Rafael Mendez

Rafael grew up in a port city where his father worked as a marine surveyor, and his sense of geopolitics was formed early and permanently: the news said one thing, the sailing schedules said another, and the schedules were right more often. He has covered trade and energy on three continents by following that rule.

At Meridian he writes about the Gulf's core business, which he describes as converting geography into leverage: pipelines, shipping lanes, grid interconnections, payment corridors, and the solar buildout changing what the region exports and to whom. He keeps a map on his desk older than his career and annotates it in pencil, because routes change and ink is arrogant.

His pieces move the way freight moves, from origin to destination, and he has a soft spot for the clauses nobody reads. Ask him about Incoterms at your own risk.