Humayon Dar is the director general of the Cambridge Institute of Islamic Finance, a research institute specializing in the financial sectors of the countries with significant proportion of Islamic banking and finance.
Prior to joining Cambridge IIF, Dar served as Director General of Islamic Research & Training Institute (IRTI) of Islamic Development Bank (IsDB). He is also Chairman of the Cambridge-Edbiz Group of Companies, which owns Edbiz Consulting and Cambridge IFA. He is a sharia (Islamic law) advisor, Islamic economist, and advocate for Islamic banking and finance. He has served as a member of the Shari'a boards of Arabesque Asset Management, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Omarco Holding, Hong Leong Islamic Bank Malaysia, Hong Leong MSIG Takaful, Allianz Global Investors Luxembourg, and UMEX Securities.
He served as managing director at Deutsche Bank and CEO of its Islamic finance subsidiary, and has also been a visiting Professor for Islamic Finance for universities in the UK, Malaysia and the Middle East.
Though not a classically trained Islamic scholar, he has undergone training in the Islamic sciences, such as Quranic hermeneutics. His academic influences include Muhammad Umer Chapra, Khurshid Ahmad, Anas Zarka, Nejatullah Siddiqi and Abdul Rahman Yousri.
Education and personal life
Dar was born in Gakkhar Mandi on the Pakistani side of the Punjab province. After he finished secondary school education at his home town, the young Dar was sent to Lahore, where he attended Government College Lahore (now called University Government College Lahore). He spent two years there before he was admitted to International Islamic University Islamabad in 1986.
Dar holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons) and Master of Science (both in Islamic Economics) from the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIU), as well as an MPhil and PhD (both in Economics) from Cambridge University.
Professional life
Dar co-founded (with Joohn Presley) an MSc program in Islamic economics, banking & finance at Loughborough University. He has also assisted the Cass Business School, of London's City University, in creating and offering an Executive MBA in Islamic Finance. He holds a Visiting Professor position in Islamic Finance at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), and is an Adjunct Professor in Islamic Finance at COMSATS Institute of Information Technology Lahore (Pakistan).
In 2005, he joined Dar Al Istithmar, a joint venture between Deutsche Bank, the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies and Russell Wood, which was created to provide advice on offering financial products that comply with Islamic law. Deutsche Bank organised a series of seminars regarding Islamic finance throughout the Middle East in 2005, with which Humayon Dar emerged as an influential opinion-maker in the global Islamic financial services industry. In March 2006, Dar was named managing director of Dar Al Istithmar and a managing director at Deutsche Bank. Under Dar's leadership, Dar Al Istithmar emerged as a global think tank for Islamic finance. His leadership was recognised by Euromoney that presented Dar Al Istithmar "Best Islamic Advisory & Assurance" award, for both 2006 and 2007.
In 2007, the team from Dar Al Istithmar was absorbed by the BMB Group, the Eastern-focused investment and advisory group led by Rayo Withanage, the resulting company renamed BMB Islamic. Dar was appointed as its CEO. In 2008, BMB Islamic was accepted as member of the Bahrain-based association Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions. In March 2011, he founded Edbiz Consulting Limited, which fast emerged as a leading think tank for the Islamic financial services industry. In September 2012, Dar successfully launched Edbiz Corporation as a holding company for all the businesses he has developed over the years. Dar serves as its chairman. Following the success of his various ventures, in 2014 he founded Cambridge IFA, a company specialising in Islamic financial innovation.
In addition to his advocacy of Islamic banking and finance, Dar sits on a number of Sharia Advisory Boards. He has previously sat on Sharia Boards of Allianz Global Investors (Luxembourg), Hong Leong Islamic Bank (Malaysia), Hong Leong Tokio Takaful Marine (Malaysia) and Halal Industries Group (UK). Through his Shari'a advisory role with Nasdaq OMX, he was instrumental in developing Nasdaq 100 Sharia and OMX 30 Sharia indices of which 7 are already in the market. His current Sharia advisory engagements include Arabesque Asset Management, Omarco, and Nasdaq OMX.
