Dr Monzer Kahf has written more than 25 books in English and Arabic, on Islamic banking and finance, Islamic economics, Zakah and Awqaf, including some which have become the standard reference manuals in the field. He has had more than 70 articles and encyclopedia entries published on Islamic economics, Islamic public and private finance, Islamic banking, Zakah, Awqaf, including entries in the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World.

Dr. Kahf has undertaken scores of training programmes and served for 15 years as a Senior Research Economist, specialising in Islamic economics, finance and banking, at the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah, KSA. His training programmes, both public and private, have been conducted throughout the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe and North America.

Daud Vicary Abdullah (David Vicary), Managing Director of Hong Leong Islamic Bank, can indeed be considered a globe-trotter – His work experience has taken him to some 32 major countries in Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Latin America.

Daud has developed an extensive international experience in the field of banking operations and consulting, having assisted banks in their restructuring for greater efficiency, cost control, and to better meet customer expectations. His areas of expertise include enterprise transformation, technology implementation, process control, treasury-back office operations and change management including Islamic finance. Since December 2003, he has been an Auditing and Accounting Committee Board Member of AAOIFI (Auditing and Accounting Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions). Daud is a well known Islamic finance speaker in IFSB and global Islamic banking seminars, particularly on matters relating to the growth and development of the industry.

While in his last position as the Director, Financial Services of an international consulting firm, Daud was involved in developing an Islamic Finance model for a conventional financial institution in Malaysia, and reviewing the operational execution of a Malaysian Islamic Financial Institutions Enterprise Transformation strategy and making recommendations to increase operational effectiveness, among others.

Today, at the helm of Hong Leong Islamic Bank, Daud brings his vast knowledge and experience to help make the bank a player to be reckoned with in Malaysia 's fast-growing Islamic Financing arena.

He has recently co-authored a book titled the “Law & Practice of Islamic Banking & Finance” that is published by one of the world's leading publishers of legal materials, Sweet & Maxwell. It is one of the few works available that deals with the legal aspects of the Islamic banking and finance system in practice.

He was involved in his personal capacity in the Islamic Securities Consultative Committee set up by the Malaysian Securities Commission to formulate the new Islamic Securities Guidelines, which was launched in 2004. He also sits on various other industry committees in Malaysia , amongst them are –

Stevens and Clark Ltd, based in London and responsible for international product development in Europe and Japan . From January 1989 until May 1998 Mr Jaffer worked in Citibank London. He was with the Financial Institutions Group until 1996 and later was Director within Citibank's Alternative Investment Strategies Group, which formed part of Citibank Global Asset Management. His responsibilities included international business and product development, designing structured fund products linked to a broad spectrum of alternative investments, and the sales and marketing of a wide range of Alternative Investment Funds to institutional investors in Europe and the Middle East region. He is a UK qualified accountant (FCCA) and was an Audit Partner with Pricewaterhouse. A Council Member of the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) for the Benelux region and he was also Chairman of AIMA for two consecutive terms from 1997 to 2000. He is also an active member of AIMA's Investment Research Committee. He has written extensively on alternative investments throughout the financial media, edited ‘Alternative Investment Strategies', “Funds of Hedge Funds” for professional investors and managers and contributed a chapter to ‘Evaluating and Implementing Hedge Fund Strategies' (second edition), all published by Euromoney books. Recently he also edited a new Euromoney publication on”Islamic Asset Management”.

Sohail is a member of ALFI's Asset Management Advisory Committee and of ALFI's Hedge Fund Committee. ALFI is the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry.

Abdulkader has worked in Bahrain , New York , London and Los Angeles . His areas of activity have included trade finance, real estate finance, securities, and Islamic finance at Citibank, Credit Lyonnais, Sumitomo Bank, Ltd., The United Bank of Kuwait , and MEF Money/Guidance Financial Group. Abdulkader is responsible for shepherding the first US banking regulatory approvals of Islamic financial instruments for ijara wa iqtina and murabaha . More recently Abdulkader secured regulatory approval for an Islamic profit sharing deposit to be applied in the US . Abdulkader also structured the first REIT of REITs structured to allow Muslims to invest in listed US REITs whilst complying with Sharia'a . Abdulkader has also been involved in the structuring of inbound foreign investment for both the US and the UK . Abdulkader has included supervising marketing and consumer demographics in conjunction with new business launches.

Abdulkader is a frequent speaker on Islamic financial and banking matters. He is the author of several works in the field including Islamic Bonds: Your Guide to Issuing, Structuring and Investing in Sukuk with Nathif Adam (London : Euromoney, 2004). Forthcoming books include Structuring Islamic Financial Transactions (contracted with Euromoney for early 2006) and Interest in Islamic Economics: Understanding Riba (contracted with Taylor & Francis – Routledge for early 2006).

Paul WOUTERS has 20 years of practice as a lawyer – consultant in financial services, stock exchange regulations and contracts, both on the institutional level (setting up financial institutions, regulatory counselling), related “white collar criminality” (money laundering, insider dealing), drafting and negociation of contracts and syndications, as well as on internal structuring (governance, compliance).

He has been speaker or pannellist on several (inter)national conferences and is author of various published articles in related areas BENER LAW OFFICE carries high standards and credentials on (inter)national consulting, impact assessment and guidance on cross-border restructuring and has been involved in turnkey projects, engineering, project finance, international mergers &  acquisitions, due diligence related to Banking and Financial sector, Telecom, Energy and Media sectors, industries (gas, cement, textile & yarn, power plants), manufacturing and service providers.  They have successfully assisted construction tendering, national and international privatization procedures.