Raghida Dergham is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Beirut Institute and Columnist for The National. She served as Columnist, Senior Diplomatic Correspondent, and NY Bureau Chief for the London-based Al-Hayat for 28 years. She has contributed to Al Joumhouria, Huffington Post, Arab News, Al Arabiya English, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Newsweek. She was a political analyst for NBC, MSNBC, and LBC for eight years as well as a contributing editor for Global Viewpoint produced for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. A specialist on global strategy, she is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an Honorary Fellow at the Foreign Policy Association. Dergham served on the International Media Council of the World Economic Forum and is on the Development Advisory Committee of the InterAcademy Partnership, a global network of science academies. In 2018, she was named one of the 50 Most Influential Women in the Arab World, and was also honored by Forbes Middle East in Lebanon as one of the most influential people that are supporting the growth of the country.