MISSION
The Moroccan Institute of Strategic Intelligence (IMIS) is a general think tank dedicated to the study of Morocco’s strategic stakes and the decoding of the complex positioning of actors in its continental environment.
The Institute, based in Rabat, is the result of a dynamic lunched in 2007 with the Moroccan Association of Economic Intelligence (AMIE) and its migration to the AMIE Center for Policy. These two structures have established themselves as the continent benchmark for practitioners of strategic intelligence and as a driving force in the production of strategic doctrine through two major works: “A Moroccan ambition” and “Strategic Morocco”.
It’s a real experimentation laboratory and a lever available to the public and private sectors. The Moroccan Institute of Strategic Intelligence IMIS is positioned on two complementary axes:
- Studying the issues and producing knowledge : that is to say decoding, clarifying and recommending.
- Supporting players in terms of strategy : therefore designing and acting.
Therefore, the think tank’s capacity for analysis and action is oriented towards three topics of interest impacting the Cherifian economic, political and societal chess boards:

The regional African integration of Morocco

Digitization and its new modes of action

The Moroccan soft and real power
Vision
Considering the global paradigm centered on the capacity of the players to grasp information and develop a unique strategic skill, Morocco today is not only a model of emergence in the eyes of its continental neighbors, but also in the eyes of the nations of the world.
Based on this observation, the Moroccan Institute of Strategic Intelligence intends to draw bridges between the three communities able to design the functional guides of tomorrow, plan their applications and make them concrete, inclusive and sustainable.
These three communities are:
- Morocco of thinkers : those who conceptualize Morocco intellectually, the academic world, opinion leaders and think tanks.
- Morocco of players : those who make Morocco every day, its captains of industry, its entrepreneurs-innovators, its associative network and active communities.
- Morocco of commentators : Those we call “influencers”, media, columnists, and the people of social networks.
The Institute, as a creator of links, calls for the transversal expertise of its members and contributors to develop an unconventional strategic vision for regional and continental issues.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President of the Institute
Abdelmalek Alaoui
Abdelmalek Alaoui is a Consultant and author. He manages the Guépard Group firm he founded in January 2015. In March 2015, he was named “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Previously, Abdelmalek Alaoui created and developed, from 2008 to 2015, Global Intelligence Partners. It’s a global strategy consulting company, specialized in economic intelligence active throughout West Africa, which has quickly acquired the position of leader in its zone. In January 2015, Global Intelligence Partners was the subject of a friendly acquisition by the Mazars group, where Abdelmalek Alaoui has since held the position of Senior Advisor in the executive committee.
Abdelmalek Alaoui is a graduate of Sciences Po Paris. He holds an MBA from HEC and a third cycle from the School of Economic Warfare. He regularly delivers his economic analyzes in the columns of the Plus of the “Nouvel Observateur” and also contributes within the American magazine “Forbes”. He is the author of several books and owns the Huffington Post Maroc and La Tribune Afrique.

General Secretary
Najib Benamour
Najib Benamour is an expert economist specialized in macroeconomics and development economics. He has spent his entire career in the Moroccan administration and has held several leadership positions.
He started as a project manager for the Prime Minister. He was part of the small team that studied the Moroccan public sector under the leadership of Minister Abdellatif Jouahri. Afterwards, he was chief of staff for the Minister of Finance and participated in the development and implementation of the PAS.
Najib Benamour was successively responsible for the studies and investments at the Prime Minister’s Office, chairman of the investment commissions, conventions and simplification of international trade procedures.
Najib Benamour was also a member of the national accounting council and its general rapporteur. He has been a member of the Board of Bank Al-Maghrib for more than six years. He was the General Manager of the Compensation Fund for more than 17 years.
Now, he is a member of several think tanks and consultant for the World Bank.
He was an advisor in the study on the unified social register.
He is also an adviser for a brokerage firm SAGFI.

Doctor of economic science
Ahmed Azirar
Ahmed Azirar holds a PhD in Economics. He also holds national and foreign certificates in international management, international negotiation and project management. He is a university professor of economics, international trade and market intelligence. He has experience in administrative management, ministerial cabinet and business, administrative and professional association counseling. He is the founder of the Moroccan Association of Business Economists AMEEN, co-founder of the Moroccan Institute of Strategic Intelligence IMIS and the MOROCCAN ASSOCIATION OF ECONOMIC SCIENCES AMSE. Hi is also an associate researcher at the Royal Institute for Strategic Studies IRES. He received the Wissam of the Order of Merit of the Kingdom of Morocco in 2014 and a distinction for services rendered by the World Customs Organization in 2011.

Treasurer
Naoufal Semlali
Naoufal Semlali is a graduate of ESSEC and holds a PhD in pharmacy. He is the general secretary of the Guépard group. In the light of this, he interacts with the company’s subsidiaries as well as with its national and international clients.

Bouchra Rahmouni Benhida
Bouchra RAHMOUNI holds a Doctorate in International Economy from Mohammed V University Rabat . She is Professor of Geo Economy, Internationalization of companies and social entrepreneurship.
She also is an international affiliated Professor at New York University (Risk of Finance Engineering department) in the USA, as well as visiting professor at Holy Spirit University in Lebanon. Bouchra is a distinguished Professor of Geopolitics at Grenoble School of Management in France. Additionally she serves as an visiting professor at International Trade and Law Institute of Pusan National University in South Korea.
For 25 years, she has been combining research, pedagogy and consulting to promote women economic empowerment and social entrepreneurship in Africa.

Manager at Guepard Group
Salma Bachir El Bouhali
Salma Bachir El Bouhali is a graduate of Neoma Business School and from the normal cycle of the Higher Institute of Commerce and Business Administration (ISCAE).
She has started her career as a Consultant within Global Intelligence Partner. She then joined Guépard. Salma Bachir is an expert in brand strategies. She leads strategy and execution missions for large national players as well as multinationals established in Africa, including the establishment of operations of activation and branding.
She has assisted, in this respect, the L’Oréal group, Veolia, the Central Reinsurance Company and the Casablanca Finance City in the deployment of influence strategies. She also has a leading experience in project management.

Ghalia Mokhtari
Ghalia Mokhtari est avocat au barreau de Casablanca. Elle agit principalement sur des problématiques bancaires et de financement de projets, notamment dans les secteurs de l’énergie et des infrastructures.
Son intervention sur des dossiers stratégiques tant au Maroc (notamment le financement des projets Tarfaya, JLEC 5&6, SAFI, projets 13-09) qu’à l’international lui ont permis de développer une connaissance approfondie du secteur de l’énergie au Maroc.
Ghalia Mokhtari est diplômée de l’Université Panthéon-Assas en droit privé et de l’Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées en financement de projets. Elle suit actuellement un Executive Master in Public Administration and Policy à la London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Expert in public relations
Khadija Idrissi Janati
Khadija is an entrepreneur, an expert in public relations and influence communication.
Since 2009, Khadija has created many companies in the communication sector. She has also created and managed several printed and digital media over the past 10 years. Now, she heads Tea And Koffee, a public relations and influence communication consultancy and support agency, operating in Morocco and Africa.
Persuaded of the potential of Africa and the need to promote the economic integration of the continent, Khadija co-founded I-Afrika. It’s a network of African entrepreneurs who aims to develop intra-African trade and South-South economic cooperation. She is also the founder and president of the African Trade and Investment Summit. She has also founded the Ifrane Forum, which brings together economic operators and political actors from different African countries in Morocco each year, to create opportunities of collaboration for the development of South – South cooperation.
Moreover, Khadija is committed to the promotion of women’s entrepreneurship and the economic empowerment of women. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Women Business Owners of Morocco and a founding member of the Moroccan Mentoring and Networking Network. She is part of many national and international organizations dealing with the issue. She is a graduate of Sciences Po Paris in several programs to strengthen female leadership such as VV LEAD and Global Ambassadors of Vital Voices and Women of Tomorrow in the Mediterranean.
In September 2014, Khadija was received by President Barack Obama in recognition of her exceptional contribution to the work of civil society in Morocco and the region. In 2016, she was appointed as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
Khadija is a regular contributor to national and regional media on topics related to women’s empowerment, youth entrepreneurship and social development.