Haute Direction

Dr. Zamir Iqbal

Vice President, Finance (Chief Financial Officer)

Prior to joining the IDB, Mr. Iqbal served at the World Bank for 25 years, latterly as head of the World Bank’s Global Islamic Finance Development Center in Istanbul. His experience spans the capital markets, asset management and risk management. Islamic finance has been his research focus and he has co-authored several articles and books on Islamic finance on the topics of banking risk, financial inclusion, economic development, financial stability and risk-sharing. He played an instrumental role in the publication of the World Bank’s and the IDB’s first global report on Islamic finance. He earned his Ph.D. in international finance from the George Washington University and served as Professional faculty at the Carey Business School of Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Rami M. S. Ahmad

Vice President, Operations Islamic Development Bank

Dr Rami M. S. Ahmad was appointed as Vice President (Operations), at the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) on 15 December 2024.  

Rami started his development career in 1993 in the Young Professional Program and served as Projects Officer in the operations department until 1999. He was then selected as member of the core team in charge of establishing the Islamic Corporation for the Private Sector (ICD), the private sector arm of the IDB Group. He served as an Investment Manager in the Business Development Department until returning to IsDB in 2004, as a Division Chief, infrastructure & Finance for the MENA region. He then served as the Director, Country Operations Department (MENA Region), and later as the Director of Country Programs Department (6 divisions covering all 57 member countries), a newly established department as a result of the IDB organizational reforms in 2009.  He was involved in policy dialogue, partnership strategies, country programing, project implementation and portfolio management in most of the 57 member countries. He led the introduction of several strategic initiatives, such as the Member Country Partnership Strategies (MCPS), the Reverse Linkages modality, and several youth development activities.  In 2011, he became a Senior Advisor to the President where he advised on various strategic, organizational and operational matters, and spearheaded a special presidential program for the Enhancement of the Work Environment (EWE). He was instrumental in the technical and management committees of the reform activities and the fine-tuning of the organizational structure on several occasions and played a vital role in the revival of the IsDB institutional Cultural Model. He was named as the IsDB Group Special Envoy on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2017, and as the IsDB Sherpa to the G20 and the Heads of MDBs Forum in 2021, in addition to his duties as a Senior Advisor to the President of the Islamic Development Bank.  He served on the Board of ICD and several private sector companies.

Rami holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical & computer engineering, a master’s degree in systems science, a PhD in Business Administration from Louisiana State University, and a master’s degree in public administration (MPA) from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

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