Our Faculty

Dr. Asghar Adelzadeh is Director and Chief Economic Modeler at Applied Development Research Solutions (ADRS). In his over thirty years of experience in economic modeling, he has built large scale economic models with user-friendly web interfaces to allow policymakers and analysts to design and assess the impact of policy choices and produce projections. He has built ADRS’ macro, micro and provincial economic models of South Africa that are available on ADRS website. He built ADRS Online Country Economic Analysis System that includes economic models for 65 countries.

As Project Director at UNU-WIDER, Adelzadeh directed a major project on economic modeling for 10 African countries. He served as Senior Policy Advisor at UNDP South Africa, Senior Economic Modeler and Research Director at the National Institute for Economic Policy (NIEP), and senior lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand. Adelzadeh was the principal author and coordinator of the South African Human Development Report 2003 and has written extensively on macroeconomic, monetary, and fiscal policy issues, poverty eradication, employment creation and economic modeling.

Julian May is the Director of the DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security at the University of the Western Cape and holds the UNESCO Chair in African Food Systems. He is an economist and has worked on options for poverty reduction including public nutrition, land reform, social grants, information and communication technologies and food system governance.

He has published extensively, and has served on international and national expert groups, including the South African Statistics Council, the Council of the Academy of Science of South Africa, and currently, the third National Planning Commission.

Seeraj Mohamed is a South African economist and currently serves as the Deputy Director of the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) of South Africa. He holds a PhD in Economics and has extensive experience in macroeconomic policy analysis, public finance, inequality, industrial development, and political economy.

Prior to his appointment at the PBO, Professor Mohamed held senior academic and research positions, including serving as Professor of Economics at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he was also Director of the Corporate Strategy and Industrial Development Research Programme (CSID). His work has focused on understanding structural drivers of inequality, financialisation, capital flows, and the role of the state in development.

Professor Mohamed has published widely in academic journals and policy-oriented platforms and has advised government departments, trade unions, and international organisations. At EMA, he contributes deep expertise in applied macroeconomic analysis, public sector policy evaluation, and the economics of inequality.