Dr. Roomi Saeed Hayat

Dr. Roomi S. Hayat is the Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Rural Management (IRM) and brings 38 years of experience working across the government and non-government sectors in Pakistan. His areas of expertise include rural development, women’s empowerment, environmental sustainability and poverty reduction. He is the founding Chairman of the Human Resource Development Network (HRDN), an international think tank, and serves as Vice Chairman of the Akhtar Hameed Khan Resource Centre (AHKRC). He also serves as Chairman of the IUCN Pakistan National Committee.

Dr. Hayat specialises in livelihoods and poverty reduction, with extensive expertise in strengthening community-based organisations, developing innovative and needs-based livelihood programmes, and designing short-cycle vocational and technical skills training for employment. He has designed and delivered more than 500 short- and long-term training programmes across more than 20 countries. He also has extensive multidisciplinary experience in managing and implementing donor-funded programmes supported by organisations including UNDP, ILO, USAID and the World Bank, with a particular focus on livelihoods, rural development and gender as a cross-cutting theme.

Dr. Hayat holds multiple postgraduate qualifications, including a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA; a Master’s degree in Rural Sociology from the NWFP University of Agriculture, Peshawar; and a Doctorate in Anthropology from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.