Sheikh Nizam Yaquby (Bahrain), Chairman

Sheikh Nizam Yaquby has been recognized by Bloomberg as “the gatekeeper to the $1 trillion market for managing Muslim wealth”.  With an advanced degree in Economics and Comparative Religion from McGill University and having authored numerous fatawa related to innovative Shariah compliant financial products, Sheikh Nizam is internationally 
acclaimed as one of the leading scholars of modern Islamic finance.
 
Sheikh Nizam serves on the Shariah Supervisory Boards of over forty financial institutions worldwide, including several key memberships on the boards of the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes and the Auditing and Accounting Organization of Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI).  He is an advisor to a number of banks and financial institutions including National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Investcorp, Gulf Finance House, Citi Islamic Investment Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, Islamic Bank of Britain and European Islamic Investment Bank.  On matters pertaining to Islamic banking and finance, in fact, The Wall Street Journal lists Sheikh Nizam as “one of Islamic finance’s foremost scholars”.
 
Having taught tafsir, hadith and fiqh in Bahrain since 1976, Sheikh Nizam continues to contribute important original research on many aspects of modern Islamic finance and is an author of several articles and publications that have been published in both English and Arabic.  He recently has participated in the development and certification of several international sukuk issues. AsiaMoney calls Sheikh Yaquby “one of the most important people in the Islamic banking industry”. In February, 2007, Sheikh Nizam won the Euromoney Award for “Outstanding Contribution to Islamic Finance”.
 
Sheikh Nizam frequently is called upon to consult with governmental and regulatory authorities on issues related to Islamic finance, and he is a regular speaker at seminars and conferences worldwide.