Ali Arab

Dr. Ali Arab is an expert in global banking and systemic risk. He has expertise in data and analytics for banking, regulatory compliance in financial industry, systemic risk in interconnected financial and physical networks, smart grid resiliency, machine learning, financial stress testing, and economic decision making under uncertainty. He has worked with top-tier global banks, top U.S. investment banks, federal financial agencies, a self-regulatory organization for the U.S. financial industry, a top Canadian bank, a major Swiss financial services firm, and a number of Fortune 500 companies clienteles. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Industrial Engineering from University of Houston.

He has engaged with his clients in addressing their financial risk management and strategy needs in multiple areas including Federal Reserve’s Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) and Dodd-Frank Act Stress Tests (DFAST) compliance, Basel II & Basel III regulations, International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) regulations on OTC derivatives, and management strategy implementation in business analytics and machine learning areas. In addition, Dr. Arab is an Adjunct Professor of Finance with Lubin School of Business at Pace University in New York City, where he has been teaching Risk Management for Financial Institutions. He is the author of more than 15 peer-reviewed articles in the area of risk analytics, machine learning, and systemic risk which have appeared in various flagship journals and conference proceedings. He most recently served as Data & Analytics Manager with Protiviti, a global management consulting firm in New York City. Prior, he was with the Electric Power Analytics Consortium in Houston where he developed several asset management and resilience enhancement solutions for smart grid infrastructure under hurricane effects and manmade disasters. His doctoral research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, CenterPoint Energy, and Direct Energy. Prior to that, he spent several years as an entrepreneur, lecturer, project manager, and management consultant for various companies.

Dr. Arab is a Senior Member of the Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers. He served as the President of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences at University of Houston (UH-INFORMS), where he co-founded the first Industrial Engineering Research Conference & Expo at University of Houston. In addition, he served on the Technical Program Committee for 2015 IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid Communications. He has been a frequent speaker on topics related to global banking, systemic risk, and analytics at various business forums, conferences, and universities. He has served as a referee for a number of scientific journals, including IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid and IEEE Transactions on Communications, among others. Ali’s international experience includes living, studying, and working in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and North America regions. He has extensively travelled to all 50 U.S. states which has provided him with a deep understanding of nuances in American culture and local business climates across the country.