Aman Shaikh

Aman Shaikh is Masters in Public Policy candidate at Harvard Kennedy School. Prior to this, he worked in consulting, focusing on the pharmaceutical and nonprofit sectors. Aman has worked on various topics such as rural development, livestock, skill development and governance. He has a degree in mechanical engineering and a postgraduate diploma in liberal arts.

Abdullah Helal

Abdullah is currently pursuing a Master in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) at Harvard Kennedy School. Before his graduate studies, he served as an Economic Specialist at the Saudi Competition Authority, focusing on economic research and analysis. Abdullah holds a BA from the University of Colorado Boulder. He is a member of the Growth Lab team at Harvard, engaged in a project aimed at informing Azerbaijan’s economic diversification strategy.

Haocheng Wang

Haocheng Wang is an MPA/ID candidate at Harvard Kennedy School and is contributing to the Pathway to Prosperity project at the Growth Lab. Previously, he worked as a business analyst at a digital bank in Singapore.

Charlie Pozniak

Charlie Pozniak is a Master in Public Policy student at the Harvard Kennedy School. After graduating from the University of Oxford, he worked at the World Bank in the Poverty & Equity team, contributing to a range of evidence-based policymaking programs in developing countries. This work included writing assessments on green growth, adaptive social protection, and gender equality, alongside undertaking extensive research for diagnosing a country’s binding constraints to growth.

At Harvard, Charlie has undertaken research at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society and at Harvard Law School on issues ranging from urban transportation systems to technology regulation. He is passionate about the application of innovative economic and computational tools to better promote sustainable and equitable economic growth. Next semester, Charlie will be a teaching fellow for a course in analytic frameworks for policy, looking at uncertainty and interactive decision problems.

Masatoshi Ide

Masatoshi Ide is a first-year MPA/ID student at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). He was accepted into the Growth Lab’s 2024 Summer Internship Program and contributes to the Azerbaijan project. Before enrolling at HKS, he spent five years working at the Ministry of Finance, Japan, specializing in government bonds, development finance, and international finance.

Masato Nakajima

Masato Nakajima is a MPP Candidate at HKS. He holds a Bachelor of Laws from University of Tokyo and has 3+ years of experience in international finance, economic research, and financial regulation. He is part of the Growth Lab team working with the Azerbaijan Ministry of Economy, focusing on macroeconomic modeling.

Hussaini Shan-e-Abbas

Shan is a first-year MPA/ID candidate at Harvard Kennedy School. As an intern, he will be working with the Azerbaijan project team, where he will be focusing on the country’s sub-national analysis that could potentially unlock regional growth opportunities.

Abdi Zihaul

Abdi Zihaul is a first-year MPA/ID student at the Harvard Kennedy School from Indonesia.

Prior to attending HKS, Abdi worked as an Analyst at Prospera (Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Economic Development), where he was involved in economic policy research and government advisory on issues related to trade, investment, and industrial policy. He is interested in leveraging trade and investment policy to help developing countries seize opportunities in the green energy transition. Abdi received his B.A. in Economics from Universitas Indonesia in 2020.

Alina Beskrovna

Alina Beskrovna is from Mariupol, Donetsk region, Ukraine. She has a Master’s in Applied Mathematics from Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and an MBA in Finance from Lehigh University. Prior to joining Harvard, Alina worked as an international business researcher for Pennsylvania Business Administration and as a supply chain analyst for Fortune 500 publicly traded companies. In 2019, Alina went back to her hometown of Mariupol to run 1991 Startup Development Center under USAID Economic Development Program. She is currently pursuing a Master’s in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) at the Harvard Kennedy School. Her interests include green energy transition, infrastructure financing, controlled agricultural environments, and post-war reconstruction policies.

Claudia Velarde

Claudia Velarde is a Peruvian economist pursuing the MPA/ID Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. She has over 4 years of professional experience as a public policy consultant, working with multilateral organizations and the private and public sector.