Prof. Syed Nazim Ali

GRM 2018 Workshop: Fintech, Digital Currency and the Future of Islamic Finance in the GCC- Strategy, Operational and Regulatory Issues

Director & Professor - Center for Islamic Economics & Finance, College of Islamic Studies, Hamad bin Khalifa University, Qatar Foundation

Dr. Syed Nazim Ali is Research Professor and the Director of the Center for Islamic Economics and Finance, College of Islamic Studies (CIS), at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar Foundation. Dr. Ali has spent the last thirty years spearheading interdisciplinary research in Islamic finance and faith-based initiatives in finance as well as community development. He was Founding Director of the Islamic Finance Project (IFP) at Harvard Law School, Harvard University since 1995. He has paid special attention to lines of inquiry that seek to examine and interrogate the frontiers, facilitate research and encourage dialogue among various stakeholders and external discussants. He has played a lead role in organizing several conferences and seminars by observing global trends creating forums for intellectual debates. In addition, the IFP had played a role in advising more than 30 theses accepted in Islamic finance and law at various schools at Harvard. Some of Dr Ali’s most significant contributions to the field have been the Islamic Finance Databank: an online information source in the field; LSE (London School of Economics) Workshop: an annual event to discuss the current pressing issues facing the field; and the Harvard University Forum on Islamic Finance, the proceedings of which are published under his editorship. Dr. Ali has been actively involved with the U.S. Treasury, The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, U.S. Department of the Treasury, and central banks in other countries, working to improve understanding of and combat misconceptions about the Islamic Finance Industry. Dr. Ali received his PhD from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom. He was also Visiting Fellow at the Prince Alwaleed Center for Islamic Studies at Harvard University (2014-2016). Currently he is serving as an Academic Advisor to Harvard 6 Muslim Alumni Association in the organization of Harvard Islamic Finance Conference. Dr. Ali recently organized a workshop on FinTech at the London School of Economics in February 2017 and currently working on a book proposal titled “Fintech for Islamic Financial Services” to be published by Taylor & Francis.