Dr. Syed Nazim Ali
Director of the Research Division and Director of the Center for Islamic Economics and Finance (CIEF) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU)
Dr. Syed Nazim Ali is the director of the Research Division and director of the Center for Islamic Economics and Finance (CIEF) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU). Most of his work focuses on social financing, Islamic finance, and Islamic information systems.
Dr. Ali has spent the last 30 years spearheading interdisciplinary research in Islamic finance and faith-based initiatives in finance as well as community development. He was formerly the Founding Director of the Islamic Finance Project at Harvard University and Acting Executive Director of the Islamic Legal Studies program at Harvard Law School.
Some of Dr. Ali’s most significant contributions to the field have been the I-BIR Databank, the Islamic Finance Workshop at London School of Economics (2007–2017) and SOAS University of London (2018–present), and the biennial Harvard University Forum on Islamic Finance (1997–present), the proceedings of which are published under his editorship.
Dr. Ali has previously been actively involved with the US Treasury, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, US Department of the Treasury, and central banks in other countries, working to improve understanding and combat misconceptions about the Islamic finance industry.
Dr. Ali holds a PhD in information sciences from the University of Strathclyde, Scotland.