(First Holder of INCEIF Chair of Islamic Finance, INCEIF, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) Mirkahor received his Ph.D. in Economics from Kansas State University in 1969. After teaching at various universities in the United States and in Iran he joined the staff of the Research Department of the IMF in 1984. He became an Executive Director of the IMF from 1990 until his retirement in 2008. He represented the countries of Afghanistan, Algeria, Ghana, Islamic Republic of Iran, Morocco, Pakistan, and Tunisia at the IMF.