Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, has appointed Tariq Al-Rifai as its new director of Islamic indexes.

Al-Rifai was tapped to bring his extensive expertise as a leading authority on Islamic equity and private equity funds to Dow Jones Indexes to further advance its leading position in providing Shari’ah compliant indexes to the investment world. He will be based in Dubai and will focus on extending the reach of Dow Jones Indexes’ Shari’ah compliant index products globally.

As the leading Islamic finance expert Al-Rifai will be the main liaison between Dow Jones Islamic Market Shari’ah Supervisory Board of five international scholars and Dow Jones Indexes’ maintenance, research and development teams, which are responsible for screening the Shari’ah compliant index universe as well as building new indexes.

The 13-year Islamic industry veteran founded Failaka Advisors in 1996 to promote and develop Islamic financial instruments. The research organisation became a leading provider of Islamic market research and fund performance.

Since May 2004, Al-Rifai has served as vice president, UIB Capital, Chicago. Previously he was vice president Islamic Banking at HSBC Bank in New York and was partner at The International Investor, a Kuwaiti shareholding company.

Al-Rifai has a bachelor degree in International Business Finance from Saint Cloud State University in Minnesota and an MBA in International Business management from DePaul University in Chicago.-TradeArabia News Service