Michael Muhanna

Michael is helping grow SYPartners' impact in the Middle East by working with leaders to shape purpose, strategy, and culture—pairing deep fluency in the region's creative and cultural landscape with SYP's belief in humanity, creativity, and transformation as engines of change. 

Michael is a leading voice at the intersection of culture, education, and strategic innovation in the Arab world. He has built partnerships and worked directly with leaders from institutions including TED, Netflix, NYU Abu Dhabi, Northwestern, Qatar Foundation, Qatar Museums, Diriyah Biennale Foundation, Saudi Ministry of Culture, and the UAE Ministry of Culture and Youth.

For more than a decade, through afikra - عفكرة—the global Arab cultural and educational platform he founded in 2014—Michael has built communities that bring people closer to the histories, ideas, and stories of the Arab world, helping envision and shape a better future for the region. He serves as an advisor and trustee for institutions across the Middle East on cultural production, education, and innovation.

Earlier in his career, Michael spent many years in finance at Morgan Stanley and PwC in New York and led a MENA-based actuarial consulting firm. He also taught high-school algebra in the New Orleans public school system as a Teach For America corps member and founded the education nonprofit Positive Space NOLA. He is an Associate of the Society of Actuaries and a graduate of Duke University, where he studied Economics and Jazz Piano.

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