Ali Hajizade

Ali Hajizade (Əli Hacızadə) is a Middle East analyst and entrepreneur.

Early life and education
Ali Hajizade was born on February 26, 1984, in Baku, Azerbaijan. He graduated from the Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Arts with a degree in History of Art.

Career
As a Middle East analyst, Hajizade contributed to and was cited in a number of Western,  as well as Turkish,  Israeli media outlets and publications. Hajizade's publications on malicious information activity were referred to by other researchers.

Since 2012, Hajizade has headed the "Hajizade Group", which operates in the fields of public relations, education and media.

In 2015, Ali Hajizade launched "The Greater Middle East" project, dedicated to the research and analysis of the Greater Middle East region. A number of prominent experts contributed to the project. Hajizade left the project in late 2021.

The main focus of Hajizade as a Middle East analyst are the study and analysis of tactics of hybrid wars, information wars and disinformation campaigns.

In 2018–2019, Hajizade was a columnist for Al Arabiya English.

In the fall of 2022, Hajizade was selected as a fellow in the Rumsfeld Foundation's Central Asia Caucasus Fellowship Program in Washington, D.C.

In early 2022, Hajizade founded a US based startup dealing with human-focused information security. The startup created by Hajizade is an Ed-tech company whose main task is to provide solutions through educational programs and a series of training. He described the Tarand mission in an interview with Total Prestige Magazine in 2023: "We teach people to understand what malicious information activity is and how to recognize, classify and take measures to stop or prevent such activity. Through education and raising awareness, we try to boost the immunity of societies, countries, and individuals. In addition, our solutions are beneficial for military personnel, as they are usually the major and top priority targets for psychological operations and other types of information attacks."