Tarek M. Khanachet

Tarek Khanachet leads Covington’s Middle East Sovereign Advisory, Regulatory, and Public Policy practice – working with both governments and global businesses on their most complex policy challenges in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Turkey, and the broader MENA region.

Tarek advises regional governments and government entities on regulatory infrastructure development, policy design, new entity establishment and governance, and economic diversification initiatives.

His private-sector practice is focused on assisting global businesses with regional government affairs matters, including legislative advocacy, Ministry-engagement, regulatory compliance, and market access. This work crosses key highly-regulated sectors, including defense, information technology (including data privacy and cybersecurity), life sciences (including both pharmaceuticals and medical devices) and food and beverage, where global businesses may have to balance competing regulatory challenges between jurisdictions.

Tarek has extensive expertise with government-private transactions, including complex joint-ventures, and sensitive national tendering and procurement processes focused on critical infrastructure development, on-shoring of new industries, and technology transfer.

From 2011-2013 he was embedded in the Economic Cities Authority of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, designing and drafting their regulatory framework, and advising on core PPP and outsourcing agreements.