Chairman, Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers (AICB)

Tan Sri Azman Hashim, FCB

Tan Sri Azman Hashim has been in the banking industry since 1960 when he joined Bank Negara Malaysia. He practised as a Chartered Accountant in Azman Wong Salleh and Co. from 1964 to 1971. He was on the board of Malayan Banking Berhad from 1966 to 1980 and was its Executive Director from 1971 until 1980. He was the Executive Chairman of Kwong Yik Bank Berhad, a subsidiary of Malayan Banking Berhad, from 1980 until 1982 when he acquired AmInvestment Bank Berhad.

Tan Sri Azman is Chairman of the Asian Institute of Finance Berhad, Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers, Asian Banking School Sdn Bhd, Malaysian Investment Banking Association, the Malaysia Productivity Corporation, Malaysia South-South Corporation Berhad and Chairman Emeritus of Pacific Basin Economic Council (PBEC).

He is the President of Malaysia South-South Association, Malaysia-Japan Economic Association, Malaysian Prison FRIENDS Club and a Member of the APEC Business Advisory Council and East Asia Business Council. He is also the Leader of the ASEAN Japanese Business Meeting (Malaysia Committee, Keizai Doyukai). He is the Pro-Chancellor of Open University of Malaysia and a member of the Governing Body of Asian Productivity Organisation.

Tan Sri Azman is also involved in several charitable organisations as Chairman and Trustee of AmGroup Foundation and Perdana Leadership Foundation and Trustee for Yayasan Azman Hashim, Malaysian Liver Foundation, Yayasan Tuanku Najihah and Yayasan Canselor Open University Malaysia. Tan Sri Azman is also the Founder and Council Member of Azman Hashim Family (L) Foundation and Azman Hashim Charitable (L) Foundation.

Director of Sustainability, Marketing and Communications,, Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers (AICB)

Shireen Kandiah

Shireen spearheads the Institute’s thought leadership initiatives and research publications, as well as its strategic partnership and communication initiatives.

Her professional experience spans CRM Strategy, Branding and Capital Markets. Prior to joining AICB, Shireen worked in Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) in the areas of international regulatory standards and capacity building. She has also worked in international advertising agencies and business conglomerates based in Kuala Lumpur and Dubai.

Shireen graduated from the University of Kent, UK with a LL.B. (Hons) in Law.

Chairman, ASEAN Business Advisory Council

Tan Sri Nazir Razak

Director, Head of Asia-Pacific Insights and Analysis, S&P Global Market Intelligence

Aries Poon

Aries oversees a team of economists and country-risk experts for S&P Global Market Intelligence.

His team provides comprehensive economic forecasts, country-risk scores, and geopolitical analyses on 48 economies across Asia-Pacific. Aries has published widely on a range of topics, from China’s banking system and energy sector to Asia-Pacific’s semiconductor industry and the global green bond market. He previously worked as the editorial lead, also at S&P Global Market Intelligence, overseeing the coverage of banking, insurance, financial services and real estate in the Asia-Pacific.

Before joining S&P Global in 2018, Aries had worked for the Wall Street Journal as the chief of its Hong Kong and Taipei newsrooms. He was also a finance editor at Caixin Global in Beijing. A Hong Kong native, Aries has a Master of Public Policy from the University of Oxford. He is also a lecturer for the Global Studies undergraduate program at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Chair, GEFI Global Steering Group

Dame Susan Rice

With a career that spans medical research, leadership roles in higher education and then banking, Dame Susan chairs the Global Steering Group of GEFI (Global Ethical Finance Initiative). She also chairs the boards of Scottish Water, Business Stream, North American Income Trust.

The first woman to head a UK or European clearing bank as Chief Executive of Lloyds TSB Scotland plc, she was also a director of the Bank of England, Senior Independent Director of both J Sainsbury’s plc and SSE plc and lay member of Court at Edinburgh University. She was founding chair of Scotland’s Fiscal Commission, the country’s official, independent economic and fiscal forecaster and recently became a non-executive director on the board of the UK’s Office for Budget Responsibility.

Focused on the creation of long-term value in business and enterprise, she works with the UK’s Place-based Climate Action Network and previously led a business-focused collaboration on carbon reduction and a sustainable Scottish economy. A leading voice on ethics in finance, she chaired the Financial Services Culture Board and supported the Chartered Banker Institute by leading her industry to support the creation of professional standards for bankers. Susan also helped develop numerous social finance and impact investing entities in the US and the UK.

Alongside several honorary degrees and professional fellowships, Dame Susan is a Freeman of the City of London.

Senior Fellow at The Belt and Road Initiative Caucus for Asia Pacific. (BRICAP).

John Pang

John Pang is a Senior Research Fellow, Belt and Road Caucus for Asia Pacific. John has served in policy and thought leadership in government, business and academia with a focus on ASEAN. He has held fellowships and research positions at Columbia University, New York University and the Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Singapore, where he helped start the Center for Multilateralism Studies. He was founding CEO of an ASEAN research institute and of a council of Southeast Asian business leaders. As a senior executive at McKinsey and Company and other international consulting firms he advised decision makers in government, telecommunications and aviation, energy, infrastructure, tourism and financial services.

He served in Malaysia’s Ministry of Education as Special Advisor to the Minister, where he led policy work on education reform and technology, and in the Prime Minister’s Office on track II diplomacy, media and communications. He chaired the Global Agenda Council for Southeast Asia of the World Economic Forum from 2013-2015 and was a member of the Global Board of Open Society Foundations from 2016-2019.

In postgraduate study and research at the London School of Economics and Stanford University he worked on issues in the Philosophy of Economics and in Political Philosophy. He works on the re-framing of international relations discourse, especially as it applies to China and Southeast Asia towards the emergence of a multipolar world order. His commentary appears regularly on CGTN, Beijing Review and Global Times. He is based in Hangzhou.

UN Resident Coordinator in Indonesia

Gita Sabharwal

Managing Director, GEFI

Omar Shaikh

Omar is the Managing Director of the Global Ethical Finance Initiative (GEFI) and Board Member of the UK Islamic Finance Council (UKIFC)

A Chartered Accountant by profession, he specialises in ethical/responsible finance, Islamic finance, and private equity. He has extensive experience in financial services and has advised multiple governments and regulators on ecosystem building as a leading advocate for sustainable and Islamic finance. His background includes working with EY London, where he qualified as a CA and was the former Head of Islamic finance.

Through his GEFI work, Omar has established a number of initiatives, including the Path to COP, the SDG Financial Products platform with UNDP, which promotes innovative financing structures for the SDGs, the Global Islamic Finance and UN SDGs Taskforce launched with the UK Government and IsDB, and the award-winning interfaith Edinburgh Finance Declaration—the world’s first shared values approach to finance between Islamic finance and the Church. He also served on the Board of the University of Oxford Faith-Aligned Impact Finance Project

Omar received a BAcc and a PhD from the University of Glasgow along with an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University conferred for his work in developing ethical finance. Beyond finance, he is actively involved with Colourful Heritage which works with Glasgow Museums to preserve and celebrate South Asian heritage in Scotland, The King’s Trust Scotland and Olivewood Primary School.

Deputy Director, Sustainability Unit, Bank Negara Malaysia

Suraya Sani

Executive Director of ESG, Climate Research, APAC, MSCI

Yu Ishihara

Yu leads MSCI’s ESG Research Singapore team and specializes on the Automobiles, Automobile Components, and Construction & Farm Machinery & Heavy Trucks industries with research focused on industry ESG, climate, and broader sustainability trends. In addition to industry work, his research also focuses on ESG and financial performance, as well as APAC regulations. Prior to joining MSCI, Yu worked for six years at Fidelity Management & Research Japan as an equity analyst covering the automotive industry. Yu also has eight years of experience as an equity derivatives trader at UBS and Deutsche Bank. Yu holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA in Economics from Cornell University.

Head of Policy and Engagement, Carbon Tracker Initiative

Richard Folland

Richard Folland has been Carbon Tracker’s policy and government affairs adviser since 2014 and in 2023 joined as the Head of Policy and Engagement. Richard has over 30 years’ experience as a diplomat and advocate, operating at the highest level, based in Europe and elsewhere. He has worked on the climate and energy agenda, as a policymaker and as a private sector advisor, for 15 years. A former head of international energy policy at the UK Foreign Office, Richard has also been JPMorgan’s European Advisor on Energy and Climate Change, the Executive Director of the Climate Markets and Investment Association (CMIA), and the Head of Energy and Environment at Inline Policy. He was Co-Founder of the strategic advisory firm, Sustineri, working with institutional investors on climate and sustainability issues.

Managing Director, GEFI

Omar Shaikh

Omar is the Managing Director of the Global Ethical Finance Initiative (GEFI) and Board Member of the UK Islamic Finance Council (UKIFC)

A Chartered Accountant by profession, he specialises in ethical/responsible finance, Islamic finance, and private equity. He has extensive experience in financial services and has advised multiple governments and regulators on ecosystem building as a leading advocate for sustainable and Islamic finance. His background includes working with EY London, where he qualified as a CA and was the former Head of Islamic finance.

Through his GEFI work, Omar has established a number of initiatives, including the Path to COP, the SDG Financial Products platform with UNDP, which promotes innovative financing structures for the SDGs, the Global Islamic Finance and UN SDGs Taskforce launched with the UK Government and IsDB, and the award-winning interfaith Edinburgh Finance Declaration—the world’s first shared values approach to finance between Islamic finance and the Church. He also served on the Board of the University of Oxford Faith-Aligned Impact Finance Project

Omar received a BAcc and a PhD from the University of Glasgow along with an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University conferred for his work in developing ethical finance. Beyond finance, he is actively involved with Colourful Heritage which works with Glasgow Museums to preserve and celebrate South Asian heritage in Scotland, The King’s Trust Scotland and Olivewood Primary School.

Non Executive Director & Strategic Advisor, Tribe Impact Capital

Amy Clarke

Amy Clarke is an award‑winning Board and C‑suite leader with three decades of experience shaping sustainable finance, organisational governance and systemic change across publicly listed, privately owned, and non‑profit organisations. She has held senior executive roles including Chief Impact Officer at Tribe Impact Capital, the company she co-founded and where she is now a Non-Executive Director. She has also headed up sustainability teams at Bank of America and Microsoft (UK). She has over 18 years NED and Board experience and currently serves as Co‑Chair at B Lab UK, and a trustee on the Global Board of Client Earth. Previously she has served on the boards of Big Issue Invest, the Blue Cross, and The Prince’s Initiative for Mature Enterprise, as well as supporting finance & investment committees at the Blue Cross, B Lab UK and Client Earth.

Her sector experience spans financial services, wealth and asset management, technology, economic development, philanthropy, and global civil society, underpinned by deep expertise in sustainability, investment oversight, risk, and organisational culture. She has worked extensively across the UK, Europe, the US, LATAM, APAC and emerging markets, leading global teams and advising governments, development banks and multinational corporates.

She has been recognised as PAM Top 50 Most Influential (2024), Investment Week ESG Woman of the Year (2022), and a Meaningful Business Top 100 leader, reflecting her long‑standing influence in sustainable finance

Sustainable Finance Lead, WWF Philippines

Edgardo Tongson

Ed Tongson is former Chief-of-Party for Sustainable Finance of WWF Philippines.  He led the Philippine team as part of a regional WWF initiative to build capacities of the financial sector in sustainable banking. He concurrently consults for UNDP on climate and sustainable finance.  Prior to his assignment, he was the Chief-of-Party of the USAID-funded Abuan Watershed Management Project from 2012 to 2017 and Senior Consultant for watershed and water resources for WWF Philippines from 2008 to 2012. He joined WWF-Philippines in 1998 as a Program officer, appointed Director in 2000, Asst. Vice President for Field Operations in 2001 and became the Vice-President for Programmes in 2003. Before joining WWF, he served as Executive Director for the Haribon Foundation from 1994-1998. He earned his Masters of Business Administration Degree in 1992 and Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Engineering in 1982 from the University of the Philippines Diliman Campus. He published papers on climate change policy, disaster risk management, indigenous peoples, SMART agriculture and sustainable finance.

Greenpeace International’s Senior Campaign Strategist

Tata Mustasya

Tata Mustasya is Greenpeace International’s Senior Campaign Strategist, co-founder of Sustain and the board of trustees of Trend Asia . Tata is a green transition enthusiast with considerable expertise and experience on the issue of sustainable welfare, climate change and energy transition. His thorough understanding of Indonesia’s, regional, and global development and trajectory can be found in a number of international and national media’s opinion columns, research papers and presentations in various forums. Having been nurtured as a campaigner, researcher and economist, Tata obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Development Studies from Faculty of Economics University of Indonesia and Master’s degree in Management of Development from University of Turin.

Senior Advisor, GEFI

Amanda Young

Amanda was the Chief Sustainability Officer for the Investments business at abrdn, where she led the sustainable investment strategy for the firm and the Investment Sustainability Group.  She has over two decades of experience in responsible investment. Previously, Amanda held positions at Newton Investment Management, CCLA Investment Management and Rabobank International. Amanda graduated from Lancaster University with a BSc in Psychology and has completed the University of Edinburgh Business School’s Executive Women’s Leadership Programme. She is the Chair of the Sustainability and Responsible Investment Committee of the Investment Association, a board director for Social Investment Scotland’s SIS Ventures fund and represented abrdn on the Scottish Taskforce for Green and Sustainable Financial Services. Previous appointments include Chair, workstream for the UK Government’s Taskforce on social impact investment, co-Chair of the Scottish Purposeful Business Commission, Board Director of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF) and Chair of the FTSE Russell ESG Advisory Committee.  Amanda has appeared on the Financial News top 100 most influential women in European Finance for 6 years.  She was the inaugural winner of Women in Investment Awards Sustainable & ESG Investment Woman of the Year in 2021 and was on Financial News’ inaugural Fifty Most Influential in Sustainable Finance list in 2022.

Director, Sustainable Finance, Capital Markets & Post Trade, LSEG

Adrian Rimmer

Director of Sustainable Finance, APAC, ING

Diana Tang

Managing Director, DDCAP Group

Stella Cox CBE

Stella Cox CBE has worked within the Islamic financial marketplace for more than thirty years. Since 1998 she has
been Managing Director of DDCAP Group™. Under Stella’s leadership, DDCAP has pioneered Sharia’a compliant
intermediation services, bringing automation to the industry sector through the Group’s ETHOS AFP™, serving
clients and counterparties across the globe. DDCAP has also invested, for its own account, in a number of Islamic
financial sector firms and initiatives.

On 26th November 2016, DDCAP was one of the first Islamic financial sector firms to be awarded Principles for
Responsible Investment (PRI) Signatory Status. DDCAP is also a Stakeholder Endorser of the UNEP FI Principles for
Responsible Banking (PRB). Stella represents DDCAP within the Islamic Finance and the UN Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) Taskforce, the inaugural meeting of which took place in July 2020, convened by the Islamic
Finance Council UK (UKIFC) in partnership with the UK Government. With a US$2.5 trillion per year financing gap,
the UKIFC has committed to a 24-month action-oriented program of activities to address barriers blocking Islamic
financial institutions from embracing the targets of the SDGs.

Previously Stella was a Director of merchant bank Kleinwort Benson Limited, where her team managed assets
aggregating over US$2bn. Whilst at Kleinwort, Stella was involved in structuring The Islamic Fund, the first Sharia’a
compliant global equity fund which launched in 1986. She was also a Director of the Al Meezan Commodity Fund plc,
a joint venture initiative with a GCC Islamic bank that invested in non-ferrous metals traded on the London Metal
Exchange.

From 2007-2009 Stella served as an Independent Non-Executive Director of Gatehouse Bank, a UK Islamic investment
bank.

Outside of DDCAP, Stella has had the privilege to be appointed to numerous industry think tanks, working groups
and committees. These include membership 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 and assisting the Dubai International Financial Centre Islamic Advisory Committee with its work
on selected strategic development initiatives. Stella served as a member of the Islamic Financial Services Board Money
Market Task Force on Markets and Instruments for Sharia’a Compliant Liquidity Management and currently
represents DDCAP on project specific Working Groups of the International Islamic Financial Market.

In 2013, the UK Government launched its first Islamic Finance Task Force. The ministerial led Task Force was
established to refocus on Islamic finance and the UK proposition. Stella was one of a small group of non-ministerial
industry experts within the Task Force and acted as practitioner lead for the regulatory work stream. With support
from the Task Force, the UK Government announced plans to launch an inaugural sovereign Sukuk at the World
Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) in October 2013 in London, with the successful issuance following in June 2014.

In 2014, Stella was appointed Chair of the Islamic Finance Market Advisory Group formed by TheCityUK, the financial
services professional body that champions UK-based financial and related professional services. It is a membership
body, lobbying on the industry’s behalf, producing evidence of its importance to the wider national economy.

In June 2016, Stella was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Stella was honoured for
her services to the Economy and, specifically, as a Champion for the Development of Islamic Finance in the UK. In
2017, she was ranked number 1 in the ‘Top 10 Women in Islamic Banking & Finance’ listing published by ISFIRE, and
in the ISFIRE ‘WOMANi 2018′ Report she was ranked number 1 amongst the ‘100 Most Influential Women in Islamic
Finance’. She was appointed Patron-in-Chief of WOMANi in April 2019.

In January 2019, Stella became a member of the Astana International Financial Centre’s Advisory Council on Islamic
Finance (“ACIF”) and in July 2019 Stella became a Freeman of the City of London.

Stella is a personal advocate of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals objectives and the relevant
responsible practices championed by DDCAP. She supports educational initiatives that are relevant to the market and
the development of its human capital. She has served as a member of the University of East London’s Islamic Finance
and Banking Advisory Board and has been a visiting lecturer at Durham University’s Islamic Finance Summer School Programme, as well as the Cambridge Islamic Finance Programme at Clare College, Cambridge and the Saïd Business
School, University of Oxford.

Since 2015 Stella has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the RFI Foundation, where she also sits on the
Governance and Risk Committee and previously served as an Advisory Board member for the Ethical Finance
Innovation Challenge Awards (“EFICA”), co-sponsored by Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Thomson Reuters. She is
serving her second rotation as a member of the Nomination Committee for Malaysia’s Royal Award for Islamic Finance
(The Royal Award).

Outside of her work as a financial markets practitioner, Stella speaks regularly at international conferences on a broad
range of topics and has contributed to many publications. Specifically, she was co-author of Structuring Islamic
Finance Transactions published by Euromoney Books and co-authored the Islamic Finance Qualification (IFQ) jointly
offered by the UK Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) and the École Supérieure des Affaires in
Lebanon, contributing the Islamic Asset and Fund Management module.

CEO, Gatehouse Bank

Charles Haresnape

Charles joined Gatehouse Bank as Chief Executive Officer in May 2017. Prior to joining the Bank, he was Group Managing Director at Aldermore Bank from January 2011, where he was responsible for residential and commercial mortgages, plus property development. Before joining Aldermore, Charles was with Connells, one of the UK’s largest estate agency groups, where he was Group Mortgage Services Director. Prior to Connells, he was responsible for intermediary mortgage lending at both NatWest and RBS, plus the branch mortgage sales force within NatWest. He has worked for a number of other household names in the UK banking and building society sectors, including Nationwide and HBOS where he was a senior executive, responsible for mortgage sales and portfolio acquisitions. Charles has been Deputy Chairman of the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) and Chairman of the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA).

Group Chief Shariah and Sustainability Officer, MBSB Group

Ashraf Gomma Ali

Academic/Professional Qualification

• Master’s in Islamic Finance Practice (MIFP), International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2014)
• Bachelor of Laws (LLB) in Shariah, Umm Al Qura University, Mecca, Saudi Arabia (2015)
• Bachelor of Science in Finance, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA (2005)
• SC Registered Shariah Advisor
• AAOIFI Certified Shariah Auditor and Advisor
• Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership Certificate, Cambridge University (2024)

Working Experience and Occupation

• Co-Founder/CFO, Sharia Compliant Blockchain Fintech Startup, Europe (Aug 2022 – July 2024)
• Consultant – Islamic Banking Expert, World Bank/IFC, Washington, DC (Feb 2022 – July 2024)
• Managing Director, Ihsan Advisory Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (April 2021 – July 2024)
• Research Associate and Standards Working Group Member, AAOIFI (Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions) (2019 – July 2024)
• Director and Regional Head, Shariah Advisory and Governance Department, CIMB Islamic Bank, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (April 2017 – 2021)
• Vice President, Shariah Assurance Manager, National Commercial Bank (NCB), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (2011 – April 2017)

Non-Executive Chair, Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Berhad and AICB Council Member

Datuk Yvonne Chia

Datuk Yvonne Chia is a trailblazer for women in banking, being the first woman Chief Executive Officer appointed to head a commercial bank in Malaysia and the region. An award-winning senior banker, she was named among the ‘50 Business Women in the Mix’ in 2013 by Forbes Asia, and is a two-time finalist of the CNBC Asia Business Award.

She has been in the ASEAN banking scene, with a focus on Malaysia, for the last three decades. Her record of strategic leadership and value creation has transformed the value of banks that she led, with strong execution to achieve success in mergers, greenfield/start-ups, high growth and turn-around operations. A proven strategist and influencer/mentor with a strong understanding of relationships and engagements with institutional partners, customers, staff and the community. She believes in young talent bringing disruption to the world and shares her views on this through various forums and leadership development platforms.

Blessed with tremendous energy, she is action-oriented and professes the philosophy of staying ahead and being adaptable to the changing times with a sharp focus on the emerging trends in ESG and disruptive technology. She believes that people make the difference, and having the right people will generate the desired outcomes. She advocates for everyone to be a master of change and applies her philosophy to be significant in everything she chooses to do.

She currently chairs and sits on the board of several listed companies as well as NGOs.