Biography
Ahmed was raised in Kuwait attending an international school. He moved to the U.K. in 2012 to complete his tertiary education here in Scotland. Ahmed completed his PhD in 2022 (viva was in September 2022) where the role of institutions and their association with start up activity in OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries was explored. The thesis utilised a quantitative methodology using moderation effect (OLS (log) interaction multivariable regression) models. Apart from this, Ahmed has founded a society in University of Glasgow, was a class representative for his PhD cohort during his programme and also served as a board member for the PhD society.
Teaching
Since completing his doctorate, Ahmed has not been involved in teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate level degree courses. Ahmed has taught undergraduate degrees of international business and strategy as a PhD candidate.
Since completing his PhD, Ahmed has conducted several talks for a wide range of audiences from other university MBA students (Oxford and Fordham), high school students and masterclass sessions within the University of St Andrews. In a lot of these talks, Ahmed has covered more technical content surrounding the digital asset sector and the security aspect of blockchain technology and what his employers do in this space (importance of cryptography).
At the university of St Andrews as an honorary lecturer, Ahmed intends to help stakeholders within the university better data management and science. Working as a data architect which means aligning systems, use data science techniques and support stakeholder decision making is a vital set of skills which the School will have access to. Additionally, Ahmed will help inform audiences more about blockchain and data management, containing relevant and updated material depending on the nature of the lecture for the audience themselves.
Research areas
Ahmed's thesis explored the role of institutions and their association with start-up activity for OECD countries. The thesis notes the interactions of informal institutions moderated by formal institutions under the guise of property rights(PRs) and access to finance (ATF) examining its association with Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA). The thesis examines these interactions in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. This group is an intergovernmental economic organisation with 37 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. The thesis studies the time-period of 2010-2020 using an unbalanced data panel multivariable regression analysis consisting of 32 countries using a fixed-effects model. This is done due to exogenous shocks influencing formal institutions from events like the financial crisis aftermath, Brexit, the 2016 U.S. election and the Covid-19 pandemic. This time period is significant as the shocks generated by the events mentioned above will have had significant influences on formal institutions influencing their moderating effects on TEA.