Marene Madi

Dr. Marene Madi is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Middle East Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Her work spans the policy cycle, from agenda-setting to program delivery, and now focuses on how artificial intelligence is reshaping it, with climate as the applied domain.

Before Harvard, she spent nine years advising governments and institutions in multilateral and diplomatic settings. At PwC’s Government and Public Sector practice, she led a Gulf state’s engagement across four G20 Finance Track presidencies and the BRICS Finance Track, setting engagement strategy, building coalitions, shaping negotiating positions, and advising senior officials during live negotiations. She also contributed to the development of the COP28 Finance Day agenda, the high-level programme on climate finance and financial-system resilience. Earlier, as Economic Affairs Advisor at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Riyadh, she designed and delivered flagship programs that strengthened Saudi–Dutch economic and public diplomacy, including initiatives that continued beyond her tenure.

Her current research examines how artificial intelligence and data systems are reshaping the evidence base of government decision-making, with an applied focus on Gulf climate reporting systems, particularly the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The project looks at how these tools are linked to the ways governments measure, verify, and report policy performance. It extends her doctoral research on conditional integration, which explains how hydrocarbon-dependent states engage international climate institutions while managing economic exposure, preserving policy autonomy, and shaping rules from within.

Dr. Madi holds a PhD in Financial and Management Studies and an MSc in Public Policy and Management from SOAS University of London, and a BA in International Relations and Diplomacy from Notre Dame University–Louaize.