Islamic Finance

About the Contributors

Daud Abdullah (David Vicary) is the President and Chief Executive Officer of INCEIF, The Global University of Islamic Finance. He has been in the finance and consulting industry for more than 38 years, with significant experience in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Since 2002, he has focused exclusively on Islamic finance where he has contributed to a number of books on the subject and has co-authored a book on Islamic finance entitled Islamic Finance: Why it Makes Sense. He is also a frequent speaker and commentator on matters relating to Islamic finance. 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). Prior to INCEIF, he was the Global Islamic Finance Leader with Deloitte. He was also previously acting CEO of Asian Finance Bank, an Islamic bank based in Malaysia, and Managing Director of Hong Leong Islamic Bank.

Anand Balasubramanian is currently a Director in Ernst & Young’s Financial Services Risk Management (FSRM) practice in Dubai. He has more than 12 years’ experience in the area of risk and financial consulting across the Middle East, South East Asia, and the United States. He has executed several engagements in the area of risk quantification and model validation for credit risk, market risk, and operational risk.

He has prior experience with Oracle Financial Services Consulting, GE, and ICRA. Anand holds an MBA in Finance from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, India and is certified FRM from Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP).

John Board has been Dean of the Henley Business School at the University of Reading since October 2010. Before that he was Director of the ICMA Centre at the University of Reading, which he joined after being on the faculty at the London School of Economics.

His recent research has focused on the organisation and regulation of financial markets and the development of Islamic financial markets. Some of this work has been based on large scale analyses of trading data, while other parts have considered more general issues of the effects of market fragmentation as well as the various scandals and crises in financial markets. As a result of this work, he has been widely published in books and academic and professional journals, as well as radio and television. He has acted as consultant to many U.K. and overseas markets, regulatory organisations, and trade bodies. These include the House of Commons, the Financial Services Authority, the City of London Corporation, and the European Commission. He also has an interest in the development of Islamic finance, on which he has recently acted as consultant on a major project on Islamic market developments around the world.

He has successfully supervised some 30 PhD students and acted as examiner for many more. His teaching work has taken place in some 20 countries, including: the United Kingdom, China, India, France, Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Spain, Argentina, Serbia, Montenegro, Russia, Thailand, Qatar, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Egypt, Libya, Kenya, South Africa, and others.

Peter Casey recently retired as Senior Director, Policy and Strategy, and Head of Islamic Finance in the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA).

Peter has been involved in standards development in Islamic finance through membership of the IFSB Technical Committee and several IFSB Working Groups, including those on Special Issues in Capital Adequacy, Governance of Takaful Operations, and Solvency Requirements for Takaful Operators. He participated in the joint IFSB-IAIS working group on takaful, and in the IOSCO working group which analysed the application of IOSCO’s Objectives and Principles of Securities Regulation to Islamic products. He has also been a member of the Islamic Finance Working Group of the Asian-Oceanian Standard-Setters Group. He has written two book chapters and numerous articles on Islamic finance topics.

Before joining the DFSA in 2002, Peter was Head of the Non-Life Insurance Department of the UK Financial Services Authority. Before that, he held senior regulatory posts in the Treasury, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Office of Fair Trading. He has wide experience of UK Government, having also served in the Cabinet Office and Science Research Council, and having worked in areas ranging from export promotion to the creation of computer misuse legislation.

He was educated at Cambridge University.

Brandon Davies is Non-Executive Chairman of Premier European Capital Limited, a private equity company; he is also the CEO of dRisk.biz, a company he founded, and Senior Independent Non-Executive Director (SINED) of Gatehouse Bank plc. (an Islamic Bank in London), where he has helped to establish the “Gatehouse Thought Leadership Programme.” He has worked with institutions, most notably in Malaysia, London, and Kuwait to build on this role.

Brandon holds a degree in economics from University College London. He is a member of the Financial Markets Group at the London School of Economics (LSE), lectures extensively on subjects in banking and risk management, and has written numerous papers and articles on these subjects for organisations such as the ACCA, Cass Business School, Central Banking, the LSE, Lombard Street Research, and the Financial Times.

Until December 2009, Brandon was Managing Director of the Global Association of Risk Professionals Risk Academy. In that capacity Brandon produced five books on Basel II and risk management, governance, supervision, and enterprise risk management. These books form the basis of certification programs in both banks and central banks in China and Indonesia.

Brandon has over 40 years of work experience in the banking sector; his positions included Head of Retail Market Risk and Treasurer of the retail businesses of Barclays Bank, and he was also a member of the bank’s executive committee. Prior to this appointment he was Managing Director of Financial Engineering at BZW and later of Structured Products at BZW and Barclays Capital. Brandon retired from Barclays in March 2004 after 32 years with the bank.

Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo of Malfa Inc. (www.malfainc.com) is a scholar of Islamic transactional law whose 30-year career has been noted in the Financial Times, the New York Times, Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, the Middle East Banker, and others. Based in Florida, he serves as a Shari’ah advisor to international financial entities, including index providers, institutional investors, mutual funds, hedge funds, real estate funds, private equity funds, home finance providers, and investment banks. Shaykh Yusuf is the author of the three-volume Compendium of Legal Opinions on the Operations of Islamic Banks, the first English/Arabic reference on the fatawa issued by Shari’ah boards. In addition, he wrote the introduction to Islamic Bonds, the 2003 book that introduced sukuk and transformed the world’s Islamic capital markets. His work has appeared in journals and newsletters and as chapters in books, including Islamic Asset Management (Euromoney Books, 2004), Islamic Retail Finance (Euromoney Books, 2005), and Islamic Finance: Innovation & Growth (Euromoney Books, 2002). His entries on the terminology of Islamic finance appear in The Oxford Dictionary of Islam.

Baljeet Kaur Grewal is the Managing Director and Vice Chairman at KFH Research Limited (KFHR), the investment research subsidiary of Kuwait Finance House. In her capacity, Baljeet heads the Global Economic and Investment Research and Advisory teams at KFHR, the first Islamic bank worldwide to have a notable research presence in Islamic finance.

Prior to this, Baljeet was the head of Investment Banking Research at Maybank Group, Malaysia. Prior to that, she was attached with ABN AMRO Bank and Deutsche Bank, London, with experience ranging from credit structuring, loan syndication, and economic and capital market research. She has broad experience in investment banking, having participated in notable Islamic fund raising transactions in Asia and the Middle East; as well as in strategic planning and execution of investment banking organisational change. To date, she has undertaken research in Islamic finance with a principle focus on debt capital markets and sukuk in emerging markets. She has written and published numerous articles and papers on developing economies and debt markets, Islamic debt structures, and South East Asian economies; and has addressed numerous international Islamic conferences and forums. Since its inception, KFH Research Limited has been awarded nine international awards of research excellence, and is widely regarded as the best Islamic finance research house globally.

Baljeet has a First Class Honours degree in international economics from the University of Hertfordshire and has undertaken extensive research in development studies with the London School of Economics.

She is also the award recipient of the prestigious Sheikh Rashid al-Makhtoum award for Regional Contribution to Islamic Finance in Asia 2006, as well as accolades honouring women in Islamic finance.

Abdullah Haron is Assistant Secretary-General of the Islamic Financial Services Board. Previously, he...