Tarik Akin is Head of the Department of Participation Finance at Finance Office, Presidency of Turkey. His work experience also includes consultant positions at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Silatech-Qatar. He also worked as research assistant in the Center for International Development at Harvard University and INCEIF. Dr. Tarık has earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from Bilkent University, master’s degree in international development from Harvard University and PhD degree in Islamic finance from INCEIF. His research interests include Islamic capital markets, economics of inequality, redistribution policies, and SME finance. Abbas Mirakhor joined INCEIF in 2010 as Distinguished Scholar and the First Holder of INCEIF's Chair in Islamic Finance. His research interests include conventional and Islamic economics and finance. He is a graduate of the Kansas State University, USA, where he received his Bachelor, Master and PhD Degrees in Economics. In 1968, he started his academic career with University of Alabama, USA. Mirakhor has worked as a professor of economics at the University of Alabama, Alabama A&M University, and the Florida Institute of Technology. In 1984, he joined the IMF in Washington DC as an economist. He spent 24 years with the IMF, serving as the organisation's Executive Director and Dean of the Executive Board, retiring in 2008.