Moustafa Ayad is the Deputy Director of International Technology, Communications and Education at the ISD, and a strategic communications professional with more than a decade’s worth of experience.

Moustafa is currently leading the relaunch of the Against Violent Extremism Network (AVE) — the largest, and oldest, global network of former extremists and survivors of extremist attacks — in the United States and Canada. He has advised the United Nations, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom, the United States Department of State, and other global and regional actors on the strategic use of counter and alternative narratives.

Moustafa’s previous experience included designing and deploying youth, elections, and alternative narrative creative campaigns in conflict and post-conflict environments across the Middle East and North Africa. Moustafa has worked with regional experts, community organisations, media outlets, and regional-global production hubs on the creation of multi-platform creative content aimed at disrupting and denigrating extremism draws online and offline. He has experience working in environments such as Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.