Since 1976, he has taught tafsir, hadith and fiqh in Bahrain. He is also the author of several articles and publications on Islamic finance and other sciences in English and Arabic. Shaykh Yaquby received his M.Sc. in Finance fr om McGill University in Montreal and preparing for his PhD in University of Wales (Islamic Law). He was educated in the classical Shari’ah sciences in his native Bahrain and in Makkah.

His practice focuses on all types of Islamic financial products covering a wide range of asset types, investment classes and industrial sectors. With a background in aircraft and shipping finance he advises on Shariah compliant big-ticket asset financing; real estate and project financings; a variety of structured Islamic products, helping clients create Shariah compliant instruments for asset and wealth management purposes and hedging and risk management solutions. He also advises on the structuring of Islamically acceptable investment funds, techniques for corporate transactions and related acquisition financing. He advises on Shariah governance issues and is particularly interested in how best to manage the interface between the requirements of Shariah compliance, governing law and the need for certainty in cross border Islamic financial transactions.

Over this period he has advised a wide range of Middle East and European financial institutions offering Islamic financial solutions. He knows and has worked closely with many of the internationally renowned Shariah scholars and is a regular speaker at conferences and seminars on Islamic finance topics.

Karl has over fifteen years of experience of structured products and derivatives transactions relating to equity, debt, credit and other underlying asset classes. He also works extensively with Islamic structured products and bonds and is actively involved in the product development of Shari’ah compliant products.

Karl has also been part of several industry-wide working groups including that with respect to drafting the ISDA 2002 Equity Derivatives Definitions.

His client base includes: international investment banks, regional banking institutions, private equity funds and corporate entities.

Previously she was a Director of Dresdner Kleinwort Benson Limited (“KB”) where she had responsibility for Middle Eastern institutional relationships and product development for KB’s Islamic clients. Stella’s team managed assets aggregating over US$2bn and extended over US$250mn of finance to support the trade and commodity purchase requirements of their clients.

Whilst with the Bank, Stella was involved in structuring The Islamic Fund, the first Sharia’a compliant global equity product, launched in 1986. The Fund was subsequently distributed by Gulf Bank, Kuwait and National Bank of Bahrain.

Prior to leaving KB, Stella was a Director of the Al Meezan Commodity Fund plc, a joint venture initiative between KB and Islamic Investment Company of the Gulf (Bahrain) that invested in base metals traded on the London Metal Exchange.

She is a Fellow of the Institute of Islamic Banking and Insurance in the United Kingdom and has served on its Board of Governors within the Islamic Banking Group. Stella previously served as a member of the Working Group established by the Central Bank of Bahrain (formerly the Bahrain Monetary Authority) with the purpose of developing procedures and documentation for Islamic commodity trading. She has also assisted the DIFC Islamic Advisory Committee with its work on selected strategic development initiatives.

Stella represents DDCAP on the Market and Product Development Committee (MPDC) of the International Islamic Financial Market and has served as a member of the HM Treasury Islamic Finance Experts Group, serving also on the market Standardisation sub-group. Stella speaks regularly at international conferences and has contributed to many publications including Islamic Banker, Euromoney, Institutional Investor, Arab Banker and New Horizon. She was co-author of Structuring Islamic Finance Transactions published by Euromoney Books and in 2006 co-authored the Islamic Finance Qualification (IFQ) jointly offered by the UK Securities and Investment Institute and the Ecole Superieure des Affaires in Lebanon, contributing the Islamic Asset and Fund Management module.

Lawrence is also a Director of Global Islamic Clearing Company, DDCAP’s wholly Sharia’a compliant brokerage and advisory joint venture based in Bahrain.

Lawrence joined DDCAP in April 1998. Previously he was an Assistant Manager at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and a member of the team responsible for the Islamic Finance and Investment activity. Lawrence has extensive experience of arranging asset-based transactions that conform to Sharia’a stipulation.

Together with Stella Cox he has focused on re-establishing the traditional merchant trading business and capabilities of DD&Co Limited, for the benefit of Islamic institutional clients, and expanding DDGI’s Islamic financial sector initiatives.

He focuses specifically on Sharia’a compliant structured finance and asset origination.

Ricky overseas the treasury, financial market risk management, investment, corporate and aircraft financing, and insurance activities at Etihad Airways.

Ricky holds a Masters Degree in Engineering and various financial and management related qualifications, and is a member of the Editorial Board of Journal of Corporate Treasury Management and a committee member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers – Middle East.

Prior to joining South African Airways, he headed up treasury and risk management services companies as Managing Director of Andisa Treasury Solutions, and as Managing Director of Standard Risk and Treasury Management Services, a subsidiary of the Standard Bank Group.

He has 10 years of experience in credit research. His prior roles include head of credit research at HSBC (Dubai), Head of Credit Research at Commerzbank (London), and senior credit analyst at Bear Stearns (London). Previously Mr. Bhogaita worked in the areas of corporate restructuring and insolvency, auditing, and corporate finance.

Mr. Siddiqui joined Thomson Reuters from Dow Jones, wh ere he was global director for their Islamic Market Indices. Over his 10 years there, Mr. Siddiqui led the entry and expansion of the Dow Jones Indexes into Islamic finance, resulting in numerous awards from leading finance organizations and media outlets. Mr. Siddiqui has considerable experience in the financial markets, having worked at a Wall Street investment bank and commercial bank in the 1990s.

Mr. Siddiqui has authored a number of white papers and articles on Islamic indexes for publications including WIEF, ABANA Review, CPI Financial, the Chicago Journal of International Law, and Euromoney, and is a frequent speaker at industry events hosted by Harvard, Columbia Business School, London Business School, Oxford, the Economist, Islamic Development Bank, Malaysia’s MIFC, IIRME (Dubai), and more.