Gala started her career working for the then nascent Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), initially as a political advisor to the KRG’s Nordic representative in Stockholm and subsequently as an advisor to the Minister of Sports and Youth in Erbil. She later moved to London to join IHS Global Insight (now IHS Markit) as a Middle East and North Africa (MENA) analyst, and subsequently managed the company’s MENA regional desk. She spent five years with Control Risks, leaving that company as a Director in the Global Risk Analysis department, where she managed consulting engagements, subscription products and the company’s MENA analysts. Before joining S-RM in 2020, Gala worked as a freelance political risk and due diligence consultant covering MENA and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Gala has a BA in Social and Political Sciences from Cambridge University, an MSc in Theory and History of International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science and is a graduate of the United World College of the Atlantic. Gala speaks Kurdish, Swedish and basic Persian.