Biographie

Shada Islam is Editor of the EUobserver magazine. She is a political analyst and commentator on European Union affairs based in Brussels, who works independently as an advisor/analyst/strategist on issues related to Europe, Africa, Asia, geopolitics, trade and inclusion.

Ms. Islam is a member of the European Policy Centre’s Strategy Board and a senior advisor to its Europe in the World program. She is also a founding member of the EU-Asia Centre. She worked for nine years as Director of Europe and Geopolitics at Friends of Europe, an influential independent think tank based in Brussels. She now runs her own Brussels-based global strategy and consulting firm, New Horizons Project.

In 2017, Ms. Islam was selected as one of the 20 most influential women in Brussels by Politico magazine. She is also a Solvay Fellow at the Vrije University Brussel (VUB).

Ms. Islam has devoted most of her professional life to researching, writing and lecturing on the European Union’s relations with Asia. She has established a worldwide reputation as a leading commentator, analyst and writer, as well as an original opinion leader on the EU’s domestic and foreign policy agendas.

She is a regular speaker at international conferences and political panels and a frequent lecturer at academic symposia on geopolitics. She is frequently interviewed by the international media and writes regularly on Europe, Africa, Asia and migration. Her articles have appeared in the Guardian, Politico and the South China Morning Post, among others, as well as in academic journals. Her “Frankly Speaking” columns for Friends of Europe are always widely read.

As a correspondent for more than 20 years for Asia’s leading weekly news magazine, The Far Eastern Economic Review, Ms. Islam has gained a deep understanding and unique insight into the policies and priorities of governments, businesses and civil society actors in Asia and Europe. As such, her advice and counsel are highly sought after by Asian and European governments, including the European Union institutions and the European External Action Service, as well as by business, civil society and academia. She is a regular speaker at international conferences and a frequent speaker at academic symposia in Asia and Europe. She is often interviewed by the international media.

Ms. Islam established the highly successful Friends of Europe Asia Program in 2011, and quickly made it one of Europe’s most influential knowledge platforms on EU-Asia relations. She holds a master’s degree in journalism and social communication from the Université Libre de Bruxelles.