Author: Volker Nienhaus

Professor Simon Archer is Visiting Professor at the ICMA Centre, Henley Business School, University of Reading (U.K.), where he teaches on an MSc program, Investment Banking and Islamic Finance. Previously, he was Professor of Financial Management at the University of Surrey (U.K.) having been Midland Bank Professor of Financial Sector Accounting at the University of Wales, Bangor. After studies in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Oxford University, he qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen in London and then moved to Price Waterhouse in Paris, where he became a Partner in Management Consultancy Services. In addition to being co-editor of, and chapter contributor to, Islamic Finance: Innovation and Growth, and Islamic Finance: The Regulatory Challenge (published by John Wiley), Professor Archer is co-author of the CCH International Accounting/Financial Reporting Standards Guide and the author of a considerable number of academic papers on international accounting and on accounting, finance, and related issues in Islamic financial institutions. He also supervises research students in these areas. He has carried out a number of consultancy assignments for the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions, the Islamic Financial Services Board, and the World Bank on issues connected with Islamic finance. Professor Rifaat Ahmed Abdel Karim has been the Secretary-General of the Islamic Financial Services Board since 2002. Prior to his current position, Professor Rifaat was the Secretary-General of the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions, a post he held for more than eight years. He was a member of the Standards Advisory Council of the International Accounting Standards Board for two terms, and is currently a member of the Consultative Advisory Group of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board. Professor Rifaat was a Visiting Professor at Surrey University (U.K.) and Honorary Professor at Monash University (Australia). He is currently a Visiting Professor at Reading University (U.K.). Professor Rifaat is the co-author of Business and Accounting Ethics in Islam, the Euromoney bestseller book Islamic Finance: Innovation and Growth, and Islamic Finance: The Regulatory Challenge recently published by John Wiley. He is also the author of many academic and professional papers on accounting, governance, and finance issues in Islamic banking and finance. Dr. Volker Nienhaus was Professor of Economics at the German universities of Trier (1989-90) and Bochum (1990-2004) before he became President of the University of Marburg (election period 2004-10). He has published numerous books and articles on Islamic economics and Islamic banking and finance since the 1980s. He was a member of several academic advisory boards of public and private institutions in Germany, including the German Orient-Foundation (1993-2006) and the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (1998-2008). In 2006, he was appointed a member of the Governing Council of the International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF) in Kuala Lumpur. He is also consultant to the Islamic Financial Services Board on governance issues of takaful operations.