DR. MOHAMAD AKRAM LALDINExecutive Director, International Shari’ah Research Academy for Islamic Finance (ISRA)

DR. MOHAMAD AKRAM is currently the Executive Director of International Shari’ah Research Academy for Islamic Finance (ISRA). Prior to joining ISRA he was an Assistant Professor at the Kulliyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences, International Islamic University, Malaysia (IIUM). In the period 2002-2004, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. At present, he is a Member of Bank Negara Malaysia Shari’ah Advisory Council, Member of Shari’ah Advisory Employees Provident Fund (EPF), Member of HSBC Amanah Global Shari’ah Advisory Board, Member of Yassar Limited (Dubai) Shari’ah Advisory Board, Member of EAB (London) Shari’ah Advisory Board, Chairman of Islamic Advisory Board of HSBC Insurance Singapore, Shari’ah Advisor to ZI Shari’ah Advisory Malaysia, Member of Shari’ah Advisory Council International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM), Bahrain, Committee member of AAOIFI Shari’ah Standards, Bahrain and other Boards locally and internationally.

In addition, he is also a member of the Board of Studies of the Institute of Islamic Banking and Finance, International Islamic University Malaysia. Dr. Akram holds a B.A. Honours degree in Islamic Jurisprudence and Legislation from the University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan and a Ph.D. in Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence (Usul al-Fiqh) from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom. He has presented many papers related to Islamic Banking and Finance and other Fiqh topics at national and International level and has conducted many training sessions particularly on Islamic Banking and Finance for different sectors since 1999. He is a registered Shari’ah advisor for Islamic Securities with the Securities Commission of Malaysia and has acted as Shari’ah advisor in the issuance of several sukuk. In addition he is also prolific author of academic works specifically in the areas of Islamic Banking and Finance. He is the recipient of Zaki Badawi Award 2010 for Excellence in Shari’ah Advisory and Research.

RUSTAM MOHD IDRISDeputy Director, Islamic Banking and Takaful Department

Mr. Rustam Mohd. Idris is the Deputy Director of the Islamic Banking and Takaful Department, Bank Negara Malaysia (Central Bank of Malaysia). He joined the Central Bank in 1986 after completing his study at the National University of Malaysia. Mr. Rustam is part of the team responsible in the development of Islamic banking in BNM since the early 1990s until today. Among the significant involvement of Mr. Rustam was the introduction of the dual banking system in Malaysia, the Financial Sector Master Plan and the Malaysian Islamic Financial Centre initiatives. He has presented several papers of Islamic finance at various international conferences as well as conducting training workshops on Islamic finance for central bankers. Mr. Rustam was in the IFSB Working Group member of the Shariah Governance System and currently sits in the IFSB Working Group on Revised Standard on Capital Adequacy and Sukuk Securitisation. Currently Mr. Rustam is responsible in the formulation of prudential policies for the Islamic banking industry.

MR. JEROEN P.M.M THIJS Chief Risk Officer, Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad

MR. JEROEN, holder of a Masters Degree in Business Economics from the Erasmus University Rotterdam and bringing with him close to twenty years of international banking experience, currently holds the Chief Risk Officer position at Bank Islam Malaysia (Bank Islam), overseeing and managing all credit, market, liquidity and operational risks. He has built up a robust Enterprise Wide Risk Management Framework resulting in a much improved risk culture and enabling Bank Islam to move from reactive risk control to proactive portfolio management.

Before joining Bank Islam in January 2009, Jeroen had spent most of his career with tier-1 international banks in London, Amsterdam, Singapore and Tokyo. He has worked in various senior executive roles with the main focus on Risk Management, but also on the front office/business side which has added to his deep understanding of traditional and complex banking products.

Jeroen is member of the Risk Management working group, part of the Risk Management Advisory Council of the Asian Institute of Finance and sits on the Professional Risk Managers' International Association (PRMIA) Malaysian Chapter Steering Committee.

AZIZUL SABRI ABDULLAHManager, International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (ILLM)

MR. AZIZUL SABRI is the Manager, International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (ILLM). He was previously the Manager of Islamic Money Market Unit, under the Monetary Policy Implementation section of Investment Operation and Financial Market Department. He is responsible for managing the daily liquidity of Malaysian Islamic money market to ensure smooth functioning of the market, as well as, developing appropriate framework and Islamic financial instruments that would facilitate the management of liquidity in Islamic money market. Under his term, he has successfully lead and oversees the introduction of commodity murabahah deposit placement and also issuance of short-term monetary note based on the same concept, that has become among major tools used by Bank Negara Malaysia in managing liquidity in the Malaysian Islamic money market.

Prior to joining to Islamic money market unit, he worked under Securities Operation in the same section, where he lead the work that allow daily offering of conventional repo on benchmark and non-benchmark government securities by Bank Negara Malaysia. He was also with Strategic Treasury Development section where he was responsible for completion of ISDA and GMRA legal documentation.

He graduated with Bachelor of Art (Hons), in Accounting and Finance, from Lancaster University, United Kingdom in 2000. He is currently pursuing Certified Islamic Finance Professional (CIFP) with International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF).

MR. KHAIRUL ISWAR IBRAHIMActing Deputy Director, Banking Supervision Department, Bank Negara Malaysia

Mr. Khairul Iswar Ibrahim is a Acting Deputy Director in the Banking Supervision Department in charge of the supervising several Islamic banking institutions. He joined the Central Bank in 1998 and had served as a bank supervisor for the most part of his career in the Bank. In 2006, he was selected to be part of a special project in localising and implementing Basel II capital accord requirement for Malaysian banking industry, specialising in market risk module of the accord.

Subsequently, he was selected to be one of the members of Islamic Banking Capital Framework Development Team, which was responsible for localisation of the international requirement on capital adequacy standard for Islamic banks issued by Islamic Financial Services Board. He was also part of the working level committee which was responsible to look at the various approaches to turn-around one of the problematic local Islamic bank.

Khairul Iswar received a BSc in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics & Political Science, United Kingdom.

MOHD RADZUAN TAJUDDINHead, Islamic Capital Market, Securities Commission Malaysia

MR. MOHD RADZUAN graduated from the National University of Malaysia in 1987, majoring in Finance

(Second Upper). He has been with the Malaysian Securities Commission (SC) for the past 14 years. He

first joined the SC on 1 July 1994 as an executive responsible for the evaluation of corporate proposals

and regulating the issuance and offering of securities for listing and other fund-raising exercises on the

stock exchange. In 2001, he was appointed as Assistant Head of the Prospectus Dept of the SC, primarily

responsible in regulating the disclosure of information in offering documents. He later held the position

of the Head of the Private Debt Securities Department of the SC in 2004, in-charge of regulating the

primary issuance of corporate bonds and sukuk in and outside Malaysia. Prior to joining the SC, Mr

Tajuddin was working in the stock broking industry, as a dealer representative for dealing in securities

(stock and shares). He was also a financial journalist at Business Times Malaysia from the year 1991 to

early 1994 and in merchant banking in the year 1994 in the field of corporate finance. He is currently the

Head of Islamic Capital Market Department of the SC.

RAFE HANEEFChief Executive Officer, HSBC Amanah Malaysia

MR. RAFE HANEEF is currently the Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Amanah Malaysia and also responsible for HSBC Amanah Global Markets in Asia Pacific. He has played a leadership role in developing sukuk and Islamic structured and project finance since 1999 at HSBC, ABN AMRO and Citigroup.

He was previously the Head of Islamic Banking for Citigroup Asia based in Kuala Lumpur. He was responsible for developing Malaysia as a regional Islamic finance hub for Citigroup and spread its Islamic business footprint across the region. Prior to joining Citigroup, he established the Global Islamic Finance Department at ABN AMRO based in Dubai and was in charge of the Islamic wholesale and retail businesses for the group. Prior to that, he was with HSBC Amanah in London and Dubai focusing on Islamically-structured cross-border transactions and the sukuk market.

He was also a managing director at Fajr Capital, a Dubai-based Islamic investment company, looking at principal investments in the Islamic financial sector.

Rafe Haneef read law and Shari’ah at the International Islamic University in Malaysia. He was admitted to the Malaysian Bar and was practicing law in Malaysia specialising in Islamic finance. He then pursued his Master of Laws at Harvard Law School and subsequently qualified to the New York Bar.

DAUD VICARY ABDULLAHPresident and Chief Executive Officer, International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF)

MR. DAUD VICARY ABDULLAH is President and Chief Executive Officer of the International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF). He was previously, the Global Islamic Finance Leader with Deloitte, he has over 38 years experience in the Finance and Consulting Industry. He is a Chartered Islamic Finance Professional (CIFP), a Distinguished Fellow of the Islamic Banking and Finance Institute of Malaysia (IBFIM) and a former Board member (2003 – 2007) of the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI). Daud is a frequent speaker and commentator on matters relating to Islamic Finance, has been a contributor to a number of books on the subject and has co-authored a book on Islamic Finance for non-Muslims entitled “Islamic Finance: Why it makes sense.” Daud was previously Acting CEO of Asian Finance Bank, an Islamic Bank based in Malaysia, and Managing Director of Hong Leong Islamic Bank.

Y. MÜGE DOGAN

Y. Müge Doğan received B.A. degree in Economics, Faculty of Political Sciences, Ankara University in 1989, M.A. degree in Economics, Graduate School of Art And Sciences, Boston University in 1999.

She is currently Head of Regulation Department, Banking Regulation And Supervision Agency (BRSA), Ankara, Turkey. She has joined to BRSA during its foundation period in 2000. Various departments at BRSA regarding such as establishment and operations of banks, data management and asset sale project team in SDIF are important part of her experience. Formerly, she worked as Treasury Expert, mainly on supervision of Turkish Banking Sector at Undersecretariat of Treasury during 1991-2000. She had participated and represented her Agency in many international meetings.

PROF. DR. İSMAİL ÖZSOY

Ismail Ozsoy is Professor of Economics, born on September 10, 1960, in Bartin, Turkiye. He studied International Relations in Marmara University and got MA degree in International Relations and PhD degree in Labour Economics, both at Istanbul University. His research interests are models of man in economics, Ottoman economic history, Islamic economics and interest-free banking. He has developed the model of man of society (homo societius) to complement the model of homo economicus. He has taught in various universities in Turkey as well as in Dagestan and Georgia. He has published widely in both national and international journals and participated in many international scientific conferences. He is author of Faiz ve Problemleri (Interest and Its Problems) (Nil Yayınlari, İzmir 1994), Özel Finans Kurumları (Special Finance Houses), (Asya Finans Kültür Yayınları: 1, Istanbul, 1997 and Dağıstan’ın Sosyo-Ekonomik Tarihi (Socio-Economic History of Daghestan) (Kaynak Yayınları, İzmir, 1997). Most recently he has published the chapter titled “Islamic Banking: Background, Theory and Practice” in the book “Religion and Development: Ways of Transforming the World”, Gerry ter Haar (ed.), London: Hurst & Co. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, May 2011. Currently he is delivering economics courses besides the course Participatory Banking at Fatih University in Istanbul. He knows Turkish (native), English, and Arabic. He is married with four children.

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OSMAN NİHAT YILMAZ

Osman Nihat Yılmaz is the Deputy Secretary General of the Participation Banks Association of Turkey. He was born in 1952, in Isparta, Turkey. After graduated from Academy of Economics and Administrative Sciences in Ankara, he started his career in a commercial bank, Türkiye İş Bankası, as an assistant supervisor in 1973. After promoted to chief supervisor he started to deal with the credits in Credits Department as an deputy director and then branch director. He has retired while he was the region director of the Bank in 2002. After retirement, he started his second career in the Participation Banks Association of Turkey as specialist. In 2005 he was promoted to Deputy Secretary General.

He has written a book on “Problematic Credits” and gave lectures on this topic. He has a number of reviews regarding economics in addition to articles published in some newspapers and journals.

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MELİKŞAH UTKU,

Born in Ankara in 1968, Mr. Utku graduated from Mechanical Engineering Department at Boğaziçi University in 1990. He completed his graduate studies in London School of Economics between 1990 and 1992 and also received masters degree on economic development in Marmara University between 1996 and 1998. In 2004, he joined the bank as consultant (chief economist) to the general manager. He held this position between 2006 and 2007. He worked as investor relations manager during 2007-2009. He was appointed as assistant general manager in December 2009; he still carries on this position primarily responsible for information processing and project management departments. In addition, he wrote columns on economy in Yeni Şafak newspaper starting from 1995 to December 2009.

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