Executive Committee

Mrs. Hesa Abdulla Al Sada is the Executive Director of Banking Operations at the Central Bank of Bahrain, she joined in 2007 and has held several positions in the services and banking operations sector at the Central Bank.

In addition to her current position as an Executive Director at the Central Bank of Bahrain, she is currently the Chairman of the Deposit Protection and Unrestricted Investment Accounts Board. She also represents the Central Bank of Bahrain in the Payment Systems Technical Committee of the General Secretariat of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf and the Arab Committee for Payment and Settlement Systems at the Arab Monetary Fund.

Mrs. Hesa holds a bachelor’s degree in Management from Bentley University, and has been a Certified as a Financial Analyst (CFA) since 2012.

Mr. Hammad Hassan is currently the Managing Director for Bank ABC Islamic and Group Head of Islamic Banking for Bank ABC.

Mr. Hammad has over twenty three years of banking experience in Corporate & Consumer Banking, Global Transaction Services and Islamic Finance. He has been with Bank ABC Islamic since 2005. Prior to joining Bank ABC, Mr. Hammad worked for over eleven years with Citigroup and its affiliate in Saudi Arabia, Samba Financial Group. Mr. Hammad joined Citigroup in Pakistan in 1994 and moved to Samba Financial Group in 1997. In 2005, Mr. Hammad joined Bank ABC Islamic as the Head of Coverage. In his current role, he is the Global Head for Islamic Banking for ABC Group as well as the Managing Director for Bank ABC Islamic, Bahrain.

Mr. Hammad holds a Master’s degree in business administration (MBA) and B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering.

Khurram is currently the Chief Executive Officer and Head Group Islamic Products at Standard Chartered Saadiq – the Global Islamic Banking business of Standard Chartered Bank.

As a career Islamic Banker, Khurram has more than two decades of core Islamic banking experience across Consumer, Wealth Management, Private Banking, Transaction Banking and Financial Markets. He has led the development and roll out of the bank's Islamic banking proposition across SCB footprint in Asia, Africa, Middle East, Europe and North America. He has been an active contributor to the Islamic banking industry and regularly provides advice to regulators and industry bodies. Khurram is proud to have worked alongside some of the top scholars in Islamic Finance industry.

Standard Chartered Saadiq offers a wide suite of product capabilities and award-winning solutions across the corporate, institutions and consumer spectrum. Since inception the business has won over 400+ internationally recognized industry awards.

Khurram holds a master’s degree from Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Pakistan and successfully passed CFA examination from CFA Institute, Charlottesville, USA. He is currently pursuing advanced studies in classical Islamic jurisprudence.

Mr. Ali who joined the Banking industry in 1980 has gained a wide knowledge and comprehensive international experience in both Conventional and Islamic Banking that enable him to effectively manage one of the most active international branches of one of the largest and the best Bank in the Middle East.

Ali is very active and directly involved in the Islamic Banking since 1980, and has developed and structured various Sharia compliance products, financial solutions and documentations that has served the industry since 1980 and established the base for today’s Islamic Banking and Liquidity Management.

Ali is currently the General Manager of National Bank of Kuwait SAK (NBK) Kingdom of Bahrain since 1990 and his major achievements including and not limited to the restructure of NBK’s Conventional Wholesale Branch, the incorporation of the Conventional Retail Branch, the merger of both branches and the establishment of NBK’s Islamic Banking. He is currently managing an asset over BHD2 billion that generating revenue of 150 million with an operation and activity that covering the MENA region. During the last 20 years, he is directly involved in the Group strategic expansion and remarkably contributed to the Group’s performance.

Ali has graduated from the University of Bahrain, attended various courses and seminars in different worldwide Universities and Institutions that has substantially enhanced his knowledge and widened his experience to become a multi task professional who is familiar with International Banking Practices and Regulatory Framework.

Mr. Ijlal Ahmed Alvi has wide-ranging experience in financial services industry with regional and international financial institutions including IIFM spanning over three decades.

As the Chief Executive Officer of the International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) for the last 18 years, Mr. Alvi has been devoted to the goal of bringing about unification and harmonization in the Islamic finance industry globally and has overseen the development and publication of universal Shari’ah-compliant financial documentation and product confirmation standards as well as related guidance notes.

In addition to his responsibilities as the CEO, Secretary to the Board and spokesperson of IIFM, Mr. Alvi also manages IIFM’s comprehensive standards development process and leads the project specific market consultation exercise, global working groups, legal documentation drafting process and is actively involved in IIFM Shari’ah Board’s guidance and approval process.

He also supervises IIFM’s industry awareness seminars, training workshops as well as the publication of white papers and IIFM’s flagship annual Sukuk Report.

Mr. Alvi has been influential in IIFM collaborating with various international standard-setting bodies and trade associations. Some of these collaborations have resulted in the development and publication of a number of joint standards.

Mr. Alvi has also been part of a number of international steering committees, task-forces and working groups of various multilateral development organizations focused on the advancement of the Islamic finance industry globally.

He is a regular speaker at international conferences and also contributes articles in various international and Islamic finance publications.