the European Press Prize, Overseas Press Club of America, Transparency International, and the Foreign Press Association in London. He has lectured to specialist audiences and contributed to academic literature, including with Routledge and Harvard's Center for International Development.

A UK citizen, Nizar has lived in Addis Ababa, Cairo, Tunis, Istanbul, Yerevan, Athens, and New York. He is now based in London.

Education

London School of Economics & Political Science ‘11
Columbia Law School ‘12
Columbia Business School ‘12
Columbia University ‘12
School of Oriental & African Studies ‘22
Boğaziçi University ‘22
Armenian School of Languages & Cultures ‘22
Koya University ‘22