The Islamic finance industry has reached almost $2 trillion in total assets at the end of 2014
Dr. Sayd Farook will bring international expertise and track record to leading Middle East knowledge platform
21 July 2015, Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Middle East Global Advisors has appointed Dr. Sayd Farook as Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
Dr. Sayd Farook joins
ME Global Advisors from Thomson Reuters where he led the Islamic finance
and markets business for over five years as the Global Head Islamic
Capital Markets. In that role, he oversaw the transformation of Thomson
Reuters into a global knowledge and intelligence powerhouse for the
Islamic finance and Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) markets,
serving governments and strategic infrastructure institutions.
Over the past 22
years, ME Global Advisors has served clients in growth and frontier
markets across the diverse OIC markets in regions including East Asia,
the Middle East, Central Asia and East Africa.
Under Dr. Farook’s
leadership, ME Global Advisors will be positioned in a key leadership
role for high-frequency research and connectivity solutions, powering
decision making and deal making.
Dr. Sayd Farook will
be responsible for growing ME Global Advisor’s portfolio of business
lines to a complete suite of knowledge solutions covering sector based
intelligence, business to consumer technology connectivity platforms and
human capital development solutions.
Commenting on the
appointing, Mr. Ehsan Abbas, Chairman of ME Global Advisors stated: ‘I
am delighted to welcome Dr. Sayd Farook to lead ME Global Advisors
through a new era towards the future for MENASEA markets, as they
transform from resource dependent economies to knowledge based
economies.’
‘The countries
stretching from Morocco in the East and Indonesia in the West with the
Gulf Cooperation Countries at their center, offer tremendous potential
as a leading driver of global growth with many of the countries GDP
expected to grow more than 40% to 2020, ‘ said Dr. Sayd Farook.
‘We are well poised
to contribute to the growth of these regions through the provision of a
full suite of knowledge services building on our leadership position in
the market’ he added.
Middle East Global
Advisors has organized the world’s premier conferences on Islamic
Finance and Takaful for over two decades. The World Islamic Banking
Conference (WIBC) and the World Takaful Conference (WTC) have seen the
attendance of luminaries from across the world including Central Bank
governors, CEOs and leading thought leaders from across the Islamic
world.
The global forums have
seen the launch of defining thought leadership, which have shaped the
Islamic banking and insurance industries’ development for 22 years.
WIBC and WTC has since
spurred regional conferences including the WIBC: Asia Summit, the World
Takaful Conference: Family Takaful Summit and the International Forum
on Islamic Finance.
The appointment comes
at a time of rapid growth and transformation for the Islamic Finance
Industry. The Islamic finance industry has reached $1.94 trillion as at
the end of 2014, averaging a 17% growth rate over the past three years
according to data from the ICD Thomson Reuters Islamic Finance
Development Indicator.
The industry is set to
play an increasingly critical role in the development of Middle East
North Africa Southeast Asia (MENASEA) economies as regional governments
actively promote financial inclusion through targeted Shariah compliant
SME funding capacity and infrastructure development through Shariah
compliant funding instruments such as Sukuk.
In line with this new
strategic direction, ME Global Advisors are gathering the entire
spectrum of the responsible investment and finance industry from both
emerging and developed markets this September at the Global Ethical
Finance Forum in Edinburgh Scotland.
