Ibrahim Osta, Director Middle East and North Africa for Chemonics International, and former Chief of Party, USAID Economic Growth through Sustainable Tourism Project, Jordan Osta leads USAID’s largest USAID tourism development project with over $100 million in cumulative technical and grant assistance. He leads a wide portfolio to enhance Jordan’s tourism sector, including national strategy, destination marketing, heritage conservation and promotion, community-based development and hospitality education and training. He was Senior Policy Advisor to Jordan’s Ministers of Tourism and of Water.

In the 1990s for Save the Children, Osta led the creation of INJAZ, a youth entrepreneurship development organization modeled after the American Junior Achievement International (JAI) and laid the ground for INJAZ Arabia, now reaching more than a half million students annually across the Arab world. Based in Cairo for the Center for International Private Enterprise, he supported Egyptian export-oriented business associations and industry chambers.

Previously, he was Executive Director of the US-based American Arab Chamber of Commerce, an organization facilitating US-Arab trade and investment. He holds a Bachelor of Finance & Economics (University of Michigan), a Master of Tourism Administration (George Washington University) and held the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) mutual funds license. He served on various boards, including the UN Foundation World Heritage Alliance and received the King Abdullah II Entrepreneurship Development Award for supporting MSMEs.