Abrar Hussain: Partner / Adjunct Professor (Kirkland & Ellis LLP, San Francisco/Berkeley Law)
Abrar Hussain is a corporate partner in Kirkland & Ellis LLP’s San Francisco office and adjunct faculty at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. His practice focuses on assisting clients in their cross-border transactional needs in emerging markets, particularly in India and the Middle East. He also has significant experience assisting investment funds in their fund structuring and emerging markets transactions. Abrar’s practice has consistently been rated one of the top U.S. / India cross-border practices and he has represented some of the world’s largest multinationals and investment funds in their emerging market transactions including Apollo Management, Soros Fund Management, the Carlyle Group, New Enterprise Associates and the Hinduja Group.
Arshad Ahmad: Partner (Kirkland & Ellis LLP, San Francisco / Berkeley Law)
Arshad A. Ahmed is a partner in the corporate practice area of the firm’s San Francisco office. Arshad concentrates his practice on private equity and private company activities, and he has substantial experience in mergers & acquisitions, buy-outs, divestitures, equity investments, corporate governance & counseling, and all aspects of private company representation, including commercial contracts. Arshad has significant experience in technology transactions, as well as transactions with international or cross-border features, and he has special interest in transactions involving India and the Indian Rim. In addition, Arshad is also recognized as a leading national authority in
Shariah-related investing and Islamic banking and finance, in which regard he serves as adjunct faculty at UC Berkeley School of Law teaching Islamic finance and has spoken widely on matters pertaining to the application of Shari’ah law in contemporary transactions.
Monem Salam: Director of Islamic Investing and Deputy Portfolio Manager, Saturna Capital (Amana Mutual Funds Trust, Bellingham, WA)
Monem Salam, Director and Vice President of Islamic Investing and Amana’s deputy portfolio manager, was born in Pakistan in 1972. Raised in Texas, Mr. Salam received his degrees from the University of Texas: BA (Austin) and MBA (Dallas). He worked as Chief Investment Officer for ITG & Associates (Dallas) until 1999, then as a representative with Morgan Stanley (suburban Dallas) until joining Saturna Capital in June 2003. Monem manages many of Saturna’s Islamic private accounts. Mr. Salam is active with the Muslim community in North America and chairman of Peaceful Communications, a non-profit supporting documentaries about Muslims in America. Mr. Salam speaks at Islamic finance/investment conferences worldwide, and in U.S. Islamic communities about spirituality, Sharia, and Islamic investing. He is a the co-author of A Muslim’s Guide to Investing and Personal Finance and contributes articles to leading Islamic Finance magazines. Mr. Salam is a licensed private pilot, an achievement that is the subject of a PBS documentary.
Shaikh Muddassir Siddiqui: Partner (SNR Denton LLP, Dubai)
Shaikh Muddassir Siddiqui is uniquely qualified both as a Shari’ah scholar and as a US-trained attorney. Shaikh Siddiqui is a partner in the Dubai office of SNR Denton and Head, Islamic Finance – Middles East. He studied the Shari’ah at the Islamic University of al-Madinah al-Munawwarah in Saudi Arabia and law at the University of London, Temple Law Centre in Philadelphia, Harvard Law School and Chicago Kent College of Law. Shaikh Muddassir is a member of the Shari’ah Standards Committee of the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI). He is also a member of the New York Bar. He served as Internal Shari’ah Supervisor and Shari’ah coordinator of the Islamic Development Bank, Jeddah.He has extensive experience in advising on transactions involving Shari’ah-compliant financing.
Andrew Metcalf: Partner (King & Spalding LLP, NY)
Andrew Metcalf is a partner in the Middle East & Islamic Finance Practice Group in King & Spalding’s New York office. A graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, Mr. Metcalf joined King & Spalding after being in corporate practice in Cairo, Egypt for 2½ years. Over the past twelve years, he has represented a number of clients in Shari’ah-compliant finance and investment transactions, including corporate acquisitions, real estate transactions, working capital financing, structured and subordination financings, and letter of credit/guaranty facilities. He has also represented financial institutions and customers of financial institutions in connection with domestic and international finance transactions including secured and unsecured credit facilities, asset-based loan facilities, structured financings, project financings, bridge financings and other acquisition credits, participations and syndications, subordinated debt facilities, letter of credit facilities and other credit-related transactions.
Umar Moghul: Partner (Murtha Cullina LLP, Hatford, CT)
Umar F. Moghul practices in the realm of banking & finance, private equity and real estate. Mr. Moghul has represented an array of financial institutions, businesses, joint ventures and high net worth individuals (many of which operate per Islamic principles), in a variety of cutting-edge financing and investment transactions. His legal practice also encompasses counseling financial institutions with respect to their obligations under the USA Patriot Act. In the realm of real estate, Mr. Moghul’s practice has included the establishment of real estate investment funds (both onshore and offshore), joint ventures and one-off financing transactions; novel Islamic warehouse and table funding financing transactions; and the design and documentation of novel Islamic residential and commercial financing products. Mr. Moghul’s corporate and private equity practice includes the establishment of a variety of onshore and offshore investment fund structures and advising on leveraged buyouts and growth equity transactions with targets in the services, healthcare, technology and energy sectors. Mr. Moghul has published several articles and has spoken at numerous forums regarding Islamic law and Islamic finance. He is a lecturer in law at the University of Connecticut School of Law where he teaches Islamic law. Mr. Moghul earned his J.D. from Temple University and his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.
Fawzy Ismail: Vice-President (Ameen Co-Operative Housing of California
Fawzy Ismail graduated from the University of Cairo’s Law school in Egypt. He also started and managed his own construction company from 1970 to 1980 parallel to his Law practice from 1974 to 1980. Mr. Ismail also started another construction company in San Jose, California in 1985 and became the CEO of Mabany Construction Systems until 1999, and is the current CEO
of Victor the Contractor Incorporation. Fawzy Ismail has been involved in the San Francisco Bay Area’s Islamic community and in constructing the MCA’s (Muslim Community Association) Mosque and community center in 1994. Mr. Ismail has been the Vice-President of Ameen Housing in the Bay Area since 2006 and has been a Chairman of the MCA’s Zakat Committee since 2007. He is father of 5 and currently resides in the South Bay Area with his wife and children.
Amr El-Husseini: Executive Manager – Head of Strategic Investments (QIB Capital & International Business, Doha, Qatar)
Amr has about 10 years of banking and consulting experience, with the last six years of his professional career focusing on Islamic Finance. He joined QIB’s Investment Banking and Development Group in early 2008 and currently holds the position of Executive Manager – Head of Strategic Investments, looking after the development and implementation of the bank’s international operations and expansion strategy covering Europe, the Middle East (including GCC), North Africa, Central Asia and Southeast Asia. Prior to joining QIB, Amr worked as Project Manager with Path-Solutions, where he led various consulting projects for regional and international Islamic banks, working on the conversion of a conventional bank into Islamic, the development of cross border expansion initiatives, the development and structuring of Sharia compliant products (treasury, corporate and retail), and the setup of profit calculation, retail, corporate, investment banking and fund management systems. Earlier in his career, Amr assumed various banking and advisory roles at Fransabank, HSBC, Ernst & Young and Audi Bank. Amr is a Certified Islamic Professional Accountant (CIPA) by AAOIFI. He holds a bachelor degree in Finance and Accounting and is currently in the final stages of completing an MBA at the University of Wales and working on his thesis titled “Internationalization of Islamic Banks”.
Michael J.T. McMillen: Founder of the Islamic Finance Section of the ABA
Michael McMillen has worked in the Islamic finance fields since 1996, living in Saudi Arabia from 1996-2000 and Dubai from 2009-2010. Michael was the founding chair and a subsequent chair of the Islamic Finance Section of the American Bar Association. He teaches Islamic finance at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the Wharton School of Business (adjunct professor). He has twice been a recipient of the Euromoney award to Best Islamic Finance Law Firm Globally, and helped found the King & Spalding Islamic finance practice (from 2000 until 2006). Michael also has been active in medical – legal matters, particularly ethics matters (having an MD degree as well as JD).
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Amjad Quadri: Vice Preseident of Business Development and New Markets (University Bank, Ann Arbor, MI)
Amjad M. Quadri is currently the Vice President of Business Development and New Markets at University Islamic Financial. Before moving into his current role at University Islamic Financial Corp., Mr. Quadri helped form advisory councils of local imams and community leaders in three states and started two new offices, the latter which he currently supervises. Mr. Quadri graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree from the college of Business in Information Decision Sciences. Before entering the world of Islamic finance, he worked in the information technology industry. He worked on Y2K conversion projects for several large corporations, including IBM, McKinsey & Company, and CNA. He then spent three years as a release engineer/project manager for Cyborg Systems, now owned by Hewitt Associates. Amjad’s first foray into Islamic finance was as a field sales consultant for Guidance Financial Group. In his spare time, among other things, he has served as Vice President of one of the largest Mosques in the US.
Blake Goud: Pincipal, Sharing Risk (Portland, OR)
Mr. Goud has five years experience writing about Islamic finance and is Chief Compliance Officer at Marquam Capital, a registered investment adviser, Marquam Capital and registered representative at HP Securities, a FINRA-member broker dealer. Mr. Goud graduated from Reed College with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics in 2003. While at Reed College, Mr. Goud interned at the Oregon Center for Public Policy (OCPP), a non-profit, non-partisan think tank before heading to Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland for his junior year. His thesis at Reed, based on a paper written at Trinity, is an empirical study of firm performance in post-Communist economies. Mr. Goud has been involved in volunteer work in El Salvador and South Carolina as well as having completed the Washington, DC AIDS Ride twice, where he raised money to help people in the Washington area living with HIV/AIDS. Mr Goud also runs a popular Islamic Finance blog and covers the Americas for The Islamic Globe. He presented a paper on a murabaha and musharaka based microfinance model at the 8th Havard University Forum on Islamic Finance in April 2008.
Dr Karen Hunt-Ahmed: Assistant Professor, Department of Finance at DePaul University (Chicago, IL)
Karen Hunt Ahmed is president of the Chicago Islamic Microfinance Project, an economic development project started with partners Cynthia Shawamreh and Tariq Malhance. She also is an assistant professor of finance and management at DePaul University. Before receiving her doctorate from the University of Chicago, she worked in the banking sector in Chicago and for Shuaa Capital in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Her research interests include Islamic finance, globalization, moral beliefs and business practice, ethical investing and the sociocultural implications of business practice. Hunt Ahmed lived in Dubai for many years and traveled extensively in the Middle East, Pakistan, Africa, and Europe. Mother of two daughters, her interests include karate and playing squash.
Prof. Ibrahim Warde: Professor of International Business at the Fletcher School of International Affairs (Tufts University, Medford, MA)
Ibrahim Warde is Adjunct Professor of International Business at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and the Associate Director of Business Programs at the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies at Tufts University. He was named a Carnegie Scholar in 2007, in relation to his research on financial networks and practices in the Islamic world. He is also a course director for Euromoney Institutional Investor, London and a consultant specializing in global finance. He has taught at the University of California (Berkeley, Davis, and Santa Cruz), as well as at Saint Mary’s College, California. Warde completed his B.A. at Université Saint Joseph in Beirut, Lebanon, his business degree from Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC), France, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. Warde’s books include Islamic Finance in the Global Economy, 2nd ed. (2010), The Price of Fear: The Truth Behind the Financial War on Terror (2007), Le modèle.
Prof. Haider Ala Hamoudi: Associate Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law (Pittsburgh, PA)
Professor Hamoudi received his B.Sc. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993, with a double major in Physics and Humanities with a Near Eastern Studies Concentration. He was both a member of the Physics Honor Society, Sigma Pi Sigma, and a Burchard Scholar for Excellence in the Humanities and Social Sciences. In 1996, Professor Hamoudi received his J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. After graduating, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Constance Baker Motley in the Southern District of New York and then worked as an Associate at the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton until 2003. In 2003 and 2004, Professor Hamoudi served as a legal advisor to the Finance Committee of the Iraq Governing Council, as well as a Program Manager for a project managed by the International Human Rights Law Institute of DePaul University School of Law to improve legal education in Iraq. Haider Ala Hamoudi’s scholarship focuses on Middle Eastern and Islamic Law, particularly, but not exclusively, as it pertains to matters of commerce. He has called for a reassessment of the manner in which law in the Muslim world is understood and approached, with less reliance on medieval texts and more emphasis on the positive law of the nation states of the Muslim world and on the political, social, economic and ideological influences that influence its interpretation. He has written for numerous law reviews, spoken at conferences sponsored by the MacMillan Center at Yale University, the American Association of Law Schools and the New York City Bar Association, and given interviews to various news organizations including The New York Times, Forbes.com, Slate.com, the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour Online and the New York Law Journal. In 2009, Professor Hamoudi was awarded the Hessel Yntema prize, awarded by the American Society of Comparative Law for the best article produced in the American Journal of Comparative Law the previous year by an author under the age of 40. Professor Hamoudi spent most of 2009 in Baghdad advising the Constitutional Review Committee of the Iraqi legislature, responsible for developing critical amendments to the Iraq Constitution deemed necessary for Iraqi national reconciliation, on behalf of the United States Embassy in Baghdad. He also advised on other key pieces of legislation, including a hydrocarbons law, a revenue management law, and an antitrust law. From this work, and from extensive contemporaneous research into the records and legislative history of the drafting of the Iraqi Constitution in 2005, Professor Hamoudi has been spending most of his time preparing a book on the drafting and subsequent evolution of the Iraq Constitution, to be published with the University of Chicago Press. Professor Hamoudi is also the author of a blog on Islamic Law entitled Islamic Law in Our Times.
Greg Cavanagh: Counsel & Assistant Vice-President (Federal Reserve Bank of NY, NY)
Greg Cavanagh is counsel and assistant vice president for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. His principal responsibility is to support the bank’s financial services and technology services groups, as well as the Wholesale Product Office of the Federal Reserve System. Mr. Cavanagh received his B.A. in 1996 from the University of Minnesota, where he majored in international relations, and his J.D. in 2003 from the Columbia University School of Law. He was admitted to the New York bar in 2004. Mr. Cavanagh joined the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as an attorney in October 2004. Before coming to the bank, Mr. Cavanagh was an associate at White & Case LLP in New York, where he worked in the firm’s banking and securities practices. Prior to law school, he worked in the mortgage-banking division of a large superregional bank in Minneapolis and as a risk management analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Mr. Cavanagh has attended a number of conferences on Islamic finance, both in the United States and abroad, and has followed developments in the field since 2005.
Babback Sabahi: Attorney-Advisor / Adjunct Professor (Office of International Affairs, SEC/Georgetown University, Washington D.C)
LL.B., University of Tehran School of Law; Master of Laws in Public International Law, with distinction, Shahid Beheshti University Law School; J.D., Boston University; LL.M., University of Pennsylvania. Professor Sabahi serves as Attorney-Advisor in the Office of International Affairs in the Securities and Exchange Commission. Prior to that, Professor Sabahi was an Associate at Mayer Brown LLP where he focused on Financial Institutions Regulation and Islamic Finance. He has also served as a Legal Consultant in the Legal Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as an External Legal Consultant for the World Bank, and as Junior Counsel in the Bureau of International Legal Services in Tehran, Iran.
Senator Kevin Parker: NY State Senator (21st Senate District, NY)
State Senator Kevin S. Parker is committed to restoring the overall quality of life for the constituents of the 21st Senatorial District in Brooklyn. A lifelong Brooklyn resident, Senator Parker has been a Flatbush resident for more than 31 years. Having been nurtured, schooled and employed in the district, Senator Parker is intimately familiar with the needs of this ethnically diverse community that consists of 311,000 constituents in several communities which include: Flatbush, East Flatbush, Midwood, Ditmas Park, Kensington and Borough Park. A product of the New York City Public School system, Senator Parker attended P.S. 193, Andries Hudde I.S. 240 and Midwood High School. Elected to the New York State Senate in 2002, Senator Parker’s professional background reflects a wide range of public service and commitment to a better New York. As the Special Assistant to former New York State Comptroller H. Carl McCall, Senator Parker managed intergovernmental relations in New York City and was the liaison between the Comptroller and city, state and federal elected officials. Before taking office, Senator Parker was a New York City Urban Fellow and also served as a Special Assistant to former Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger; Legislative Aide to former New York City Councilmember Una Clarke and Special Assistant to Assemblyman Nick Perry. As Project Manager with the New York State Urban Development Corporation, Senator Parker financed minority-and women-owned businesses and promoted community business redevelopment. Senator Parker worked at UBS PaineWebber on government affairs issues in the Chairman’s office working on broad issues of importance to the financial service industry. In his first term in office he was selected as a prestigious fellow, a program that trains emerging state legislators from across the 50 states. In 2005, he participated in an intensive government course work with elected and other professionals of various fields from around the country at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He was one of 40 emerging state leaders from across the country to receive a Toll Fellowship from the Council of State Government. Senator Parker also currently sits on the New York State Blood Center Advisory Board. For the 2010/11 legislative term, his committee assignments include: Energy & Telecom; Codes; Environmental Conservation; Finance; Higher Education; Insurance; Rules; New American Task Force. Senator Parker has also been appointed as Parliamentarian to the NY State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, Incorporated, and most recently was appointed as the Democratic lead of the Joint Budget Committee on Environment, Agriculture and Housing. Senator Parker’s commitment to his community is reflected in his leadership in civic organizations. He formed the New York Ready Emergency Preparedness Unit alongside other leaders within the community. He is the former 2nd Vice Chairman of the Board and chairperson of Community Board 17’s Education Committee; a member of the Community Service Society’s Associates program and the Children’s Defense Fund’s Community Crusade for Children. Most recently, Senator Parker was a member of the Coro Foundation’s Leadership New York XI class where he examined public policy, budget and infrastructure, race relations, education and health care issues. His commitment to education has taken Senator Parker into the classroom as a professor of both African-American Studies and Political Science at several colleges including: Baruch College – CUNY, SUNY-Old Westbury, John Jay College-CUNY, Medgar Evers College – CUNY, City College and Long Island University Brooklyn Campus. Overall, Senator Parker has done most of his teaching at Brooklyn College – CUNY, where he also was a faculty advisor to student organizations and activities. Senator Parker is currently an adjunct professor at Brooklyn College’s Center for Worker Education. At Penn State where he received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Public Service, Senator Parker organized students to fight racism and encourage diversity at the University. He holds a Master’s of Science Degree from the New School for Social Research Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, and currently is pursuing a doctoral degree in Political Science at the CUNY’s Graduate School and University Center. He is also a member of the Alpha Chapter of the Pi Eta Honor Society. As a representative of the people, Senator Parker is committed to working with all communities in his district to realize his ultimate aim of ensuring adequate representation for all New Yorkers.
Dr Azeemuddin Subhani: Shariah Compliance Advisor at Islamic Finance Advisory Board & Professor of Islamic Finance at Ajman University of Science & Technology (Mississauga, ON , Canada/ Ajman, UAE).
Dr. Azeemuddin Subhani currently functions as a Canadian Independent Financial Shari‘ah Advisor, with several professional affiliations, Shari’ah-compliance consulting assignments (frontier Alt), speaking engagements at international Islamic Finance conferences (Toronto 2007, IIR Dubai 2008, and Harvard 2008) and visiting teaching positions in Islamic Studies including Shari’ah at Canadian universities (Waterloo). His language proficiency includes Arabic and he is currently pursuing the prestigious new professional qualification of “Certified Shari‘a Adviser and Auditor” (CSAA) from the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) – the global standard-setting body on Islamic finance products and practices, thus positioning to be the first AAOIFI-certified Shari’a-compliance advisor and auditor in Canada. Dr. Subhani has the unique distinction of being well versed in Islamic Law as well as in both Western and Islamic Finance, through advanced degrees and long, varied experience. He holds a PhD and an MA in Islamic Law/Islamic Finance (Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University: 2007, 2001), an MBA and Doctoral Studies in Finance (University of Southern California, 1965), and an MBA in Accounting (IBA Karachi, 1963). His PhD dissertation, “Divine Law of Riba [usury] and Bay‘ [exchange]: New Critical Theory,” has officially been recognized by McGill as a “seminal theorization on an important institution of Islamic law,” as it posits a pioneering interpretation of the rationale of the foundational prohibition of riba, with far-reaching conceptual and practical structural implications for the standardization of the emerging Islamic Finance industry. He brings over four decades professional experience from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Canada, covering financial Shari‘a consulting in personal/housing finance, mutual funds, hedge funds, and sukuk; university teaching/research; investment banking; project / infrastructure / corporate / government finance; and petro-chemical / oil / gas financial advisory work, including 25 years as Financial Advisor to the Saudi Arabian Government on negotiation and implementation of a variety of ARAMCO and PETROMIN oil & gas agreements (including Concession, Government Participation, Nationalization, Exploration, Production, Pipeline, Refining, Infrastructure, Export, Net-back Pricing, Management Service, Processing, and Petroleum Exchange). His extensive written work on Petroleum Finance and Islamic Finance, including his PhD dissertation, is currently under publication.
Dr. Mehmet Asutay: Senior Lecturer in Political Economy, School of Government & International Affairs, Durham University (Durham, UK)
Dr Asutay is a Senior Lecturer in Political Economy (special reference to Middle East and Islamic Political Economy and Finance) at the School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University.
He teaches and supervises masters and doctoral research on various aspects of Islamic economics, banking and finance; economies of the Middle East and the Muslim countries; and political economy and economic development related subjects. Dr Asutay teaches on the same subjects in various universities in the UK and France. He is also the co-director of the Durham Islamic Finance Programme; and the Course Director of the MA/MSc in Islamic Finance; and the Director of the Durham Islamic Finance Summer School.
Dr Asutay is the Managing Editor of Review of Islamic Economics, leading academic journal in the field; Associate Editor of the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences; and in the international editorial board of Borneo Journal of Business and Economics. His articles on Islamic moral economy, and Islamic banking and finance; Middle East economies; and Turkish political economy have appeared in various journals; his book on political economy of Turkey; and a number of edited volumes in Islamic economics and finance are all expected to appear later in 2011 and 2012.
Maghsoud Imani Markid: PhD Candidate, King’s College, London, UK / LL.M Candidate, UC Berkeley, California
Maghsoud completed both his Bachelor of Law & Islamic Studies, and Master’s Degree in Private Law, at Imam Sadiq University (Tehran, Iran). Following his Masters Degree in Iran he then completed his course work requirement for his PhD in Private Law at the University of Tehran. Maghsoud, subsequently, succesfully competed for the first ever full scholarship offered by the Central Bank of Iran, to study for a PhD and LLM in both the US and UK. Having been admitted in 2008, Maghsoud is working on his PhD at King’s College London, under the supervision of Professor Jan Dalhuisen, whilst currently being enrolled in the LL.M program at UC Berkeley (where he is focusing primarily on financial and economic orientated laws). In his PhD thesis Maghsoud is particularly interested in how Shariah finance compares to ‘secular’ conventional banking & capital markets, and whether the Islamic finance industry can make a contribution to international financial stability. To do this, he is focusing on financial products and risk management – particularly systemic risk.
Kabir Hassan: Assistant Professor, Department of Economics & Finance, University of New Orleans, Louisana
Dr. M. Kabir Hassan is a financial economist with consulting, research and teaching experiences in development finance, money and capital markets, Islamic finance, corporate finance, investments, monetary economics, macroeconomics and international trade and finance. He provided consulting services to the World Bank (WB), International Monetary Fund (IMF), Islamic Development Bank (IDB), African Development Bank (AfDB), USAID, Government of Bangladesh, Organization of Islamic Conferences (OIC), Federal Reserve Bank, USA, and many corporations, private organizations and universities around the world. Dr. Hassan received his BA in Economics and Mathematics from Gustavus Adolphus College, Minnesota, USA, and M.A. in Economics and Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA respectively. He is now a Professor in the Department of Economics and Finance at the University of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Dr. Hassan supervised 30 doctoral theses, and many of his students are now well placed in the academia, government and private sectors. He is editor of The Global Journal of Finance and Economics (The Serials Publication, India), Journal of Islamic Economics, Banking and Finance (Islamic Bank Bangladesh Limited, Bangladesh), and International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management (an Emerald Journal, UK) and Co-Editor of Journal of Economic Cooperation and Development (SESRIC, Turkey). Dr. Hassan has edited and published many books along with articles in refereed academic journals. Dr. Hassan is co-editor (with M.K. Lewis) ofHandbook of Islamic Banking and Islamic Finance, The International Library of Critical Writings in Economics (Edward Elgar, 2007), and co-editor (with Michael Mahlknecht) Islamic Capital Market: Products and Strategies (John Wiley and Sons, 2011). He is co-author Islamic Entrepreneurship (Routledge UK, 2010). Together with Dr. Rasem N. Kayed and Umer Oseni, Dr. Hassan is currently working on a textbook development project on Islamic Finance to be published by Pearson. A frequent traveller, Dr. Hassan gives lectures and workshops in the US and abroad, and has presented over 150 research papers at professional conferences.