Omar Balafrej
Omar Balafrej (; born 26 October 1973) is a Moroccan politician, member of the Moroccan parliament since 2016, representing his hometown Rabat, and one of two members of Unified Socialist Party sitting currently in the parliament. Since 2014, he is also a board member of the African Innovation Foundation, providing strategic advice and technical support to strengthen the innovation landscape in Africa. Before being elected to the parliament, Balafrej was the CEO of MITC, a Moroccan public private partnership that manages Casablanca Technopark, and the president of the Abderrahim Bouabid Foundation (ABF) from 2009 to 2012. Early life Omar Balafrej was born in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, in 1973. His father was a doctor, and his granduncle was Ahmed Balafrej. He has also familial relations with Mohamed El Yazghi and Abderrahim Bouabid, which made him interested in politics since his childhood. After finalizing his high school studies at Lycée Descartes, he went to France, where he integrated the École centrale de Lyon, after two years of preparatory classes in Paris. Political career After returning from his engineering studies in France, Balafrej joined the Socialist Union of Popular Forces in 1997, and was active in its sections for young people.