Doaa Abdel-Motaal is Visiting Professor of Polar Studies at Sciences Po in Paris. She is also Senior Counsellor at the World Trade Organization’s Agriculture and Commodities Division, in charge of external relations in agriculture and outreach to the food industry, farmers and civil society. She is the former Executive Director of the Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health, the former Chief of Staff of the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and former Deputy Chief of Staff of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

She is also a writer and expert on the polar regions. Her latest book Antarctica, the Battle for the Seventh Continent, was released in September 2016 and has been nominated for the 2018 Mountbatten Best Book Award. She is a visiting Professor for Polar Studies at Sciences Po in Paris. She holds a Masters and Doctoral degree in environment and development studies from the University of Cambridge and the University of Geneva.