Dr. Sami Al Suwailem obtained his M.A from Southern Illinois University in 1990, and his Ph.D. from Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, in 1995. Dr. Al Suwailem also previously remained Deputy Director of Islamic Research and   Training Institute at the IDB Group. Before joining IRTI in 2004, Dr. Al Suwailem managed the Research and Development Center of the Shari’ah Group at Al-Rajhi Bank, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He worked at Institute of Islamic and Arabic  Sciences in America, Virginia, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois, USA, and King Saud University, Riyadh. Dr. Al Suwailem authored many books and published several papers on Islamic economics and finance. Dr. Al Suwailem held membership in several professional committees, including the Technical Committee of the Islamic Financial Services Board; Economic Committee of Awqaf at the Ministry of Islamic Affairs in Riyadh; Academic Committee in Islamic Fiqh  Academy of Muslim World League; Executive Committee of the Islamic International Foundation for Economics and Finance; Liquidity Risk Management Working Group for IFSB; and Task Force for Islamic Finance and Global Financial Stability.