The once foul-tempered American tennis star John McEnroe is an unlikely hero for a mild-mannered Moroccan economist.
Yet Jamil Salmi developed a deep respect for McEnroe as he watched him smash opponents to smithereens and launch verbal volleys at umpires on his way to winning the 1981 Wimbledon Championships.
Following the fast-paced Centre Court exploits on his small black-and-white TV gave Mr Salmi a break from studying for his PhD at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom. More than 30 years later he is one of the leading higher-education experts in the world, advising countries as diverse as the UAE, Germany and China about how to teach the next generation of leaders.
"I'm a big fan of John McEnroe. He is a fantastic tennis player, apart from his foul language," Mr Salmi says. "I like tennis, as it's all about the brain."
He even shares his idol's flair for showmanship. At an education summit in Dubai, he dazzles the audience with a colourful slideshow that puts to shame the run-of-the-mill PowerPoint presentations.
He includes pictures he shoots himself in exotic locations around the world, which he uses to bring to life his talk on the otherwise dry topic of the future of higher education.
One shows a photo of a school bus in South Korea kitted out with laptops and other high-tech gadgets for children to learn while on the move.
Next to it is another of schoolchildren in India squashed into a battered yellow rickshaw that serves as their transport. The contrast neatly captures the challenge of inequality in education.
Another is a New Yorker magazine cover with an image of a car being stuffed into the overhead bin of an aircraft. The message, he says as he strides across the stage, is that one size doesn't fit all when it comes to ranking universities.
"I see education as having such an important place in the world," he says. "When I present on stage, I try to translate my passion for education to the audience. It frustrates me that people in teaching are very poor presenters."
Mr Salmi has ample experience to hone his presentation skills. As a higher-education adviser - first with the World Bank and now as an independent consultant - he has advised schools, universities and governments in more than 80 countries about how to improve tertiary education. Five months into the year, he has already flown 48 times to countries including Romania, Macedonia and the UAE.
In fact, of the 365 days of each year, Mr Salmi estimates he spends 250 abroad.
To help him to survive, he has more than 15,000 pieces of music on his iPod, ranging from baroque to hip-hop.
His busy schedule means he spends little time with his wife, Martha, an education specialist with the World Bank, at their new home in Bogotá. Martha was a tennis novice when the couple met, but Mr Salmi soon passed on his knowledge and love for the game.
"I've tried to bring her up to speed as best as I can," he says with a smile.
The couple moved to Martha's native Colombia three months ago from the United States, where they had both worked with the World Bank.
"The nature of my work means I get invited by governments to come and speak to them about education and experience interesting opportunities," he says.
Given that he is the son of teachers, it is perhaps no surprise that education became Mr Salmi's career.
"I was indirectly impressed by my parents," he says. "Education is the key to mankind, and we are such messed-up societies that the only real way to make a difference is to resolve problems through education rather than violence."
After starting out teaching at a university in Morocco, he landed a job at the World Bank in 1986. It is fair to say his parents were more pleased with his career choice than with his favourite hobby.
"They thought tennis was a snobbish game played by rich people," he says.
Among his first assignments at the World Bank was studying educational reform in Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria. It was here he learnt more about some of the deep-seated problems in North African society that boiled over more than two decades later during the Arab Spring. He sees a direct link between cracks in the education system and the recent unrest. Universities were partly to blame for not preparing students with the right skills needed for working in the private sector, but a simple lack of jobs was also a cause, he says.
"I was surprised it [the Arab Spring] didn't happen earlier," he says. "The factors were there in the 1980s and 1990s, and when I saw the end of the apartheid in South Africa and the Berlin Wall fall, I was sad the same thing wasn't happening in the Arab world."
Mr Salmi later went on to work for the World Bank in Latin America, where he saw many similar challenges.
"Improving equity in education is important from a social-justice point of view," he says. "If you cut off certain parts of society, you condemn them to be poor, and that's highly inefficient from an economic point of view."
It was at the World Bank where he met Martha. From his previous marriage, Mr Salmi has three children who are spread across the world. Yacine, 30, is in Munich, Katya, 28, is in London, and Karim, 23, is in Washington.
Having children has changed his views of education. When his son Yacine opted to study computer gaming at the University of Hull in the UK, Mr Salmi tried to dissuade him, as the university was not high in the rankings.
"But as it happened, the University of Hull was high in the rankings for this subject, and he went on to get a good job. It humbled me," he says.
As he approaches his 60th birthday next month, Mr Salmi is hoping to find more time in his hectic travel schedule to spend with his family.
"It would be nice to travel less, but I'm not complaining," he says with a sigh. "As long as I'm learning I don't want to retire."
He also has a tennis match scheduled with Yacine for later this month.
"My son is trying to beat me but he hasn't done so yet," he says. "I'm trying to hold off the match until July as then boasting about beating a 60-year-old wouldn't be the same."
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