Born in Bahrain, worked in Washington, now at home in Hanborough - one of West Oxfordshire’s newest district councillors has a storied past, writes JAMES ROBERTS.

Conservative Alaa Al-Yousuf, who was elected to represent Freeland and Hanborough in May, is putting his analytical mind honed by a background in economics into serving his community.

The 58-year-old is a former senior economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where he worked in roles ranging from trade and capital flows issues to country programme missions across 10 years.

Stints at international companies including Standard & Poor’s and Gulf Finance House followed, before a longstanding association with Oxfordshire, beginning with a masters’ course in development economics at Oxford University in 1984, brought him back to the county full-time.

While Mr Al-Yousuf appreciates his responsibilities in West Oxfordshire are very different to those in Washington, he believes his previous work can benefit his duties in the district.

He said: “I’m an economist by training, so I’m analytical rather than tribal when it comes to difficult issues.

“It’s a different situation altogether, but you need an analytical mind to get to the point of a key issue and find creative solutions.

“It does require skill in dealing with these issues – diplomacy, patience, and getting the message across.”

Mr Al-Yousuf began cultivating these skills in the early 1970s when his family started a bureau de change business in Bahrain.

He had a ‘very humble’ upbringing, but helping out with the family trade as a teenager got him hooked on the intricacies of economics.

He said: “This fired an interest in trying to understand exchange rates, why do they move, and what makes currencies fluctuate.”

Mr Al-Yousuf studied business in his home country after leaving school, before moving to the UK in 1982 to enrol in a two-year economics course at the University of Buckingham.

Two years later he came to Oxford for the first time, where after his masters he completed a DPhil, the Oxford equivalent of a PhD.

He began to specialise in development economics, with a particular interest in poverty, inequality and oil, and worked as a researcher at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies with luminaries including Sir Paul Collier.

This interest widened to international economics and led to Mr Al-Yousuf joining the IMF in Washington in 1990.

The organisation, which monitors global economic development and aims to secure financial stability, grew in influence over the world economy during this time, thanks in part to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

A whirlwind ten years saw Mr Al-Yousuf work on projects across the globe and after leaving the organisation in 2000 he joined Standard & Poor’s as Middle East and Africa team leader.

He helped several countries across the region price their debt, but a global shock was soon to follow in the form of the 2008 financial crisis, considered by many as the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Last month marked 10 years since the collapse of investment bank Lehmann Brothers turned the crisis into an international event and Mr Al-Yousuf is cautious when asked how much has changed since then.

He said: “I don’t think there’s room for complacency and no two crises are the same.

“We’ve probably done some reforms globally to forestall a repeat of the 2008 crisis.

“We haven’t done enough, but gone some way towards that.

“But that doesn’t mean we’re immune.

“The global financial system is inherently unstable and constantly changing.”

Now retired, the councillor is no longer working in that sector and focussed on benefiting the residents in his ward and across West Oxfordshire.

Just before he took the job at the IMF, Mr Al-Yousuf bought a house in Eynsham which he kept while working across the Atlantic.

Freeland has been his home since 2001 and last July he helped set up the Freeland Community Benefit Society, which aims to buy the village’s currently-closed Methodist church and develop it into a shop and hub.

He said: “When I retired I threw myself into community work, starting with the Freeland village hub.

“I love a model that brings people together and that involvement with the community naturally led to me becoming a district councillor.”

He began campaigning after being selected as a candidate in March and received 602 votes in the May 3 elections, the second highest in the ward behind Labour candidate Merilyn Davies.

The councillor is animated when talking about the key issues for the area, including the growing population of Hanborough caused by an increase in house-building, the need for better bus services, and better provision for young people and the elderly.

While he relishes the communication with residents, Mr Al-Yousuf admits the limited power of the role can be dispiriting for a man who likes to find solutions.

He said: “I get frustrated when I can’t help, because I don’t control the purse strings.

“I don’t have a lever of power to pull, all I can do is badger and pursue the issues to make things happen.”

He added: “It’s meant to be a part-time job but it isn’t.

“Every day my postman brings me a bundle of papers, and that’s fine – I’m used to reading a lot of dry stuff.”

Even Mr Al-Yousuf’s ability to sift through page after page of jargon would have been tested by the 700-page West Oxfordshire Local Plan, which was formally adopted by councillors last week.

The document commits the district to building 15,950 houses between 2011 and 2031, comprising 13,200 homes for West Oxfordshire’s housing need and 2,750 for Oxford.

One of the most controversial aspects of the plan is that the city’s entire allocation in West Oxfordshire is planned for land around Eynsham village, in the form of a 2,200 home garden village north of the A40 and 550 of the 1,000-home West Eynsham development.

Mr Al-Yousuf voted in favour of the Local Plan, but as a former Eynsham resident he sees residents’ frustration at the proposed influx of housing for the area.

He said: “It would make no sense for these houses to go to Carterton or Burford, but Eynsham gets them by virtue of being close.

“If you read all the documents, you realise how complex the decision-making process is, but above all there is the duty to co-operate with the city and the county.

“What that means is we are still part of the same United Kingdom, governed by Westminster whose laws bind us all together.

“West Oxfordshire isn’t an independent republic, so we can’t go against the grain.”

Pleasingly, Mr Al-Yousuf is 'going against the grain' in one sense.

The ex-economist is one of the few councillors in West Oxfordshire who is not both white and male and he is proud to reflect a better, multicultural Britain.

He said: “Things have moved on.

"I came to this country in January 1982 and take a look at Margaret Thatcher’s government back then, you’d be hard put to find one other woman.

“Look at parliament today and look at the cabinet - the country has changed and I feel quite at home."