Omar Samad is the former Senior Advisor to Abdullah Abdullah, the former Chief Executive of Afghanistan from 2014 to 2020. He served as the Afghan Ambassador to Canada from 2004 to 2009, and to France from 2009 to 2011. He was a Senior Central Asia Fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C. 2013-14, after working as Senior Afghan Expert at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington D.C. 2012-13.
Early life
Samad graduated from American University in Washington D.C., where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and International Affairs in 1991. He received a Master's degree in International Relations (GMAP) from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Massachusetts in 2006. in Kabul from December 2001 to September 2004 and Director General of the Information and Media Division, during which he also served as an advisor, speech-writer and member of the Ministry's reform committee.