Prof. Jauad El Kharraz is the Executive Director of the Regional Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (RCREEE), an intergovernmental organization with diplomatic status based in Cairo with 17 Arab countries on board. Prof. El Kharraz took his office in October 2021, bringing over 25 years of experience in various sustainable energy fields including energy policies, wind and solar technologies, and green hydrogen in addition to water management, desalination, water-energy-food-climate nexus, climate change, and environment.
As the Executive Director, Prof. El Kharraz undertakes the strategic management of RCREEE. He leads RCREEE Secretariat in implementing its strategy aiming to enable and increase the adoption of renewable energies and energy efficiency practices in RCREEE 17 Member States. With the region’s great potential, rapid sustainable energy market changes, Prof. El Kharraz is entrusted with tailoring innovative initiatives to deepen Arab–Arab cooperation in sustainable energy fields and to boost our Member States efforts towards energy transition.
Prior to joining RCREEE, Prof. El Kharraz held the position of Director of Research at the Middle East Desalination Research Center in Oman (2015–2020) where he promoted sustainable desalination technologies. Previously, he served as senior expert, advisor, and evaluator for several international institutions (such as European Commission, UN-ESCWA, PRIMA Foundation, EU-GCC Clean Energy Technology Network, KAS-REMENA, Ocean Oasis, Oman Research Council, COMSTECH Scientific Advisory Council, ENSUS/UM6P University, EMME-CCI Task Force/Cyprus Institute, “French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation”) and board member of the European Desalination Society, AgreeMed and WEFE4mED Nexus projects and Jovesolides Association (Spain). He is also member of the International Desalination Association, the Mediterranean Water Institute, and Oman Energy Majlis.
He has over 25 years experience in various sustainability fields including energy and water policies, desalination, water-energy-food nexus, green hydrogen, climate change. Prof. El Kharraz sustainability career officially started in 1998 as a researcher at the Global Change Unit, University of Valencia, in the area of earth science and remote sensing (research carried out to monitor drought using satellite data), and projects manager later (2004–2015) at the Euro–Mediterranean Water Information System, France, where he contributed and managed an important number of projects and initiatives. Through his journey, he coordinated, prepared, and contributed to an important portfolio of international programs/projects of millions of Euros, such as FP5-FP7, H2020, ENPI CBC Med, INCO MED, INCO NGOs, SMAP, LIFE, PRIMA. He carried out projects for national and international donors, such as GIZ, SIDA, IsDB, TRC/Oman and USAID, apart from private sector companies.
Prof. El Kharraz is a founding member of Nice Hub (France), Global Shapers Community (World Economic Forum), aiming to push young talents from Nice city to develop projects of development for their local community. He is also the Co-founder and Secretary-General of the Arab World Association of Young Scientists (ArabWAYS) and member of several scientific networks such as GYA, SASTA, COMSTECH, etc.
He chaired and contributed to the development of an important number of scientific papers, policy briefs, policies, training and mentorship activities, lectures, awards ceremonies, and events (e.g., World Economic Forum, World Water Forum, World Science Forum, World Urban Forum, Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, MENA Europe Future Energy Dialogue, World Hydrogen Summit, Planetary Security Initiative, Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue Conference, International Higher Education Conference, COP26, COP27, etc.) in more than 55 countries.
Prof. El Kharraz is a national of Morocco and France, and a graduate of the University of Abdelmalek Essaadi. Prof. El Kharraz obtained his MSc and PhD degrees in Physics from the Department of Earth Physics and Thermodynamics, University of Valencia, Spain; and a diploma in enterprises management and strategies from SKEMA Business School, France. He is a fluent Arabic, English, French, and Spanish speaker.