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Ali Ashour,
Captain Ali Ashour is a Senior Engineering Officer in the Naval branch of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior/Coast Guard. With extensive experience in strategic engineering leadership and advisory roles, he has contributed to shaping maritime operations and policies that balance innovation with strategic feasibility. His work integrates academic research, technical expertise, and operational insights to address both immediate and long-term objectives.
Currently, he is a lead researcher working with BAE Systems and the University of Strathclyde’s PeriDynamics Research Centre (PDRC), advancing engineering, technical governance, and maritime capability as critical tools in geopolitical strategy.
Ali also contributes to the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC) Maritime Cyber Security initiatives, including the IASME Maritime Cyber Baseline, where he has helped establish resilience frameworks against emerging cyber threats. By aligning research, regulatory requirements, and operational goals, his efforts ensure international standards are adaptable, redundant, and forward-looking.
As an internationally chartered engineer and a prominent figure in red-teaming vertical AI consulting, Captain Ashour brings together academic insight and practical applications to evaluate human interfaces in future AI strategies. His work facilitates the alignment of diverse stakeholders and drives impactful, cross-sector collaboration. Captain Ashour’s academic inputs channel towards multi-stakeholder approaches towards technical policy design within the NATO SPS program.
His work has earned him powerful peer-reviewed testimony, granting him fellowship status as FRINA (Fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects), FIMarEST (Fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology), and FIES (Fellow of the Institution of Engineers in Scotland). He currently serves as a council member of IES and contributes to consultations, shaping technical and strategic policies. He is a thoughtful and eloquent speaker at senior-level conferences in both Arabic and English.
In 2024, Ali became the first Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Fellow of RINA, an honour chartered by His Majesty King Charles III. His role as an Anglo-GCC think tank node bridges technical expertise and strategic dialogues between academia, industry, and international stakeholders, reflecting Kuwait’s leadership’s focus on global collaboration, through innovation, and sustainable progress.