Dr. Roomi S. Hayat is Chief Executive Officer Institute of Rural Management, with 38 years of experience working in the Government and Non-Government sectors of Pakistan and his areas of expertise include rural development, women empowerment, environment, and poverty reduction. Dr. Hayat is the founding Chairman of an international think tank Human Resource Development Network (HRDN) and also serves as the Vice-Chairman of Akhtar Hameed Khan Resource Center (AHKRC)). He is the Chairman of the IUCN Pakistan National Committee.
Dr. Hayat specialises in livelihoods and poverty reduction with strong expertise in fostering Community-Based Organisations, developing need-based innovative livelihoods programmes, and formulating short cycle employable vocational and technical skills training. He has designed and conducted over 500 short and long-term training programmes in more than 20 countries and has extensive multi-disciplinary experience of managing and executing donor-funded projects including UNDP, ILO, USAID and World Bank with a special focus on livelihoods, rural development with gender as a cross-cutting theme.
Dr. Hayat holds multiple degrees including a Master’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA, and another Master’s degree in Rural Sociology from the NWFP University of Agriculture, Peshawar, Pakistan, and a Doctorate of Anthropology from Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan.