Faisal Bari obtained his BA (Honors) from the University of Oxford and B.Sc. from Government College, Lahore. He has an MA in Philosophy from the University of Punjab and a PhD in Economics from McGill University.

Faisal Bari is Chairman of the IDEAS Board of Directors. He is currently the Deputy Country Director for Pakistan with the Central Eurasia Project, and education economist for South Asia at the Open Society Foundation. He is also an Associate Professor of Economics at LUMS (currently on leave) where he served as head of department from 2006-2008. Faisal Bari has consulted for various multi-lateral and bi-lateral agencies including the World Bank, UNDP, DFID and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He was also a columnist for the English daily, The Nation and he currently writes for DAWN.