World Islamic Banking Conference 2017

His Excellency Rasheed Mohammed Al Maraj Governor Central Bank of Bahrain

Alex Tapscott CEO NextBlock Global

Tailya Minullina Chief Executive of the Tatarstan Investment Development Agency Member of the Investment Council of the Republican of Tatarstan

Khalid Hamad Abdul-Rahman Hamad Executive Director of Banking Supervision / Chairman Central Bank of Bahrain, International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM)

Simon Martin CMG British Ambassador to Bahrain

Adnan Ahmed Yousif President & Chief Executive Al Baraka Banking Group

Adnan Ahmed Yousif

President & Chief Executive

Al Baraka Banking Group

Speaker

Mr. Adnan Ahmed Yousif is a highly regarded senior banker with over three decades of international banking experience. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from University of Hull, UK. He was earlier with Arab Banking Corporation, for over 20 years and last served as Director on its Board.

As President & Chief Executive, Mr. Yousif has led Al Baraka Banking Group (ABG) since inception, developing the Group into one of the largest and most diversified Islamic banking groups in the world operating a network of over 700 branches in 15 countries, with its Head Office in the Kingdom of Bahrain. He is also the Chairman of Al Baraka Turk Participation Bank, Banque Al Baraka D'Algerie, Al Baraka Bank Ltd. South Africa, Al Baraka Bank Lebanon, Jordan Islamic Bank, Al Baraka Bank Egypt, Al Baraka Bank Syria, Al Baraka Bank Sudan, Al Baraka Bank Pakistan Ltd., Vice Chairman of Al Baraka Islamic Bank, Bahrain and a Board member of Al Baraka Bank Tunisia and Itqan Capital in Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Adnan Yousif was the Chairman of the Union of Arab Banks, Lebanon for two terms (2007-2013). Besides having received many international awards he is the recipient of the Medal of Efficiency, a unique honor conferred by His Royal Highness - King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa, the King of the Kingdom of Bahrain during the year 2011. Mr. Yousif received the title of the CSR International Ambassador (Kingdom of Bahrain) from the CSR Regional Network. including twice the Islamic Banker of the Year award (2004 and 2009).

In addition, he was awarded by LARIBA American Finance House the 2012 “LARIBA Award for Excellence in Achievement”, in recognition of his leadership role in consolidating and operating the largest diversified Islamic Banking Group in the world.

In recognition of Mr. Yousif’s outstanding contribution in the field of contemporary Islamic Finance in terms of modernizing its fundamentals in practice and theorization, the Al Jinan University of Lebanon granted him an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy in Business Administration. Furthermore, in recognition of his efforts in evolving a unique business model that is integrated with the noble goals of Islamic Banking, Mr. Yousif has been awarded the Accolade of the Sudanese Presidency for Excellency in Social Responsibility in December 2015.

In Dec. 2016 Mr. Adnan Yousif was decorated with the Title of "High Commissioner to preach the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030". He also won the Gold Award for Sustainable Development in recognition of his major role in the service and social responsibility programs both nationally and internationally, as well as recognition for the leading role of Al Baraka Group in the field of CSR activities at Oman International Conference on Social Responsibility 2016. Mr. Yousif has been elected during 2017 as the Chairman of Bahrain Association of Banks.

Xen Baynham- Herd Head Of Strategy and Lead Economist Blockchain

Lawrence Wintermeyer Co-Founder & Principal Elipses

Sheikh Nizam Yaquby Shariah scholar

Abdul Hakeem Alkhayyat Managing Director & CEO KFH Bahrain

Hassan Amin Jarrar Chief Executive Officer Bahrain Islamic Bank

Abdul Haseeb Basit Co-Founder & Principal Elipses

Ahmad Hafiz Abdul Aziz Financial Sector Specialist World Bank Group

Ahmed Al Rayes CIO IbdarBank Ibdarbank.com/management

Ahmed Albalooshi Group CIO Al Baraka Banking Group

Ahsan Ali Managing Director & Head of Islamic Origination Standard Chartered Bank

Dr Aishath Muneeza Associate Professor INCEIF

Dr Aishath Muneeza

Associate Professor

INCEIF

Speaker

Dr Aishath Muneeza is among the key founders of Islamic finance in Maldives, a small island nation with a hundred percent Muslim population. She has experience in multiple aspects of Islamic finance industry. She is a shariah Advisor, an Islamic Finance Consultant, a researcher, a presenter, a regulator, a speaker, a trainer, an Associate Professor and an attorney who is actively involved in promoting Islamic finance. She is the driving force behind the establishment of Maldives Hajj Corporation, the Tabung Haji of Maldives and she has facilitated the establishment of more than ten financial institutions offering Islamic finance services. She structured the first corporate sukuk offered in Maldives and she also structured the Islamic Treasury Instruments for the government of Maldives. The Islamic Capital Market framework of Maldives has been shaped under her guidance and the legal framework of Islamic Capital Market in Maldives was developed by her. She has published numerous books on Islamic finance, available in all major bookstores across Malaysia and she is the first to publish comprehensive books on Islamic finance in Dhivehi language. She is the co-author of the winning essay of the worldwide Islamic finance essay competition organized in Kuala-Lumpur Islamic Finance forum (KLIFF) of 2010. She had won gold and silver medals in international research exhibitions for research conducted on disciplines related to Islamic banking and finance. Her contribution to Islamic finance industry has been recognised internationally and has been conferred several awards of recognition. She has received the prestigious “Rehendhi Award” highest award for women, conferred by the government of Maldives for her contribution in the development of Islamic finance industry. Currently she is an Associate Professor at INCEIF & the chairwomen of Maldives Centre for Islamic Finance that was set up by the government of Maldives to position the country as the hub of Islamic finance and Halal industry in the South Asia region.

Ali Adnan Ibrahim Chair Sustainable Development Committee of the Bahrain Association of Banks

Andrew Sims Chief Executive Officer NEC Payments

Andrew Sims

Chief Executive Officer

NEC Payments

Speaker

Andrew Sims is a Director and the Chief Executive Officer of NEC Payments – a Middle East payments technology company.

Prior to co-founding NECP, Andrew owned and operated a boutique management consultancy practice - Richardson MC - operating in the cards and emerging payments sector of the financial services industry. Richardson MC completed a wide variety of successful projects for clients including MasterCard Middle East & Africa.

Andrew was formerly a co-founder and Executive Director of GPS, a MasterCard and Visa accredited card payment processor based in UAE and UK; and an Executive Director of FEV, a market-leading gift card Programme Manager based in UK. He exited both businesses in March 2013.

As Sales & Marketing Director of FEV Andrew was joint project lead on the launch of the first open-loop prepaid shopping mall gift card in Europe in 2005. Andrew subsequently led the business development effort that resulted in FEV rolling out the prepaid gift card concept to another 60+ shopping malls in UK, Poland and UAE and saw annual turnover of the business break through £50m pa. This roll out included repeating first to market status with prepaid products in Poland during 2007 and UAE during 2009.

Andrew co-founded GPS in Dubai, UAE in 2007. GPS developed a card payment processing platform from the ground up and achieved certifications with MasterCard and Visa, and PCI-DSS level 1 compliance. Andrew developed and implemented the brand and marketing strategy, and led the business development effort to prospective clients, bank issuers, and the payment schemes; from pre-formation through to stable operations processing more than $500m pa. GPS has gone on to grow into one of the largest and most well-known prepaid specialist processors in Europe.

Andrew is a well-known industry thought-leader and spokesperson who is often asked to speak at public and private industry events on the topic of disruption in the payments industry and the digital transformation of financial services.

Ashar Nazim Managing Director Finocracy

Ashraf Gomma Ali Regional Head, Sharia and Governance CIMB Islamic Bank

Ayman Sejiny Chief Executive Officer IbdarBank Ibdarbank.com/management

Badr El Din A. Ibrahim Senior Microfinance Consultant Arab Gulf Fund for Development (AGFUND)

Badr El Din A. Ibrahim

Senior Microfinance Consultant

Arab Gulf Fund for Development (AGFUND)

Speaker

Professor Ibrahim was educated at Khartoum University and Manchester
University, UK. Currently a Senior Microfinance Consultant to the Arab Gulf Fund for
Development (AGFUND). Previously, he was a President of the Microfinance Unit of the
Central Bank of Sudan. He was a Dean of the Modern College of Business and Science in
Oman (fully affiliated with the University of Missouri St. Louis, USA). His previous positions include Economic Expert, Ministry of Finance, Oman; and Chairman, Department of Economics of Khartoum University. Prof. Ibrahim was Small Enterprises Financing Consultant to both the Sudanese Islamic Bank and to the Khartoum office of the German Fredrich Ebert Foundation. He was a consultant to the Saving and Social Development Bank during 2009–2010. Professor Ibrahim undertook many international consultancies and funded research on MSME financing. He also contributed regularly to the economic columns published by newspapers in Oman, UAE and Sudan. He published many articles in internationally recognized journals, and repeatedly acted as a resource person for conferences on MSME financing and Islamic finance/microfinance in Europe, Far East, Middle East and Africa. He is the author of Banking & Finance to Small and Microenterprises in Sudan – Lessons from an Islamic Financing System, Institute of Islamic Banking & Insurance, London, 2004 and Economic Co-Operation in the Gulf, Routledge, London & New York, 2007 (2nd edition 2011). In addition to a book, entitled Issues in Microfinance, published by IRTI/IDB, Jeddah, 2016. Another book published by Lamert Academic Publisher in June 2017: “Cases of Microfinance in Africa". Finally, a book in Arabic (issues in microfinance and financial inclusion) is under publication in Sudan.

Bashar Al Natoor Global Head, Islamic Finance Fitch Ratings

Bashar Al Natoor

Global Head, Islamic Finance

Fitch Ratings

Speaker

Bashar Al Natoor is Fitch Rating’s Global Head Islamic Finance. Mr Al Natoor is responsible for coordinating all Islamic Finance activities across Fitch’s Sovereign, Financial Institutions, Corporate, Structured Finance, Infrastructure and Insurance teams, bringing together dedicated analytical and industry expertise into a centralised and focused Islamic finance group.
Mr Al Natoor has more than 16 years' experience in the Islamic Finance market. Since joining Fitch in 2007, he has overseen Fitch's Sukuk criteria and Islamic Finance practices, undertaken research and written numerous published articles on Islamic Finance. Mr Al Natoor Joined Fitch as a director in the EMEA Corporates group based in Dubai. He was responsible for analysing EMEA issuers, with focus on Middle East and Turkish issuers in the construction, property and Telecommunication sectors. Prior to joining Fitch, Mr. Al Natoor spent seven years at the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in key roles including Investment Officer in the Treasury Department, a Senior Credit Analyst in Risk Management and Senior Technical Assistant to the Vice President of Finance & Administration. Before working with IDB, Mr Al Natoor was a senior auditor for four years in Arthur Andersen.
Mr Al Natoor graduated with an MSc in banking and financial studies from the Arab Academy for Finance and Banking Science and a BS in finance and banking from Amman University. Bashar is also a Certified Bank Auditor (CBA), a Certified Risk Professional (CRP), a Chartered Market Analyst (FAD-CMA), and a Certified Risk Analyst (CRA).

Cassim Docrat Director DDCAP (DIFC) Limited

Darin Rovere Founder & CEO Sustainability Excellence

Daud Vicary Abdullah Managing Director DVA Consulting

Esam Alkheshnam CEO International Turnkey Systems (ITS)

Fadi Al Faqih CEO Bank of Khartoum (BOK)

Fadi Al Qutub Chief Investment Officer Al Istithmar Capital

Fadi Al Said Director, Portfolio Manager/Analyst Lazard Gulf Ltd. (Dubai)

Fadi Hani VP MEA & Turkey Avaya

Fatih Kazan Financial Sector Specialist Global Islamic Finance Development Center World Bank

Gonzalo Rodríguez General Coordinator, Saudi-Spanish Centre for Islamic Economics and Finance IE Business School

Dr Hatim El-Tahir Director, Islamic Finance Group Leader Deloitte ME Islamic Finance Knowledge Centre (IFKC), Deloitte & Touche – Bahrain

Dr Hatim El-Tahir

Director, Islamic Finance Group Leader

Deloitte ME Islamic Finance Knowledge Centre (IFKC), Deloitte & Touche – Bahrain

Speaker

Hatim is a director in Deloitte and Touche (ME)’s financial services practice, and leads the Islamic Finance Knowledge Centre where he advises clients on Islamic financial markets development. Hatim Tahir devised and leads Deloitte’s Islamic thought leadership program, and writes the yearly industry flagship - Deloitte Islamic finance reports.
With over 20 years business and finance experience, Hatim has held key leadership roles designing Islamic finance strategies and delivering projects in the Middle East, Europe, Central America, Central and South Asia. His recent accomplished engagements included strategy development, Sharia’ Governance and regulatory compliance, and industry research in Islamic capital market instruments.
Prior to working for Deloitte, Hatim worked for the NASDAQ DUBAI in a senior role, and led a capacity building & leadership development initiative in Islamic finance - working with international financial institutions regulated by the DFSA - to develop their Islamic financial knowledge and skills and other DIFC’s rules and regulations.
Hatim authored numerous articles and chapters in books including Harvard University and Wiley. He is also a regular contributor to industry talks and comments in industry issues in CNBC Arabia, Bloomberg, Forbes ME and other broadcast outlets. Hatim regularly participates in industry consultative meetings and working groups and is a member of Board of Trustees of the AAOIFI.
Hatim earned his PhD in Business Management, University of London, and was a Research Associate at the London School of Economics between the years 1995-2000. He is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the ICMA Centre, Henley Business School, University of Reading and Fellow member of the British Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI).

Hussein Abdulhaq Head of Treasury & Financial Markets Al Salam Bank, Bahrain

Iftikhar Ali Deputy Managing Director Bank ABC Islamic

Dr Imran Lum Director, Islamic Finance Corporate & Institutional Banking | National Australia Bank Limited

Dr. Jarmo Kotilaine Chief Economist Bahrain Economic Development Board

Jessica Robinson Founder and Managing Director Moxie Future

Jessica Robinson

Founder and Managing Director

Moxie Future

Speaker

Jessica Robinson is the Founder of Moxie Future - the world’s first platform empowering women as responsible investors. As well as running Moxie Future, Jessica works as a strategic advisor to institutional investors, think tanks and governments on green finance, sustainability and responsible investment.

Prior to this, Jessica was Head of Asia for the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (UN-PRI), following a long stint as Chief Executive and Board Director of the Association for Sustainable and Responsible Investment in Asia (ASrIA), one of Asia’s leading think tanks working to promote sustainable finance and responsible investment across the region.

She also led the Asia Investor Group on Climate Change and played an active leadership role in the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance (GSIA) and the Global Investor Coalition on Climate Change (GIC).

Jessica has an extensive background in professional services and business consulting, focusing on financial services, environmental finance and sustainability industries. Through varied roles, she has had experience of working and living in Asia, Europe, North America and now the Middle East - across a range of different sectors, markets and regulatory environments.

She frequently contributes articles, authors reports and speaks at conferences on issues including green financing, responsible investment, climate finance policy and broader sustainable finance issues. She also provides input to several advisory panels and working groups on green finance and sustainability issues, and was a member of Hong Kong’s Financial Services Development Council’s Green Finance Working Group, responsible for making policy recommendations to the Hong Kong government.

John A. Sandwick General Manager Safa Investment Services

Junaid Wahedna CEO and Founder Wahed Inc

Khalid Al Kayed Chief Executive Officer Bank Nizwa

Khalid Al Kayed

Chief Executive Officer

Bank Nizwa

Speaker

Khalid Al Kayed, Chief Executive Officer of Bank Nizwa, is responsible for overall leadership and effective management of the Bank, setting direction and driving total performance consistent with the interests of shareholders, employees, and other stakeholders. He oversees all aspects of the bank’s business segments in line with Islamic finance principles including its progressive Shari’a-compliant portfolio of products and services.
Under his tenure, Al Kayed steered the bank to a new era, positioning Bank Nizwa as a strong, innovative, and relationship-oriented sharia compliant financial institution with the largest market share as a full-fledged Islamic bank. He leads the management team to further build the Bank Nizwa brand and its corporate and retail customers’ portfolio across various industries. He is also leading the bank’s ongoing and new initiatives and programs to raise awareness on the benefits of Islamic finance to the wider public across Oman.
A financial industry veteran with over 25 years under his belt, Al Kayed is associated with Bank Nizwa since its inception. Prior to joining the bank, Al Kayed held various posts in a host of well-respected financial institutions including Deputy Chief Executive Officer & Chief Financial Officer at Jordan Dubai Islamic Bank and Chief Financial Officer at Standard Chartered Bank Jordan. His expertise ranges from banking management, financial control, accounting, risk management, and asset liability among other fields.
Al Kayed holds Masters in International Accounting and Finance from Liverpool University. He is also an alumnus of Columbia Business School from where he has completed executive management program. In addition to this, he is a Certified Management Accountant and Certified Financial Manager from Institute of Management Accountants.

Khalid Howladar Managing Director and Founder Acreditus

Khalid Howladar

Managing Director and Founder

Acreditus

Speaker

Khalid Howladar is the Managing Director and Founder of Acreditus, a boutique advisory practice created to serve the risk, rating and Islamic finance needs of the Gulf and Islamic credit markets. With his global perspectives, he is a recognised authority in his field and has addressed EM investors worldwide as well as audiences at the World Bank, IMF, ECB and IIF. Other interests include fintech and inclusive capitalism.
Previously, Khalid spent 15 years at Moody’s Investor’s Service London and Dubai as Global Head – Islamic Finance while concurrently Head of the GCC banking team. This was after senior roles covering securitisation and structured credit.
As Moody’s first Global Head of Islamic Finance, he was responsible for the credit risk policy formation and strategy of a new global and cross-business line team of Analytical, Commercial, Investor and Media representatives to provide holistic and insightful coverage of this fast growing and dynamic sector. His leadership delivered first place in the IFN Awards for best Rating agency in 2015 after six year’s absence.
As head of the GCC Banking team he was responsible for rating a diverse portfolio of around 60 financial institutions. He was both a Credit Committee Co-Chair for the European, Middle East & Africa Banks and a senior member in GCC Sovereign and Sukuk committees. Previously, he was an analyst in the structured finance team responsible for rating a diverse, $150 billion mix of GCC securitizations, leveraged loan, synthetic, high yield, asset-backed and project finance CDOs & CLOs.
Khalid has provided over 100 risk briefings on both regional credit markets and Islamic finance to stakeholders such as Aberdeen, BlackRock, Fidelity, AIG, Threadneedle, Ashmore, ECM, LIM, Goldman Sachs, JPM AM, Franklin Templeton and BlueBay the amongst others. His research and views have often been quoted by the FT, Bloomberg, Reuters, WSJ, The Economist, CNBC Arabiya and other media outlets.
He is a well-respected speaker at conferences with his passionate and dynamic style engaging audiences at the most senior levels in Washington and globally for institutions such as the World Bank, IMF, ECB, IIF, IsDB, AMF and Government shareholders of the IILM. He is a keen UAE educational supporter and has lectured students in Dubai (Cass and London Business School) and Abu Dhabi (Paris-Sorbonne and New York Universities) in risk, ratings, banking and Islamic Finance.
Previously Khalid spent four years at Credit Suisse in the Emerging Markets Fixed Income Risk team. He holds an MSc in Finance from London Business School and an MSc in Advanced Information Technology and a BEng in Software Engineering both from the Imperial College of Science and Technology and Medicine.

Kurt Lieberman CEO Magni Global Asset Management LLC

Marco Lichtfous Partner Deloitte Tax & Consulting

Meliksah UTKU CEO Al Baraka Participation Bank

Michael Mellinghoff Managing Director Techfluence

Michael Mellinghoff

Managing Director

Techfluence

Speaker

Michael Mellinghoff is Managing Director at TechFluence (www.techfluence.eu) and a Senior Advisor and Mentor at FinTech Forum. He is a seasoned investment professional with over 15 years of experience, spanning both the traditional banking and fintech world.

Michael’s career covers a 10+ years span in traditional banking, where he held a variety of managerial positions in asset management and investment banking in Germany and abroad, including management board and supervisory board appointments in Commerzbank Asset Management and DZ Bank Group.

Since 2010, Michael has been working in the Fintech area, including a 3+ years experience as Managing Director with German Fintech pioneer sharewise.com, a stock centric community for investors until its exit.

Michael’s experience gives him unique insights into the financial markets scene and ability to scout new trends in the financial sector.

At TechFluence Michael heads the firm’s activities in the UK as well as spearheading the initiatives in digital investment management globally. He acts as a mentor to several startups as well as FinTech accelerators (Startupbootcamp Fintech and Level39). He launched the FTF On Tour | InvestTech events (London, Sep. 2015 and April 2017) and the FTF On Tour | Robo Advice (Berlin, June 2016) as well as co-initiated the DVFA FinTech Forum series of the German Association of Investment Professionals in 2015 in Frankfurt. His focus areas are startups in InvestTech.
Since August 2016 Michael serves as a member of the Supervisory Board of niiio finance group AG, Germany’s stock listed specialist for FinTech solutions in B2B robo advice and portfolio management systems.
Michael has a degree in business administration of University of Bayreuth.

@Mellinghoff is an author of @TheFINTECHBook and member of the editorial board of The Journal of Digital Banking.

Mohammad Damak Senior Director & Global Head of Islamic Finance Financial Services Research S&P Global Ratings

Mohamed Nazri Omar Managing Director/CEO Danajamin Nasional Bhd

Mohammad Shaheed Khan VP, Shariah Compliant Banking Gulf International Bank

Mohammed Ameen Hassen Head- Shari’ah Banking Standard Bank Group

Mohammed Kateeb Group Chairman & CEO Path Solutions

Monem Salam President Saturna Sdn. Bhd.

Mujtaba Khalid Head, Islamic Finance Centre BIBF

Mustafa Adil Head of Islamic Finance Thomson Reuters

Nick Lee Authorisation Director-Financial Services Regulatory Authority Abu Dhabi Global Market

Peter Kruschel Director, Banking Supervision Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin)

Raghu Mandagolathur Head of Research Kuwait Financial Center (Markaz)

Rajashekara V. Maiya Head of Product Strategy Infosys Finacle

Redha Al Ansari Research Team Leader – MENA THOMSON REUTERS

Robin Amlot CEO CPI Financial

Dr. Saeeda Jaffar Managing Director Alvarez & Marsal-Middle East

Dr. Saeeda Jaffar

Managing Director

Alvarez & Marsal-Middle East

Speaker

Dr. Saeeda Jaffar is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal’s Dubai office, in the Performance Improvement and Financial Institutions Advisory Services Practice.
Dr. Jaffar brings more than 12 years of experience in management consulting and industry expertise, focusing on a wide range of strategic and performance-related issues in the financial services sector. Dr. Jaffar has worked in the Middle East, Europe and the U.S. In her consulting roles, she has worked with clients across a range of industries, specializing in financial services including universal banks, private banks, investment banks, private equity firms, sovereign wealth funds, government institutions and family-owned businesses.
Dr. Jaffar specializes in delivering pragmatic and practical solutions to strategic issues, to drive bottom-line impact and rapid results, delivered in a variety of client situations.
Prior to joining Alvarez & Marsal, Dr. Jaffar was a Principal at Bain & Company, a leading global strategy management consulting firm. In this role, she served financial institutions in the GCC, and focused on corporate, retail, wholesale and digital banking strategy, cost reduction and sales boost programs, performance turn-around, process optimization, customer experience enhancement, post-merger integration (PMI), international expansion and operating model design and commercial due diligences. Prior to that, she was with McKinsey and Company, serving clients across the U.S., Europe and the GCC.
Dr. Jaffar earned a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Boston University, where she was the valedictorian, and earned a master's degree and a doctorate in chemical engineering from MIT. She was also an EDAAD Scholar, HHS.
Dr. Jaffar was a non-executive board member in Ishraq, a hospitality company.

Salam Slim Director - Global Solution Lead/ Islamic Banking Oracle Financial Services

Serdar Guner Director Supervision, Dubai Financial Services Authority

Serdar Guner

Director

Supervision, Dubai Financial Services Authority

Speaker

Mr Serdar Güner joined the DFSA as Senior Manager in the Supervision Division in September 2010. He became a Director in 2013 after an Associate Director in 2012. Following responsibilities and Directorship roles spanning Prudential Risk, Market Conduct and Pooled Supervision, he now leads a team responsible for the supervision of Financial Technology Firms and Cyber Risk, with the overarching responsibility of Governance and Operational Risk in the Centre.
After graduating from Brooklyn College in New York with a Degree and Masters in Economics, Mr Güner joined the New York State Banking Department. His primary responsibilities included on and offsite examinations of the major money-centre banks, savings institutions and credit unions. He was assigned to the Tokyo offices of the Department in 1998 where he was responsible for both on and offsite reviews and risk assessments of complex derivatives, one-off structured products and instruments newly introduced in the market within the Asia Pacific region. He joined the Department’s London offices in 2004 focusing on the same banks’ European and South American operations while taking on responsibility of retail-based banking operations of Article XII companies and large money centre institutions.
In 2007, Mr Güner joined the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority as an Associate Director within the Supervision Department, responsible for the operations of banks, investment banks, Islamic institutions and branches in the Centre.
In addition to a Master’s Degree in Economics from Brooklyn College, Mr Güner has a post-graduate diploma in Islamic Banking from IIBI and International Diplomas in Anti-Money Laundering and Financial Crime Prevention from ICA. He is a Certified Fraud Examiner, (CFE-USA), and a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) and has a Certificate in Islamic Banking from CISI. Mr Güner also holds a certificate on Fintech: Future Commerce from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Stuart Hutton Chief Investment Officer Simply Ethical

Subhi Bora Communications Director Zileej

Dr. Sulaiman Al-Sultan Director, Corporate Support Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD)

Dr. Yahia Abdul-Rahman Chairman and CEO LARIBA – LARIBA Bank of Whittier

Dr. Yahia Abdul-Rahman

Chairman and CEO

LARIBA – LARIBA Bank of Whittier

Speaker

Dr. Yahia was born in Cairo, Egypt and immigrated to the US in 1968. He studied Chemical Engineering (B.S. Cairo University, M.S. & Ph.D. University of Wisconsin, Madison) and International Finance (MA – University of Texas, Dallas.) He authored two books, numerous papers and many patents. The most world acclaimed book was published first by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. in January 2010: The Art of Islamic Banking and Finance. The book was on Amazon.com best sellers’ list in its category, two printings (over 10,000 Copies) were sold out and an expanded Second Edition: The Art of RF (Riba Free) Islamic Banking and Finance was released in November 2014. The book presents pioneering research results about many topics including Prohibition of Riba/Ribit in all Abrahamic Faiths, the Early warning Discipline of Detecting Price Bubbles and much other hands-on practical operating experience while operating Bank of Whittier Riba Free since 2003. The Turkish Language edition was launched in 2016.
He was a member of the team that started the Industrial Bank of Kuwait (1974-1975.) In 1984-1986 he returned to help restructure it. His group started banks in Houston, Texas (1982) and LARIBA Bank of Kazakhstan (1998.)
Dr. Abdul-Rahman invested 18 years (1986 – 2003) in the Investment Banking industry with CitiGroup / Smith Barney where he started (1988) and co-managed the first ever Shari’aa compliant stock portfolio that achieved superior performance and was a prelude to the Dow Jones Islamic Index.
Dr. Yahia is known as the Father of Islamic banking in North America. He started “American Finance House – LARIBA” in 1987. In addition, the shareholders also own the first full service RF (Riba-Free) National Bank in America: LARIBA Bank of Whittier, NA (1998.) The LARIBA effort - capital and assets – are from the American community. LARIBA and LARIBA Bank of Whittier, serving all 50 states’ banking and financial needs, have proven that RF (Riba-Free) banking delivers superior results as it was tested in the 2008 meltdown. Please visit: www.LARIBA.com and www.WhittierBank.com.
LARIBA, under Dr. Yahia’s leadership, was the first company ever in the US to operate RF (Riba Free) a Riba Free Bank and to issue RF (Islamic finance) asset-based mortgage bonds (Sukuk) in the US with Fannie Mae and in Singapore with MUIS.
He serves as a member of a prestigious jury (in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016) to elect the best Islamic Banker in the world to receive the King of Malaysia “Malaysian Global Royal Award in Islamic Finance”.
He is a prolific Imam, speaker, lecturer and author of papers on RF (Riba-Free) banking & finance throughout the world. He was invited to present on RF (Riba Free) banking and finance in the US, Canada, United Kingdom, South Africa, Switzerland, Germany, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Kazakhstan, India, Trinidad, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Lebanon and Egypt.
Dr. Yahia is a distinguished Imam and Community leader in North America since 1968. He participated in the start-up and operation of many Islamic Centers and Schools in the US and Canada. He was an invited Jum’aa Imam in most US cities and in Canada, India, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey and the UK. Please visit his site: www.Islam-In-America.com.
Dr. Yahia spent 15 years in the Oil Industry in Production, Engineering, Corporate Strategic Planning and Finance in a major American Oil Company and refineries.

Rama Mohammed Co-Founder CBX Unit LLC

Elizabeth De Freitas Account Manager Darktrace

Kebbie Sebastian Managing Director Penser

Ammar Radhi Head of Strategy and Special Projects Thomson Reuters

Professor Humayon Dar Chairman & President Edbiz Corporation

Shariq Nazim Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Finocracy

Dr Aly Khorshid Professor (Visiting),Fellow (Visiting) UTM University Malaysia, University of Reading, UK

Dr Aly Khorshid

Professor (Visiting),Fellow (Visiting)

UTM University Malaysia, University of Reading, UK

Speaker

Dr Aly Khorshid has been involved with Islamic financial institutions for over 2 decades; expert on Shariah compliant finance within the Islamic law, Waqf family “Trust”, inheritance, capital market products, Fund Structure for global investment, Project finance, Due diligence, alternative finance and Islamic contracts.
Dr Aly Khorshid Shari’ah board member in selected Islamic institutions, also served as wealth manager with several bank’s, have obtained his PhD on Islamic studies and Islamic economics from the University of Leeds (UK), studied Fiqh and Shariah at Al-Azhar University (Egypt), Master degree in managements (UK). His Publications includes, Islamic Insurance “A modern Approach to Islamic Banking” 2004, the Encyclopaedia of Islamic finance 2008, Dictionary of Islamic Finance 2011, “A Tender Power” a Novel elucidating Islamic finance to a layman 2012, and Corporate Governance in Islamic Banks. Joint author of several publications and many articles published on Islamic finance.

A trustee member of Academy UK, fellow at ICMA centre Henley business school University of Reading UK, Diploma course director IFBL Luxemburg, Professor (Visiting) IBS at UTM University Malaysia, former visiting lecturer at El-Azhar University ”Egypt”, visiting professor at Nile University Egypt, Dean of Business and economic school at LondonUniversity London UK. He was nominated for King Fisal International prize 2006, runner-up for Mubarak Prize on Islamic studies 2010; A regular speaker on Islamic finance issues at conferences and TV.

Ron Bohlander Policy Lead on Islamic Finance HM Treasury

Abdulla Al-Najran Al-Tuwaijri Deputy Chief Executive Officer Boubyan Bank