AGEB Members

Dr. Walid Hegazy has over 25 years of experience in representing and advising clients on transactions and disputes involving the commercial laws and regulations of many Middle East countries, including: Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Libya. Dr. Hegazy main areas of expertise include Islamic banking and finance, project financing, corporate restructuring and corporate governance. Dr. Hegazy has S.J.D. (Doctor of Juridical Science) and LL.M. degrees from Harvard Law School. In 2011, Dr. Hegazy was named to the "Leading Lawyer 50" in the area of Islamic Finance by Lawyer Monthly Magazine. In 2015, he was selected for the Board of Ethics of the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), the leading standards-setting body for Islamic banks. Dr. Hegazy is the CO-Founder and secretary general of the Egyptian Islamic Finance Association. Some of his Publications: 1. “ISLAMIC LIABILITY RULES (DAMAN) IN THE PRACTICE OF CONTEMPORARY ISLAMIC. 2. FINANCE”, WISCONSIN INTERNATIONAL LAW JOURNAL – FORTHCOMING 2008. 3. “SHARIAH COMPLIANT PRIVATE EQUITY INVESTMENT”, FINANCIER WORLDWIDE – APRIL 2008. 4. “CONTEMPORARY ISLAMIC FINANCE BETWEEN SOCIO-ECONOMIC IDEALISM AND FORMAL COMPLIANCE”, CHICAGO JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW – 2007.

• More than 25 years of experience in Shari'a Audit and Islamic Financial Consultations.
• Chairman & member of Shari’a Boards for Islamic Financial Institutions since 2003.
• Member of the Fiqh Council of North America
• Expert at the International Islamic Fiqh Academy, Jeddah, KSA since 2002.
• Academic credentials in Islamic Economics, Shari’a College at Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Bachelor 1987, Master 1992, Ph.D. 2002).
• The Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), Bahrain:
• Board Member of AAOIFI Governance and Ethics Board (AGEB) since December 2015.
• Board Member of AAOIFI Shari’a Committees, 2007-2011.
• Honorary Fellow Fellow and Arbitrator of the International Islamic Center for Reconciliation and Arbitration (IICRA), UAE.
• Corporate Governance Expert at the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D.C. USA since 2006.
• Certified Trainer, the General Council for Islamic Banks and Institutions, Bahrain since 2003.
• Speaker at international Islamic finance conferences; AAOIFI Annual Shari’a Conferences, AAOIFI – World Bank Annual Conferences and ISRA International Shari’ah Scholars Forums.
• Author of more than 60 research papers, 12 textbooks, and 200 articles in Islamic finance & Business Jurisprudence.

Dr. Abozer Magzoub Mohammed Senior Islamic Finance Specialist, Islamic Finance Advisory and Technical Assistance IFATA, Islamic Development Bank Group IsDB, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Abozer has been with the Islamic Development Bank (ISDB) since February 2020, with over 17 years of experience in Islamic finance and regulations. Before that, Abozer was Senior Advisor at the central bank of Saudi Arabia SAMA till January 2020, where he worked in various initiatives under the 2030 vision for financial sector development. Abozer was seconded to the Islamic Financial Services Board IFSB from the Central Bank of Sudan in 2010. At IFSB, Abozer was the Co-Project Manager for IFSB Revised Capital Adequacy Standard based on Basel III (IFSB-15), Abozer also Project Manager for the Core Principles for Islamic Finance Regulation (IFSB-17). He was also in charge of Facilitating the Implementation of the IFSB standards initiative (FIS). Before joining IFSB, Abozer worked with the Central Bank of Sudan in the Banking Supervision Department. He was in charge of Risk Management in the banking system, namely credit risk and problematic banks. Before that, he worked as an Auditor in the National Auditing Chamber. Abozer provided technical assistance and has conducted workshops in more than 20 IFSB member Central Banks and Supervisory authorities to facilitate the IFSB Standards implementation. Abozer joined the list of experts at the IMF following his mission in Tunisia in 2012, where he provided Technical Assistant to many jurisdictions implementing Islamic Finance. He was in charge of overseeing banking supervisions for the regulatory authorities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions. Following his Tunisia mission, Abozer facilitated the second IMF Technical Assistance to Libya and Kuwait in 2013 and 2017. Abozer holds a master’s degree in Pure Economics (Performance of the Stock Exchange Market) from the University of Khartoum (2005) and a BSc Honour degree in Pure Economics from the University of Khartoum, Sudan (2002). He is currently a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) candidate in Islamic Finance from the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)

Professor Dr. M. Kabir Hassan is Professor of Finance in the Department of Economics and Finance in the University of New Orleans. He currently holds three endowed Chairs-Hibernia Professor of Economics and Finance, Hancock Whitney Chair Professor in Business, and Bank One Professor in Business- in the University of New Orleans. Professor Hassan is the winner of the 2016 Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Prize in Islamic Banking and Finance.  Professor 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.   Professor 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, Islamic banking and finance, and international trade and finance. Professor Hassan has done consulting work for the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, African Development Bank, Transparency International-Bangladesh (TIB), Islamic Development Bank, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Government of Turkey and many private organizations. Professor Hassan has been elected a Board Member of Ethics and Governance Committee and Education Board of the Accounting and Auditing Organization for the Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI).

Sohaib is a senior Islamic finance professional with 25 years of diverse experience in central banking, advisory, private equity and capital markets. He is currently working as Advisor, Islamic Financial Services Development with the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB). In this role he is responsible for recommending and overseeing new strategic initiatives and regulations by the CBB in Islamic banking, Takaful and capital markets. He is also serving as administrator of the Waqf Fund, a CBB-supervised endowment for Islamic finance training, education and research. Previously, he worked as Executive Manager at Ernst & Young Bahrain in their global center of excellence in Islamic finance advisory.   Sohaib started his professional career in equity brokerage as a research analyst. He became head of research for CLSA Emerging Markets Pakistan office and was later transferred to their head office in Hong Kong where he spent the next two years. He came back to Pakistan in 2002 as CEO of TMT Ventures, a venture capital company which invested in promising start-ups in technology, media and telecom sectors. He served on the boards of investee companies, overseeing strategy and accelerating growth.   Sohaib has an MBA in Finance and is also a CFA. He contributes regularly to Islamic finance thought leadership. He is serving as a member of the Governance & Ethics Board of AAOIFI, the leading standard setting body for Islamic finance industry. He is also on the board of a listed pharmaceutical company as an independent director.

Dr. Zahid is currently working for Central Bank of Oman in Muscat where he advises on Islamic finance policy, regulations and governance framework, including interactions with international institutions.

He is an accomplished Islamic finance expert, with a career spanning over 22 years in financial sector regulation and supervision, standard setting and advisory. In his previous assignment as Acting as well as Assistant Secretary General (Technical and Research) of the Islamic Financial Services Board, he spearheaded the rolling out of global regulatory reforms for Islamic banking, takaful, Islamic capital market and financial inclusion sectors, where he supervised over 15 IFSB standards and Technical Notes, 10 working papers and five annual flagship IFSI Stability Reports. He also steered the formal launch of global Islamic finance database project, called PSIFIs, covering regulatory macro-level data from over 24 jurisdictions.

Dr. Zahid has contributed as the member of working groups and committees of the global bodies, including Basel Committee’s Consultative Group (BCG), IMF, IFSB, IAIS, AAOIFI, IASB and others. Similarly, he has planned and successfully executed joint initiatives for awareness, capacity building and publications with numerous multilateral organizations, financial sector regulators and supervisors.

He is a Certified Training Professional from FAA and has conducted trainings in over 15 countries, including for the IMF and World Bank staff, and been a panelist in more than 20 international conferences across the world. His research has been published in several accredited journals and other industry publications.

He is a PhD in Islamic finance from International Islamic University, Malaysia and holds Chartered Islamic Finance Professional (CIFP) from INCEIF, Malaysia. He holds master’s degrees in Business Administration, Computer Science as well as Statistics. He has attended over 30 trainings in leadership, management and financial sector policy, including those organised by MIT Sloan Executive Education, ICLIF Leadership and Governance Centre, Financial Stability Institute and others.