Omar Samad is an Afghanistan Senior Expert in residence at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. since January 2012.
Samad earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and International Affairs at the American University in Washington D.C. in 1991 and a Master's degree in International Relations (GMAP) from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University, Massachusetts) in 2006. He also worked in the IT private sector field in the US between 1981 and 2001 with corporations such as Datacrown Inc, Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA).
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s he advocated for freedom and democracy in Afghanistan. In 1996, he became the executive producer of the Radio Free Afghanistan and its website as part of the Afghanistan Information Center, based in Virginia. Following the September 11th attacks, he worked as a commentator and analyst for CNN during the Bonn Accords on Afghanistan, and was also a contributor for major international media in English, French and Dari.
He was the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul from December 2001 to September 2004 and Director General of the Information and Media Division, during which he also served as an advisor, speech-writer and member of the Ministry's reform committee.
From October 2004 to June 2009, he served as Afghanistan's Ambassador to Canada and from June 2009 to July 2011, the country's Ambassador to France. He also established diplomatic relations, and was accredited non-resident Ambassador to the Chile (2008) and Principality of Monaco (2010). During his diplomatic career (2001 to 2011), he was a member of delegations to the UN, NAM, Islamic Conferences and specialized conferences on Afghanistan, including the Tripartite Security Commission with Afghanistan-US-Pakistan.
He has written numerous articles/commentaries on Afghan issues and spoken at conferences and seminars around the world. Recent articles have appeared in Foreign Policy weblog.
Omar Samad is married to Khorshied, and has two children.