Senior Managing Director & Partner, McLarty Associates
Safiya is a Senior Managing Director and Partner at McLarty Associates based in Washington, D.C.
She has served as a strategic advisor on government affairs, political risk, and commercial issues in the private sector and the US government for more than 15 years. Safiya is a member of the South Asia team at McLarty Associates and coordinates the firm’s business development and global client management efforts.
Safiya spent nearly a decade in the U.S. government working on South Asia and supports clients on policy issues and market entry strategies in the region, in particular India and Pakistan. She also serves as a global client manager to several McLarty Associates clients, where she leverages the firm’s assets to deliver positive business outcomes in challenging environments.
Safiya previously served on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, covering South and Central Asia. She also served in the State Department as an advisor on Pakistan and Afghanistan in the Office of the Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan (SRAP) under Secretaries Clinton and Kerry. She began her State Department career in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, where she managed portfolios in South Asia and traveled extensively throughout the region promoting good governance, transparency, and the rule of law.
Prior to joining McLarty Associates, Safiya led global business development at an international law firm where her work took her to Southeast Asia and beyond.
Safiya regularly speaks on topics related to DEI, women’s empowerment, and foreign policy, including at the Aspen Ideas Festival, SXSW, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Festival of the Diaspora.
Safiya currently serves as a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center, a founding member of CHIEF DC, a network of female executives, and on the Concordia Advisory Board. She is an Arkansas native and received her JD/MA from the University of Arkansas.