Ahmad Al-Khatib
Ahmad Al-Khatib

Ahmad Al-Khatib, a former director of Cambridge Analytica focused on healthcare initiatives in the Middle East, has launched Auspex International geopolitical communications firm in London.

He views Auspex as a platform “to build an ethically-based, data-driven communications” firm involved in healthcare initiatives and combatting the “spread of extremist ideology,” according to the firm’s release.

Mark Turnbull, who was managing director of CA’s international political unit and former staffer at the now collapsed Bell Pottinger, is managing director of Auspex.

CA worked for the presidential campaigns of Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Donald Trump along with the Leave.EU campaign in the UK.

The firm collapsed on May 1 following disclosures that it acquired the personal data of 87M Facebook users from an external researcher and used it without receiving permission.

Auspex understands its responsibility to operate with integrity, according to Turnbull. “Political campaigns take place in a complex world of moral hazard and defy hard and fast rules, but they can and should be governed by principles and values,” he said.