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Secretary General

Rifaat Ahmed Abdel Karim is the Secretary-General of the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB), a post he has held since the IFSB started to operate in 2003. Prior to his current post, he was the Secretary-General of the Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions. He is a member of the Consultative Advisory Group of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board, now serving his second three-year term, and the International Liaison Group, Basel Committee for Banking Supervision. He previously served as a member of the Standards Advisory Council of the International Accounting Standards Board, for two consecutive terms, ending November 2008.

Professor Datuk Rifaat is a Visiting Professor at the ICMA Centre, Henley Business School, University of Reading, UK, and is a Member of the Governing Council of International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance, Malaysia. He is the co-author of Islamic Finance: Growth and Innovation, Islamic Finance: The Regulatory Challenge and Business and Accounting Ethics in Islam. In 2010, he received the Royal Malaysian Honorary Award of Darjah Kebesaran Panglima Jasa Negara (P.J.N.) which carries the title 'Datuk'. and the Prize of the Islamic Development Bank in Islamic Banking and Finance 1431H (2010). Professor Abdel Karim has also been honoured with other distinguished awards, including the inaugural Euromoney Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Development of Islamic Finance in 2004.