(Independent Financial Researcher, Dubai, United Arab Emirates) Upon completing her undergraduate studies in the area of Banking and Finance, Zhamal worked as an analyst and practitioner in the field of project management in the Kyrgyz Project Promotion Agency. Her role was to help clients structure their project proposals in order to receive the funding. In June 2010, Zhamal had successfully completed her MSc in Finance and Banking with a specialization in Risk Management from the British University in Dubai, a program which was administered in association with the CASS Business School.

(Doctoral Candidate, University of Melbourne, Australia) Muhammad Adli holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) from University College London. During his time in London, he traveled to Cairo to study Arabic. Upon his return to Malaysia, he decided to switch to his academic focus to Islamic Studies and obtained a Masters in Islamic Revealed Knowledge (Quran and Sunnah Studies) from the International Islamic University Malaysia, where he produced a dissertation titled Business Ethics in the Light of the Sunnah.

(Global Head of Islamic Finance, KPMG, Dubai, United Arab Emirates) Neil D. Miller is a partner and Global Head of Islamic Finance at KPMG. Prior to this he was Global Head of Islamic Finance at Norton Rose LLP. He has been actively involved in the Islamic finance industry for over seventeen years and is a regular speaker and writer on Islamic financial topics. Now based in Dubai, Neil is establishing the KPMG Centre of Excellence for Islamic Finance.

(Senior Manager, HSBC Amanah, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) Mannan Mansoor currently works as Senior Manager, Islamic Product Development in HSBC Amanah. He has previously been Head of Global Shariah Team of HSBC Amanah. He started his career in Islamic Banking with Al-Baraka Islamic Bank B.S.C (E.C.) and also worked for MCB’s Islamic Banking Division. Mannan’s area of expertise is structuring Islamic Banking solutions, especially for asset management, debt capital markets, treasury, and corporate finance.

(Manager, PwC Consulting, Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates) Rauf started his career as an analyst and practitioner in the field of public finance at the Ministry of Finance in Azerbaijan. Rauf's commitment was to make the government more efficient and he considers his major achievement to be his contribution towards establishing the Central Treasury’s improved relationship with multilateral donor community.

(Executive Director, Madinah Institute for Leadership & Entrepreneurship, Saudi Arabia) Mahmoud is the Senior Vice President of Organizational Development at the Savola Group as well as being the Executive Director, Madinah Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship (MILE) and being Advisor to the Minister of Labor in Saudi Arabia. He holds a Ph.D. in Decision Science and 3 Masters degree in Business Administration, Civil Engineering and Regional Sciences from University of Pennsylvania.

(Executive Director, S. S. Lootah Group, Dubai – United Arab Emirates) Saleh Saeed Lootah holds the position of Executive Director at the S.S. Lootah Group which is involved in diversified activities such engineering and construction, real estate, education, finance, health care, hospitality, food, and trading. Apart from his work in the S.S. Lootah Group, Saleh is a Member of the Executive Committee of the Dubai Economic Council, the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, the Chairman of the Audit Committee of

(Doctoral Candidate, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland) Bridget Kustin is a doctoral student of anthropology at Johns Hopkins University, where she studies theologies of money, specifically Islamic banking and finance in Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia. With the assistance of Bangladesh’s largest Islamic bank, she is currently examining Islamic micro-investment against broader questions of development, capitalism, nationalism, and notions of social justice and risk in

(Chief Executive Officer, Entrepreneurial Finance Lab at Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts) Bailey Klinger is Director and co-founder of the Entrepreneurial Finance Lab at Harvard University and a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard’s Center for International Development. His research has centered on finance, entrepreneurship, structural transformation, and private sector growth in developing countries.

(Sumitomo-FASID Professor of International Finance and Development, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge, Massachusetts) Khwaja is Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. His areas of interest include economic development, finance, education, political economy, institutions, and contract theory/mechanism design. His research combines extensive fieldwork, rigorous empirical analysis, and microeconomic theory to answer questions that are motivated by and engage with policy.