Salar Ghahramani

Salar Ghahramani is an associate professor of business law and international law & policy and the academic director for the Brandeis Global Engagement and Leadership Program at the Pennsylvania State University, Abington. His research is on corporate governance, the law of fiduciary duties, and the impact of domestic and international laws and policies on the governance, operations, and investment strategies of sovereign wealth funds. Salar’s analyses of sovereign wealth funds have appeared in Barron’s, Bloomberg, Chief Investment Officer, The New York Times, Pensions & Investments, and other finance and scholarly outlets.

In 2005, Salar founded Global Policy Advisors® LLC, a boutique sovereign wealth fund advisory to corporations, boards of directors, and institutional investors. GPA provides actionable insights, strategy sessions, and executive briefings on the multidimensional dynamics of sovereign wealth funds. The company is recognized for having published the first roadmap for a U.S. SWF.

A Fulbright grant recipient, Salar has taught at the Maastricht Center for Transatlantic Studies in the Netherlands, has led academic programs to Amsterdam, Brussels, and The Hague, and has served as a visiting scholar at the University of Lucerne Faculty of Law, the University of Oslo, the Royal University of Law and Economics in Cambodia, the European University Institute in Florence, the Independent Lawyers’ Association of Myanmar in Yangon, and the Singapore Management University School of Law. He also served at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C., analyzing the intersection of international relations and the financial markets, and was a research associate at the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), now a part of Gartner, where he advised Fortune 500 clients on business strategy.

He holds a Juris Doctor degree and a Certificate in International, Comparative, and Foreign Law from the Pennsylvania State University, where he also received his B.A. in International Politics as a Schreyer Scholar. At Penn State, he was elected Phi Beta Kappa and was a recipient of the Honors Medal and the President’s Award. Additionally, Salar studied transnational and comparative law at Duke Law School’s Geneva Institute in Transnational Law in Switzerland, the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) in Rome, and the Faculty of Law at the University of Florence. He was also a recipient of a merit scholarship to research British theater and architecture in London.

Salar is a musician and a global arts advocate, having served on the board of directors of the World Music Institute in New York. His music is available on Amazon, Apple, Deezer, iTunes, iHeartRadio, and Spotify.

International Experience

Invited Scholar & Fulbright Specialist, Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE), Phnom Penh, Cambodia

• Developed Cambodia’s first international and comparative labor law curriculum at the masters level and completed teaching and research duties for the program pursuant to a Fulbright Grant from the U.S. Department of State; devised and delivered two sections of the course to combined student groups of RULE, University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne, Paris II Panthéon-Assas, and Université libre de Bruxelles.

Invited Scholar, Independent Lawyers’ Association of Myanmar (ILAM), Yangon, Myanmar

• Conducted research on rule of law and civil society in Myanmar and presented a lecture titled “Corporate Expression and Constitutionalism” to the members of ILAM, the country’s first independent bar association.
  Invited 

Visiting Scholar, Singapore Management University School of Law, Singapore

• Conducted a seminar on fiduciary duties under corporate law. Researched Temasek Holdings’ corporate governance and SRI initiatives through shareholder activism.

Member, Fulbright Specialist Roster, U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs

• Admitted as an expert in Constitutional Law and Theory, Commercial Law, Corporate Law, Financial Law, and International Business & Trade Law.

Invited Visiting Scholar, University of Lucerne Faculty of Law, Lucerne, Switzerland

• Conducted research on Swiss corporate governance and fiduciary law in employee-employer relations.

Invited Visiting Scholar, University of Oslo Faculty of Law, Oslo, Norway

• Conducted research at the Norwegian Center for Human Rights, exploring the Norwegian legal system and the treatment of business and human rights under domestic laws. Findings resulted in a project titled “Sovereign Wealth and the Extraterritorial Manipulation of Corporate Conduct: A Multifaceted Paradigm in Transnational Law,” published in the Oxford Handbook of Sovereign Wealth Funds by Oxford University Press.
   

Visiting Scholar, European University Institute (EUI), Academy of European Law, Fiesole, Italy

• Completed a program on the limits of European constitutional law and the intersection of fundamental rights and private law, received a Certificate in the Law of the European Union, and researched the impact of EU law on socially responsible investing in general and the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund in particular. The research conducted resulted in three conference presentations and an article in the Journal of International Law.

Lead Faculty & Program Director, Pennsylvania State University Embedded Study Abroad, The Netherlands & Belgium

• Created and taught a course entitled “Globalization: The Intersection of Law, Politics, & the Financial Markets”; Led 12 undergraduate and graduate students to financial, legal, and political centers in Amsterdam, Brussels, Maastricht, and The Hague. Program’s visits included the International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, and the European Commission
   

Invited Lecturer in International Law, Maastricht Center for Transatlantic Studies, Maastricht, the Netherlands

• Co-taught a course entitled “Human Rights Law: An Experiential Perspective.” Organized attendance of proceedings at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague.

Service to Profession and Community

Editor-in-Chief, Dialectics: Journal of Law, Leadership, and Society.

President, Mid-Atlantic Academy of Legal Studies in Business.

Member of the Board of Directors, World Music Institute.

Senator, Faculty Senate.

Director, Pre-law Program.

Mid-Atlantic Representative, The House of Delegates of the Academy of Legal Studies in Business.

Chair, Committee on the Review and Revision of the Faculty Senate Constitution.

Chair, Tenure-track Project Management Faculty Search Committee.

Chair, Tenure-track Political Science Faculty Search Committee.

Orientation Leader, Division of Social Sciences New Faculty Orientation.

Faculty Advisor, Business Ethics Case Competition Team.

Translator, informed consent forms for Social Science Institutional Review Board.

Author, New Faculty Guidebook.

Co-author, The Internationalization Survey for the Division of Social Sciences.

Co-author, The Strategic Plan for Internationalizing the Abington College of the Pennsylvania State University.

Panelist, The Annual Law Forum.

Mentor, New Faculty in Business.

Member, Chancellor Search Committee.

Member, Office of the Chancellor Academic Administrative Evaluation Committee (AD-14).

Member, Strategic Planning Committee.

Member, Faculty Review Committee.

Member, Business Program Review Committee.

Member, Enactus Business Advisory Board.

Member, American Studies Program Review Committee.

Member, Senior Faculty in Management Search Committee.

Member, Tenure-track Faculty in Accounting Search Committee.

Member, Tenure-track Faculty in Corporate Communication Search Committee.

Member, Committee on Internationalizing the Faculty, Staff, Campus and Curriculum.

Member, Social Sciences Division Committee on Internationalization.

Member, International Affairs Committee.

Member, Faculty Affairs Committee.

Member, Faculty Senate Council.

Member, Hiroshima Peace Seminar Committee.

Soverign Wealth Focus

Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) play a pivotal role in global finance, governance, and diplomacy. Salar Ghahramani’s research explores the institutional frameworks, legal considerations, and strategic implications of SWFs, addressing issues such as transparency, governance, shareholder activism, and the intersection of finance and international law. From analyzing the potential for a U.S. SWF to examining the role of sovereign investors in shaping corporate and geopolitical landscapes, the work provides a multidimensional perspective on how states manage wealth in an increasingly interconnected economy. The following highlight key themes of Salar’s research on SWFs:

Governance and Institutional Structures

• Analysis of governance models and best practices for SWFs
• Policy recommendations on governance.
• Selected work:
  • “Sovereign Wealth and the Extraterritorial Manipulation of Corporate Conduct: A Multifaceted Paradigm in Transnational Law” (The Oxford Handbook of Sovereign Wealth Funds).
  • “Institutional Framework and Governance Structure of Sovereign Wealth Funds” (The Palgrave Handbook on Sovereign Wealth Funds).
  • “Transparent Strategies for Sovereign Wealth Funds: Policy Recommendations on Private Equity” (Chief Investment Officer).

Sovereign Wealth in International Relations

• The role of SWFs in international relations and diplomacy.
• How sovereign investments impact geopolitical strategies.
• Selected work:
  • “Wealth and Diplomacy: The Foreign Policy Dimensions of a U.S. Sovereign Wealth Fund” (Yale Journal of International Affairs).
  • “Sovereign Wealth Funds, Transnational Law, and the New Paradigms of International Financial Relations” (Yale Journal of International Affairs).

Legal Dimensions of Sovereign Investing

• SWFs and their role in enforcing international norms.
• Fiduciary duties, human rights, and sustainable investing.
• Selected work:
  • “Sovereign Wealth Funds and Human Rights Protection” (Research Handbook on SWFs and International Investment Law).
  • “Public Pensions, International Affairs, and Divestment Regulations: A Critical Analysis and Call for a Model Law” (Pensions: An International Journal).
  • “Governments, Financial Markets, and International Human Rights” (Yale Journal of International Affairs). 

SWFs and Market Influence

• How sovereign investors shape corporate decision-making.
• The intersection of SWFs and the capital markets.
• Selected work:
  • “Sovereign Wealth Funds and Shareholder Activism” (Corporate Governance).
  • “Divestment Laws, Fiduciary Duty, and Pension Fund Management” (International Journal of Law and Management).