Sabine Hatem Khalil who joined the Institute in 2006,  is the Chief Economist and Director of Cooperation and Partnerships. 

She’s the lead adviser and analyst on Public Financial Management policies and reforms, in particular in Budgeting and Fiscal Transparency including Open Data and Budget Spending Reviews; Public Investment Management; Financial Surveillance of State-Owned Enterprises; and Social Spending.

She cumulates more than 15 years of multidisciplinary experience working with governments and the international community, providing advisory services on PFM reform design and implementation, with a focus on policies, governance and capacity development, and a good understanding of political economy issues. She also specializes in cooperation development, notably in post-conflict and fragile contexts, in Lebanon and the Middle East and North Africa. 

She leads multiple donor-funded development projects (World Bank, UNICEF, etc.), providing direction, subject-matter expertise, and coordination. 

She was appointed between 2006 and 2017 as the Executive Secretary of the Governance Institutes Forum for Training in MENA network (GIFT-MENA) – a consortium of schools of government working to enhance governance reforms and the professionalization of public administration across MENA. 

She graduated from the Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut with a masters' in economics and co-authored many research papers, manuals and reports and spoke at many international conferences.