Biography
Alissa Amico is the managing director of GOVERN, Economic and Corporate Governance Center, which works with public and corporate leaders in advancing corporate governance and economic governance in emerging markets. Until 2015, Amico was responsible for overseeing OECD’s work on financial markets and corporate governance in the Middle East and North Africa. She joined the OECD in 2005 to establish a regional program on private sector development in the MENA region with the relevant ministers in the area. Amico holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the Schulich School of Business, York University, and a master’s degree in political economy with a specialization in the Middle East from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She was named one of the Top 100 Leaders in Europe and the Middle East by the Centre for Sustainability and Excellence in 2011 and was recognized by Columbia Law School as the Rising Star of Corporate Governance in 2014.
Recent corporate governance scandals have a surprising culprit lurking behind them.
Privatization appears to be slowly rearing its head in the Middle East again, mostly in the economic plans of the GCC countries and in Egypt. To be clear, this is not because attitudes have changed. Divestment from state-owned enterprises is seen as a last resort in the Gulf countries in light of the fiscal tightening.