Nizar Manek is Managing Director at Periplus Research, an advisory firm providing insight and strategic advice in under-examined markets across Africa, the Middle East, and frontier Asia. Drawing on long-standing interlocutor networks, he has advised for over a decade across strategic sectors, with particular depth in telecommunications and infrastructure, ports and maritime, strategic minerals, and energy transitions.

Periplus advises institutional clients on market and stakeholder insight, government relations and political risk, and transactions and disputes—addressing asymmetries for decision-making, negotiations, scenario planning, and opportunities and risks. Based in London, its methodology integrates political, economic, and industry networks across provincial, coastal, and institutional centres in 80 jurisdictions.

Before founding Periplus, Nizar developed specialised network assessment methodologies relied upon by top-tier strategic advisory firms under confidentiality frameworks in hundreds of mandates. Previously, he led coverage of the Horn of Africa, Red Sea, and related Middle Eastern affairs for Bloomberg News and Businessweek, and covered North Africa, West Africa, and the Sahel for Africa Confidential. His work has appeared in the Financial Times, Jane’s Intelligence Review, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Le Monde Diplomatique, and the London Review of Books, receiving recognition including from the European Press Prize, Overseas Press Club of America, and Transparency International. He has contributed to academic literature through Routledge and Harvard’s Center for International Development anddelivered expert briefings for senior financial and diplomatic audiences.

A UK citizen now based in London, Nizar has lived and worked in Addis Ababa, Cairo, Tunis, Istanbul, Yerevan, Athens, and New York. He studied at the London School of Economics, Columbia University (Law and Business Schools), and SOAS, with regional language certifications at Boğaziçi University, the Armenian School of Languages & Cultures, and Koya University. His professional qualifications include OSCE accreditation and specialised training in civil and commercial mediation.