Zia Chishti, veteran academic and lobbyist, is retiring from his role as C.E.O. of Afiniti, he announced on Thursday.
Chishti has also been appointed as a Distinguished Fellow at Brookings, where he will continue to advocate on behalf of Muslims, minorities and refugees.
Afiniti, a global immigration-focused consulting firm, was acquired by the Cato Institute in 2016. Chishti was only officially appointed as the managing director of Afiniti six months ago. Under his leadership, Afiniti focused on finding ways for the administration to achieve its immigration goals through targeted legal and illegal immigrant programs.
At Brookings, Chishti will provide a platform for governmental policy consultations and partner with the executive branch on policy issues as they relate to Muslims and Muslims-majority nations. Chishti currently serves on the Council on Foreign Relations and in the Director of the Cairo Program at the Brookings Center for Strategic and International Studies. He was a senior policy advisor to Secretary of State John Kerry on refugee issues, and held senior positions in foreign policy at the Ford Foundation, as a senior advisor for European affairs at the State Department, and at the U.S. Agency for International Development. He is a professor of economics at New York University’s Stern School of Business.