Diaspo #172 : Khalid Bouksib, «subtle» diplomacy for the benefit of Morocco    

Consultant and trainer, French-Moroccan Khalid Bouksib is «fully Moroccan, but also fully French», as he describes himself. Born in 1980 in Mont-Saint-Aignan, a town located in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region, in France, he was born into an Amazigh family, originally from Demnate. «My father worked for Bouygues Construction», a sector that he kept a strong interest for.

After graduating high school with a literary baccalaureate, he «converted into construction economics», Khalid Bouksib confided. His career choices led him to eventually become in charge of managing the company’s industrial and real estate projects. 

Following this experience, the French-Moroccan decided to try his luck in entrepreneurship and launched a training and consulting firm. «I liked recruiting people and training them and I got to managed around fifty people. So I started to work with advisers and consultants as a subcontractor, with trainings in management and strategy», he explained. But not content with this newfound success, the young entrepreneur decided to steer his company into «more specific things, such as international development».

From training and advisory to politics and the diplomacy

Business was growing and so was his network. With the growing network, came the growing sectors covered, until the firm ended up taking missions related to diplomacy and politics. In 2007, he became involved in a municipal campaign in Le Havre, during which he met Edouard Philippe, who would subsequently become France’s Prime Minister in 2017.

Said proximity amplified, in 2019, an altercation the French-Moroccan had with a police officer in civilian clothes, which he described as «a sad anecdote that [he] had to go through». The incident has disappointed Khalid Bouksib who explained that «apart from that, through [his] work, [he has] always managed to turn things around» but that particular event would have affected him the most because he «did not think [he] still had to explain that [he] had [his] place in society», he added.

The ambitious consultant did not limit himself to French politics: he flew across the pond to try his hand with American politics, where he collaborated with the Party of American Young Democrats.«A friend of mine had become the campaign manager of Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign. When the presidential campaign for a second term was launched, that friend had become the chairman of the support committee for the American president», the French-Moroccan recalled. His relations got him to make several trips to the United States and he was invited to the White House in 2015 for a seminar with part of President Obama’s team and other young people from across the world.

Eventually, after France and the USA, Khalid’s work leads him to an international conference in Tangier, where his company finally starts operating in his home country.

Lobbying, diplomacy and the place of the Moroccan community living abroad

The French-Moroccan is also co-authoring a book, «How to build a network from scratch» (Editions L'Harmattan, 2019) with Tony Jazz. «Often, in a professional meeting, the moment to introduce oneself remains a special one. I tended to explain my background each time». How did Khalid go from consulting to writing a book?» One day, as I was leaving the White House, my co-author and I said to ourselves that we should retrace what brought us there», he told Yabiladi.

His methods are a success: Khalid Bouksib is currently teaching at the Moroccan Academy of Diplomatic Studies, attached to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. «I train future diplomats and I teach them, in the lobbying part, how to create a network», he explained.

To Khalid Bouksib, lobbying has its place, for states and for companies. «A fine example is what happened this week, with the logical and normal recognition of the USA of Moroccan sovereignty over the Sahara and the normalization of relations between Morocco and Israel», he analyzed. He is also a firm believer that «every Moroccan citizen must be, in a way, a diplomat for his country». In this sense, he recalled that he himself contributed, between 2012 and 2017, to the rapprochement between the cities of Tangier in Morocco and Le Havre in France.

«There is a need to master subtle diplomacy», he said, lamenting that it is «difficult to address how to put the Moroccan diaspora at better use».

To the consulting professional, a «part of the dynamic is neglected» while the diaspora «can be better used and better valued».