Nizar Manek is Managing Director of Periplus Research, a London-based advisory firm focused on under-examined markets across Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia. He has advised institutional clients for over a decade across strategic sectors including telecommunications and infrastructure, ports and maritime, minerals, and energy transitions.

Drawing on long-standing interlocutor networks, Periplus advises on market and stakeholder insight, government relations and political risk, and transactions and deal strategy—addressing asymmetries for decision-making, negotiations, and scenario planning. Its methodology integrates ministry, industry, and political networks across provincial, coastal, and institutional centres in 75 jurisdictions.

Before founding Periplus, Nizar developed specialised network assessment methodologies relied upon by top-tier strategic advisory firms and European foreign ministries under confidentiality frameworks across 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, Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 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 and delivered 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.