The Board of Trustees of the the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) appointed Mr. Omar Mustafa Ansari as its new Secretary General in its meeting held on 7 April 2019 (the first day of AAOIFI 17^th Annual Shari’ah Boards Conference in the Kingdom of Bahrain).

The Chairman of the Board, His Excellency Sheikh Ebrahim bin Khalifa Al Khalifa stated, “On behalf of AAOIFI and its Board of Trustees, we are very glad to announce that Mr. Omar Ansari has been selected and appointed as the new Secretary General of AAOIFI. During his last 4 years with AAOIFI, including more than a year as an Acting Secretary General, AAOIFI has not only issued a record number of standards (12) and exposure drafts (6), but has also strengthened its position working tirelessly by engaging industry stakeholders and maintaining AAOIFI as a truly global standard setting body. We are hopeful and confident that under his leadership AAOIFI will yet achieve greater heights in fulfilling its mission and wide-spread implementation of its standards in more countries and jurisdictions around the globe.

The selection of the Secretary General followed a due process of evaluation and suitability testing in  line with the principles of good governance, including interviews of the shortlisted candidates over a course of more than a year.

Mr. Ansari is a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP). In his previous role he was Partner – Assurance & Head of Islamic Finance (Pakistan & Afghanistan) at Ernst & Young Ford Rhodes Sidat Hyder – a member firm of Ernst & Young. At AAOIFI, he has been responsible primarily for leading the process of development of accounting, auditing, governance and ethics standards for the global Islamic finance industry, besides managing the overall affairs of the institution as the Acting Secretary General.