Athar Mansoor is a Research Associate at the Center for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (CSTI) at the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM). His research areas include international comparative analysis of innovation policies, national, sectoral and regional innovation systems, innovation diffusion and skills strategies for adoption and diffusion of frontier technologies.

Athar has researched on impact of research and development (R&D) spending on total factor productivity (TFP) in multiple cities of Asia (Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Singapore) and how public and private R&D have affected TFP there. He has also investigated how talent policies for the innovation of financial industry have been designed in the major financial centers of the world such as Hong Kong, London and Singapore. Athar has also conducted the first ever mixed methods research on the national innovation system of Pakistan for producing a book.

Before joining the IfM, Athar has worked as a civil servant in the Government of Pakistan for almost 25 years including some extremely important assignments such as a Magistrate, Deputy Director of Skills Development at the Prime Minister’s Office, Faculty at the National School of Public Policy and Project Director of a Digital Government Project at the Ministry of Communications under the Federal Government. This Digital Government Project was funded by the Economic Development Cooperation Fund of South Korea through its Export Import (EXIM) Bank. The total outlay of this project was US$ 58 million and it aimed to provide modern digital financial, public and postal services across the country via a network of 10,000 post offices to a population of 240 million. Prior to taking up his Research Associate position at IfM, Athar was also working as a policy research consultant with the Dean of the Business School at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Director of Roger King Center for Asian Family Business and Family Office at the same school.

Athar has attended Lahore University of Management Sciences for his Master of Business Administration, National University of Singapore for his Master in Public Administration, University of Sydney for his Master of Public Policy and Michigan State University for his Master of Science in Management, Strategy and Leadership before doing his PhD in Public Policy from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He has also attended various executive education courses at the INSEAD Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School. Athar has won several awards in his civil service career as well as during his academic pursuits which include: Interdisciplinary Program Office’s Best Research Award (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), Salzburg Global Seminar Fellowship, Lee Kuan Yew School Graduate Fellowship (National University of Singapore), International Post Graduate Coursework Scholarship (University of Sydney) and most communicative and most cooperative senior civil servant (National School of Public Policy Pakistan).