Aira Azhari

Aira Azhari is the acting chief executive officer at the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs, Malaysia. She assumed the role in September 2024, after being with the organization since January 2016.

Prior to being appointed acting CEO, she led the Advocacy and Events team, and before that, the Democracy and Governance research unit. She has led work on political and institutional reforms, working with multiple stakeholders including civil society organisations, academia, government, members of parliament and political parties from across the spectrum.

She is a frequent analyst of politics and policy, having been interviewed by the BBC (World News and Radio), The New York Times, Al Jazeera, and Channel News Asia. She has written op-eds in both Malay and English that have been featured in mainstream media outlets in Malaysia.

Aira is an alumnus of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation’s International Academy for Leadership in Gummersbach, Germany, the Global Institute for Tomorrow's Malaysian Young Leaders Programme, the U.S. Department of State's International Visitor Leadership Programme (Transparency and Accountability in Government), and the Fulbright Professional Exchange Program in New York and Washington DC, where she worked under Prof Meredith Weiss at SUNY Albany and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES).

Aira graduated with a Master of Laws in Public International Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science in December 2015, and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Liverpool, UK in July 2014.