Faris Al-Sulayman

Faris is currently pursing a PhD at the LSE, where his research focuses on the role of sovereign wealth funds and state owned companies in the energy transitions of developing countries, particularly the oil rich states of the Gulf. The research employs small and medium comparative approaches making use of new data on completed renewable energy projects and the role of state institutions in project development to try and understand how state capital affects the pace of the energy transition in these contexts, and what effect this has on green industrial policy.

Background

Faris received his BSc from the SFS at Georgetown University, and his MSc from the LSE both with a focus in comparative political economy. Since 2014 Faris has held a variety of research positions working on the politics and economics of energy in the MENA region at Georgetown University, the Wilson Centre, and at Arabia Monitor, a private research firm. Faris is currently a research fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Saudi Arabia, and a non-resident scholar in the Program on Economics and Energy at the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC. Between research posts in 2017 Faris co-founded Haala Energy, a solar PV developer based in the Gulf focused on building agri-voltaic and off-grid solar diesel hybrid projects.

Research Interests

• Political Economy 
• Energy Transition
• State Owned Entities (SOEs)
• Sovereign Wealth
• Energy Transition of Oil States
• The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)