(Director, Islamic banking, International Bank of Azerbaijan, Baku, Azerbaijan) Behnam Gurbanzada was born in 1978 year in Baku, Azerbaijan. In 1999 he graduated with honors from Russian Economy Academy named after G.V. Plekhnaov and received MBA diploma in Marketing and Strategic Management from the Moscow International Business School (MIRBIS) in 2006. On January 2012 Gurbanzada started his PhD at the MIRBIS. His career started in 1999 as the accountant at the representative office of London Educational Center in Azerbaijan.

(Senior Financial Sector Specialist, The World Bank, Washington, DC) Serap Gonulal, Senior Financial Sector Specialist at The World Bank in Washington-working in the Capital Market Global Practice -Non banking Financial Institution Department in Financial and Private Sector Development. Previously she worked in Turkish Treasury in Directorate of Insurance. Serap has extensive experience in insurance, reinsurance, intermediaries, distribution channels policy issues, and legal and regulatory environment.

(Graduate Candidate, International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) Richard Gonsalves became Muslim ten years ago, at the age of 21.

(Director, Justice, Peace & Integrity of Creation, Missionary Oblates, Washington, D.C.) Rev Séamus P. Finn OMI has been a member of the Justice/Peace and Integrity of Creation Ministry team of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate since 1986 and Director since 1999. The office supports the mission of the congregation especially the JPIC dimension which has as priorities “being present where decisions affecting the lives and the futures of the poor are made” in both the public arena and the private sector.

(Associate Professor, University of Hamad Bin Khalifa, Doha, Qatar) Elsayed Elsiefy earned his Ph.D. degree in portfolio performance evaluation and selection in 2001 from University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. Dr. Elsiefy is currently an Associate Professor in the Islamic Finance Program at Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies (QFIS) and an Executive Director of the Executive & Consulting Department at the faculty.

(Assistant Professor, American University of Cairo, Egypt) Mohamed El-Komi is Assistant Professor of Economics, American University in Cairo. Prior to this, he was Lecturer (Assistant Professor) of Finance and Economics at Durham University, UK (2010 to 2012), where he was also the Deputy Director of the Center for Behavioral Economics and Finance. He was Adjunct Professor of Economics at the University of Texas-Dallas (2008-2009) and a visiting scholar at the James Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University (during 2010-2011).

(Doctoral Candidate, Sorbonne-Sorbonne Law School University Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne-France) Dorsaf Matri is a member of the Tunis Bar and currently a Doctoral Candidate at the Sorbonne Law School, University Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne (France). Her doctoral research is on the various issues surrounding the implementation of Islamic venture capital structures into the French legal framework. Prior to this, Dorsaf practiced law as a legal counsel at GE Capital, Gide Loyrette Nouel and Linklaters LLP (Paris).

(Professor, Kazakh-British Technical University, Almaty, Kazakhstan) Ken Charman is a renowned expert on the transition process in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, having started on assignments in Hungary in 1991 whilst completing his MBA at London Business School, and then living and working as a university lecturer (now professor) and professional economist in Kazakhstan, other Central Asian Republics, Eastern Europe and the Middle East since 1993.

(Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley) Ryan Calder is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. His dissertation, entitled Sacred profit: A sociology of Islamic finance, will be completed in 2014. Based on 18 months of interviews and ethnography primarily in Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, and London, it traces how the evolving concept of shari‘a-compliance has supported the growth of Islamic finance.