Speakers

H.E. Mohammed Said Shahin
Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Jordan, Jordan

Mr Shahin has been Deputy Governor and Member of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Jordan since 2003. He previously held a range of senior roles including Managing Director and Deputy Chairman of the Board of Deposit Insurance Corporation of Amman and Director of the Investment Department of the Arab Monetary Fund, Abu Dhabi. He has held several board memberships and is presently Chairman of the Board of the Jordan Loan Guarantee Corporation. He has a B.A. in Economics from the American University of Cairo and an M.P.A in Economic Development from Harvard University in the US.

Ahmed Saad Ibrahim
Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Sharjah Islamic Bank, UAE

Mr. Ibrahim has served as Deputy Chief Executive Officer since early 2011 having been of the Bank since 1998. He holds a bachelors degree in commerce from Cairo University. He is also a Certified Accountant. Prior to joining the Bank, he has worked with Qatar National Bank and Commercial International Bank, Egypt (formerly Chase National Bank). He has over 27 years' experience in the banking industry.

Michael Davey
Director Turkey, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Turkey

Michael Davey first took up his responsibilities at the EBRD in 1993 as a Senior Banker followed by Director of EBRD’s Country operations for Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia and Moldova. In January 2009 he assumed his current responsibility as Director for Turkey. He is a business graduate of Massey University in New Zealand and began his professional career with the Bank of New Zealand, then continued with DFC (NZ) Ltd., and Asian Development Bank.

Nigel Denison
Executive Director and Head of Markets, Bank of London and the Middle East, UK

Nigel joined BLME in January 2007 as Director and Head of Markets Division. Prior to this he was Head of European Sales for West LB’s Global Markets Unit which included Treasury, Capital Markets and Emerging Markets. Nigel began his career at Barclays Merchant Bank, subsequently BZW where he became Head of Trading for Barclays Swaps and Options European business, based in London. He then spent some time in New York where he took over the derivatives trading operations for Barclays.

Peter Paul Pardi
Executive Director Investment Placement, Arcapita, Bahrain

Since September 2008, PeterPaul oversees the development of the institutional funds business for Arcapita. Previously, he worked on the EMEA Executive Committee at Lehman Brothers Investment Management as Managing Director/Head of Distribution for Europe, Middle East & Asia. PeterPaul was also an EVP/Head of European Institutional Remarketing for PIMCO, Head of the Southern European Institutional Business at Barclays Global Investors and a Merchant Banker with Security Pacific. He has 19 years investment experience, a BA from Tufts University, an MBA from the American Graduate School of International Management, and an MSc in quantitative investments from the University of Southern California.

Prof. Ndung’u is the Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya since March 2007. Before this, he was the Director of Training at the African Economic Research Consortium. He has taught economics at the University of Nairobi, worked at the International Development Research Centre and at the Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis. A member of various boards in the financial sector and also chairs the Steering Committee of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) based in Bangkok, Thailand. Prof. Ndung’u has published widely on inflation, exchange rate, economic growth and poverty reduction. He holds a PhD in Economics from Gothenburg University, Sweden and is an Associate Professor of Economics from the University of Nairobi.

Yavuz Yeter
Group Manager - Investment Banking and Treasury Product Development Departments, Kuwait Turkish Participation Bank, Turkey

Mohamed Jamil Berro
CEO, Al Hilal Bank, UAE

Mohamed Jamil Berro is the founding chief executive officer of Al Hilal Bank which operates in the United Arab Emirates and Kazakhstan. Mr Berro completed his master degree studies in the United States and began his career with Arthur Anderson prior to joining National Bank of Kuwait where he held various senior positions. In 2002, Berro joined Crédit Agricole before serving as the Global Head of Retail at Arab Bank. In 2008, Berro was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Al Hilal Bank. Mr Berro serves on the boards of Al Hilal Takaful, the UAE & Kazakhstan Business Committee and the American Community School. Berro has further served on the board of directors of Arab Islamic International Bank, Arabian Insurance, Al Nisr Insurance and Visa.

Nael Mustafa
Executive Director & Head of Real Estate - MENA & India, Arcapita Bank, Bahrain||

Nael is Executive Director and Head of Real Estate in the MENA region and India. His responsibilities include the origination and structuring of real estate investments, real estate funds the management of existing portfolio investments in the GCC as well participating in the management of Arcapita’s global real estate activities. Prior to joining Arcapita in 2003, Nael spent 13 years with various investment banks in Bahrain and covering the GCC through a wide range of investment sectors and asset classes including capital markets, corporate finance and advisory services. Nael worked with TAIB Bank E.C., where in his last assignment was General Manager of TAIB Securities, TAIB Bank’s capital markets arm and at Securities & Investment Co. in Bahrain, where he was head of corporate finance. Nael has an MBA from Edinburgh University, Scotland and is a Chartered Financial Analyst “CFA”.

Nor’Azamin bin Salleh
CEO, Mayban Investment Management, Malaysia

Nor’Azamin bin Salleh is currently the Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer of MIM with effect from 1 October 2010. Azamin brings with him over 20 years of experience in Finance, Operations, Sales & Marketing and Management. He has worked in leading asset management companies such as Asian Islamic Investment Management Sdn Bhd (“AIIMAN”) - a subsidiary of DBS Asset Management Pte Ltd, Commerce Asset Fund Managers and Avenue Invest Berhad. In the past several years, he was actively involved in the growth of Islamic Investment Management in Malaysia. Prior to joining MIM, he was the Executive Director / Chief Executive Officer of AIIMAN. Azamin holds a degree in Bachelors of Commerce and Master in Business Administration. In addition, he is a Chartered Accountant (Malaysia), Certified Practicing Accountant (Australia) and Certified Financial Planner. He holds a Capital Markets & Services Representative License issued by the Securities Commission Malaysia under the Capital Markets & Services Act 2007.

Prasad Abraham
CEO, Al Hilal Bank, Kazakhstan

The banking career of Prasad Abraham started back in 1977 when he joined the Citibank, in 1983 he was invited to Arab Banking Corporation in Bahrain. He was Group Chief Auditor until 2003, serving on the Audit Committee of the parent company and also the Audit Committees of Banco Atlantico in Spain, ABD Daus in Frankfurt, and ABC International Bank in the UK. n 2004 Prasad was appointed as deputy CEO of ABC International Bank in London. Later in 2007 Prasad was involved in coordination and set up efforts of Al Hilal Bank in Abu Dhabi. Taking into account his experience in the banking industry of over thirty years, Prasad Abraham was delegated to develop subsidiary Al Hilal Bank in Kazakhstan.

Serkan Özcan
Chief Economist, Vakif Bank, Turkey

Serkan graduated from the Department of Economics at Middle East Technical University in 1999, and earned an MSc in Finance from the University of Illinois. He is currently attending the Ph. D. programme at Ankara University. Serkan worked at the Central Bank of Turkey between 1999-2006 in the Department of Banking and Financial Institutions as a specialist where he mainly focused on the effects of monetary policy on the finance sector and the macro economy. He worked at the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) of Turkey as the consultant of the Chairman between 2006 and 2009 and coordinated a project named “Monitoring of National and International Financial Developments”. Since January 2010, he has been working in Turkish Vakifbank as Chief Economist.

Emad has over 19 years of investment banking experience. He started his career in 1993 at the corporate banking division of the Commercial Bank of Qatar. Emad then moved to what is now BNP Paribas, to head the bank‘s Middle East corporate finance activities where he lead the privatization of Royal Jordanian and the restructuring of Saudi Arabian Airlines.

Emad then joined Samba Financial Group as Head of Corporate Finance and Investment Banking where he executed transactions totaling in excess of USD 12 billion, including the IPO of Kingdom Holdings and the SAR 5.5 private placement of Mobily shares.

Emad joined Qatar First Investment Bank in 2008 as Deputy CEO and in December 2010 renamed as the CEO.

Sohail Jaffer
Group Partner, FWU Group, Luxembourg

Sohail Jaffer is a Partner and Head of International Business Development for “white label” Bancassurance and investment services within the FWU Group, an international financial services group focusing on innovative and customised product design in the field of unit-linked investments and family takaful investment-linked plans for international markets. Mr. Jaffer has successfully originated, negotiated and won several major bancassurance deals in the GCC region, Pakistan and Malaysia. He has written extensively on alternative investments and has edited several Euromoney publications on hedge funds, multi-manager strategies as well as six books in the Islamic finance range including retail banking, asset management, takaful, wealth management, investment banking, sukuk and a CPI publication on investing in the GCC markets.

Dr Ibrahim Turhan
Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Turkey, Turkey

Dr. M. İbrahim Turhan, born in 1968 in İzmir, graduated from Boğaziçi University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences in 1993. Then, he joined the Institute for Banking and Insurance Studies at the Marmara University and received both his MA degree (1995) and Ph.D. degree (2001) therein. After working as a visiting research fellow abroad, he joined the Yeditepe University as the head of the International Trade Department and the Banking and Insurance Management Department. He has articles on economics in Turkish and in English. He was elected as Board Member in April 2004, and appointed deputy governor in May 2008.

Dr Mohd Daud Bakar
Shariah Scholar and Managing Director, Amanie Islamic Finance Consultancy and Education, UAE

Dr. Mohd Daud Bakar is the Managing Director of Amanie Islamic Finance Consultancy and Education, incorporated at DIFC, Dubai. He is the Chairman of the Shariah Advisory Council at the Central Bank of Malaysia and Securities Commission of Malaysia. He is also a member of the Shariah Board of AAOIFI, Dow Jones Islamic Market Index, Unicorn Investment Bank, Bank of London and Middle East, Islamic Bank of Asia, Noor Islamic Bank, Morgan Stanley and Dubai Bank amongst others. He has been speaking in various Islamic finance events around the globe.

Faiz Nassim
Head of Financial Institutions and Structured Finance, Q Invest, Qatar

Previously Head of Islamic Finance and Debt Capital at Emirates NBD Capital and Head of Syndications and Institutional Sales for Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), Faiz has over 15 years of experience in Islamic investment banking, project finance, syndications and financial advisory. His transaction credentials include the USD 750 Sukuk for Qatar Isalmic Bank, AED 3.6bn Sukuk and US$ 3.52bn equity-linked Sukuk for Nakheel, the US$ 3.5bn Pre-IPO Sukuk for DP World, the US$ 1bn Ijara facility for Dubai Civil Aviation, the US$ 500m Islamic facility for Emirates National Oil Co, US$ 1bn facility for Bahrain Petroleum and the US$ 325m Sukuk for RAK Investment Authority. Faiz pioneered the launch of a US$ 800m aviation leasing fund and a US$ 300m structured shipping fund during his time with Kuwait Finance House and the first Islamic Mezzanine fund at QInvest.

Mohieddine Kronfol is Chief Investment Officer Fixed Income/Sukuk for Franklin Templeton Investments (ME) Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Franklin Templeton Investments investing in the MENA region, He is one of the founding members and member of the board of Franklin Templeton Investments (ME) Ltd (formerly Algebra Capital), and has been with the firm since its inception in November 2006. Mr Kronfol sits on the investment committees of all Franklin Templeton Investments (ME) Ltd Funds and is a member of Franklin Templeton’s Fixed Income Policy Committee, Global Asset Allocation Committee and Local Asset Management Team.

Mr Kronfol has 14 years of relevant experience in financial services including a six year track record in regional fixed income markets and founding roles in three start up businesses. Prior to committing to Franklin Templeton Investments (ME) Ltd, Mohieddine was the Head of SHUAA Capital’s Fixed Income Department as well as the fund manager of The Arab Income Fund (TAIF), the first fund to trade local and foreign currency debt in the MENA region. Prior to that, Mr Kronfol was the Head of SHUAA Capital’s Capital Markets department where he managed investments globally in FX, commodity, interest rate and equity markets. Prior to joining SHUAA Capital in August 2000, Mr Kronfol was a senior associate at Middle East Capital Group (MECG), a Beirut based investment bank with a regional focus.  Mr Kronfol holds a bachelors degree in business administration and an MBA from the American University of Beirut.

Dr Abdulrahman Tolefat
Former CEO, Allianz Takaful - Bahrain, Bahrain

Dr.Abdulrahman Khalil Tolefat began his career in the fast growing financial services field in Bahrain with the Central Bank of Bahrain (formally known as Bahrain Monetary Agency). He held various positions in the CBB and has extensive exposure to Islamic finance and takaful. In 2008 and after nine creditable years with the Central Bank of Bahrain, Dr. Abdulrahman took charge as the Chief Executive Officer of Allianz Takaful in Bahrain, the global hub for Islamic Insurance (Takaful) of Allianz Group, the international giant in insurance, banking and asset management. In 2010, he was prompted to be the Chairman of Allianz Takaful. Dr. Abdulrahaman is a distinguished scholar in the field of Takaful and, as a member of various committees and boards in the financial field, he has played an instrumental role in imparting international standards to Islamic banking and Takaful.

Jaseem Ahmed
Secretary General, Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB), Malaysia

Jaseem Ahmed assumed the position of the Secretary-General of the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) on 1st May 2011. Mr. Ahmed has over 20 years experience in financial sector and public management issues. He previously served as Director, Financial Sector, Public Management and Trade, Southeast Asia Department of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). At the ADB, he led the ADB's response in the Southeast Asia region to the global crisis and the ADB team that helped prepare the Implementation Plan for integration of capital markets in Southeast Asia. He was also the Practice Leader for Islamic Finance. He was a member of the IFSB High Level Task Force on Liquidity Management, the group which proposed the establishment of the International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation. He is currently a member of the Group Experts, an advisory body to the ASEAN Capital Markets Forum.  Mr Ahmed is a member of the Governing Council of the International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF) and he also sits on the Consultative Advisory Group of the International Auditing and Assurance Standard Board (IAASB).

Emil Gasymov
General Director, CJSC Tatarstan International Investment Company, Russian Federation

Born in 1981 in Baku, Azerbaijan, Emil Gasymov has a Bachelors and Masters in Law from Baku State University and a Doctorate in Civil Law, Business Law, Family Law and International Private Law from the Volga Federal University. Emil worked as a lawyer n the sphere of diplomatic security in law enforcement bodies. He started from the position of a manager in the group of companies "Titan". Then was the CEO of the company "Orient Wings", deputy head of the legal department of the embassy of the USA in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Since 2006, he lives in Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan and from 1 January 2011 is the general director of CJSC "ТIIC". 

Kazim O. Yusuf, Director, Kord Capital, Nigeria

Ebrahim Patel, CEO, FNB Islamic Finance, South Africa

Ebrahim Patel, who has always been recognised as an Innovator and Maverick, is also the architect and engineer of IslamicFinance in South Africa. During his 28 years with the FirstRand Group, Ebi has made his mark on every aspect of the business in which he has been involved, including the IT Division and Management Training Centre.  He has collected numerous awards for Excellence, receiving the FNB Innovation Award for IT Systems three times.

As the first Chief Executive Officer of IslamicFinance, Ebi was proud to launch WesBank’s Shari’ah compliant products in 2004, adding offerings from First National Bank to the banking suite in 2005.  Ebi’s role in researching, developing and introducing IslamicFinance through conventional banks in Southern Africa, is a ground-breaking initiative, serving both the Muslim and non-Muslim communities.

M Ersagun Şimşek, Head of Project Finance Department, Bank Asya, Turkey

Born in 1979, Mr. Şimşek graduated from Middle East Teccnical University, the Faculty of Engineering, the Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2003. He received his master’s degree in Finance and Investment Management from City University Cass Business School in London in 2005. He worked as business and risk analist at Barclays Bank in 2005. After working as executive business analist in Investment Development at Rixos Group in 2006, he worked as head of Corporate Finance, Marketing and Trading at Tera Stock Brokers (Investment) between 2007 and 2011 in Istanbul. Mr. Şimşek has been the Head of Project Finance Department at Bank Asya since June, 2011.

Mahdi Al Abdalla, Executive Director , Real Estate Funds & Investments, Middle East Financial Investment Company (MEFIC), KSA

Mahdi has MBA in finance from Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas , he has been chartered fund and asset manager (CFAM) from American Academy of Financial Management since 2007 and a member of the American Association of Real Estate (NAR) , he hold Series 6 ,7 and 63 licenses from (NASD) plus he is Chartered Financial Analyst “CFA” and member of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT) during the last eighteen years Mahdi worked in a number of investment , real estate and financial companies in Jordan, Bahrain ,USA and KSA , starting as “Dealer” in 1994 with Arab Real Estate Bank following as assist REITs Director to assist managing $ 500,000,000 REIT in Dallas and finally with Middle East Financial Investment Company (MEFIC) in KSA , he structured and launched the first closed-end public offering real estate fund in KSA along with several Private Placement real estate funds since 2007, Up to date he structured more than 2 billion Dollars of Real Estate Investment Funds (REIFs) , next month he will launch the first public offering semi closed-end real estate income fund plus the first Sukuk Ijarah real estate Fund in KSA, he also serves on the Board of Directors for several real estate investment funds.

Mohammed Shaheed Khan, Executive Director – Head of Structuring, Ithraa Capital, KSA, KSA

Mohammad Shaheed Khan spearheads the Structuring Division at Ithraa Capital, Saudi Arabia. Previously he was the Senior Vice President – Group Head of Corporate Finance at Afaq-Islamic Finance Co. based in Dubai, UAE.

Mr. Shaheed has also worked at ABN AMRO Bank Group where he has successfully launched and managed various Islamic Banking businesses for the Group in a number of countries. He has also served at various large banking organizations accumulating a diversified experience in the fields of Corporate banking, Structured Finance, Treasury, Retail banking and Wealth Management. Shaheed is a regular speaker at various Islamic Finance conferences and also conducts specialized workshops on various Islamic Finance topics.

Shaheed has studied Shariah sciences for a number of years learning from some of the world’s leading scholars. Shaheed has a BBA and an MBA in finance.