Qutaiba Idlbi

Qutaiba Idlbi is a senior non-resident fellow and the head of the Syria Project with the Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council. 

His past experience includes analyzing economic sanctions and forced displacement as a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute, profiling refugee entrepreneurship in Turkey and Jordan with Building Markets, analyzing security policy in Turkey and Syria at the Global Policy Institute, and developing governance and security atmospheric reports for the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command with Pechter Polls and the USAID Office of Transitional Initiatives with Caerus Associates. 

Idlbi was also Co-Founder and Vice President of People Demand Change (PDC), where he managed and evaluated governance, civil society strengthening, and peacebuilding programs in Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon. 

He is a 2013 Leaders for Democracy fellow with the Middle East Partnership Initiative at the United States Department of State, and a 2016 Peace Exchange fellow with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. 

Idlbi currently serves as a board member of multiple organizations advancing accelerated education, skills training, and women empowerment across refugee communities in the Middle East. 

He received his bachelor's in political science from Columbia University, and an associate degree in finance and banking from Damascus University.