Dr Ziyaad is an Islamic Scholar and has performed the role of Shari’ah Advisor for Islamic finance and asset management since 1998. He served as the National Marketing and Product Development Head for Albaraka Bank in South Africa between 2003 and 2006, developing an array of products on both the financing and investment sides including banca-takaful, whilst coordinating for the second largest Shari’ah Compliant Unit Trust in South Africa. He presently serves as Associate Dean and Director of E-Learning & Executive Education, and Assistant Professor at the International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF). He is also Chairman of the Shari’ah Board of HSBC Amanah in Malaysia and Chairman of Taj Bank, Nigeria.
He is a registered Shari’ah Advisor at the Maldives Monetary Authority and Bank Negara Malaysia. Dr Ziyaad specializes in and lectures Masters and PhD students in Shari’ah Rules and Issues in Islamic Finance, Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence, Islamic law of transactions, Islamic Capital Markets and Islamic Risk Management.
Dr Ziyaad has provided training on almost all aspects of Islamic finance in over 20 countries, to more than ten thousand (10,000) finance professionals and Islamic scholars. He has led the formation of the Islamic banking window at the Bank of Maldives, the largest in the country, and continues as a Shari’ah Board Member of the bank.
He has numerous awards in Islamic finance to his credit, in social finance product innovation, and fintech solutions for emerging countries. Dr Ziyaad has received several best paper awards at international conferences on Sukuk, Islamic banking patronage and Shari’ah product modelling for microfinance. He has also developed unique Shari’ah Screening criteria for stocks, incorporating SRI/ESG principles together with the Maqasid (Objectives of Islamic law).
Qualification: BA (Honours) Business (Finance) – Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom; MBA – MANCOSA, Republic of South Africa (RSA); PhD Islamic Finance – INCEIF, Malaysia. He is a Chartered Islamic Finance Professional and holds a Certificate in Islamic Law from University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.
