Dow Jones Indexes recruits founder of Failaka

Mr. 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. He also will maintain relationships with financial institutions around the world.

His key responsibilities will be to work with Dow Jones Indexes institutional clients to identify new business opportunities, develop new Shari'ah compliant indexes and work with money managers and educate investors. As the leading Islamic finance expert Mr. 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.

"Having Tariq join our team is a great win for Dow Jones Indexes. His knowledge about Islamic Finance and his broad industry relationships will assure that the Dow Jones Islamic Index family continues to be the leader in Islamic indexing. Tariq will reinforce and support Dow Jones Indexes' commitment to innovative, meaningful and relevant Islamic indexes in the future,"

said Michael A. Petronella, president, Dow Jones Indexes.

"The Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes are unique, were first to market and continue to be the standard of Islamic indexing around the globe," he added.

The 13-year Islamic industry veteran founded Failaka Advisors in 1996 to promote and develop Islamic financial instruments. The research organization became a leading provider of Islamic market research and fund performance. Since May 2004, Mr. Al-Rifai has served as vice president, UIB Capital, Inc., 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.

Mr. 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.