Prof Dr Saadiah Mohamad

Brief Profile

Saadiah Mohamad is Professor of Economics at the Faculty of Business and Accountancy, Universiti Selangor UNISEL. She was a full-tenured professor of Economics at Arshad Ayub Graduate Business School and the Faculty of Business, Universiti Teknologi MARA UiTM, Malaysia’s largest university from 2010 to 2020. She was appointed Professor and the first Head of Business School at the University of Southampton Malaysia in 2021.

In October 2017 she was appointed by the Prime Minister of Malaysia as a member (commissioner) of Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC) for a three year period. At MyCC she chaired the Economic Committee, Expert Panel Committee on Research Grant and the Expert Panel & Technical Committee on Market Reviews under Competition Act 2010.

Born in 1962, she received her education in three different continents: her undergraduate degree (Town and Country Planning) from University of Manchester, UK, a Master’s degree (Economics) from the University of Missouri Kansas City, USA and a PhD (Economics) in 2003 from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia ( National University of Malaysia) . Her PhD thesis on the Exchange Rate and Export Competitiveness of Southeast Asian Economies, an empirical study using a methodology that involved a new robust econometric modelling had won the best thesis award from the university.

She has over 30 years of teaching and 25 years of research experience. She has taught various Economic courses for the undergraduates and for the past 15 years has been teaching post graduate level courses in Economics and Islamic Finance. She has been involved in post graduate research supervision and has successfully graduated several PhDs including a few international students.

Dr. Saadiah’s administrative and organisational experience includes as the Deputy Dean (Research, Industry and Community Linkages) at the Faculty of Business and Management, UiTM; as head at the Centre of Finance, Islamic Banking and Economics, Institute of Business Excellence, UiTM and as the first Director of the World Islamic Economic Forum WIEF-UiTM International Centre.

At WIEF and with the NAM (Non-Aligned Movement) Institute for the Empowerment of Women (NIEW), she developed modules and successfully executed capacity building programmes for women entrepreneurs from Asia, Australasia, Africa and the Middle East.

Dr. Saadiah received a grant award for the prestigious Fulbright visiting specialist programme in 2006 at the Institute of Global Enteprise in Indiana, University of Evansville USA. She has also had research stints at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund Washington DC, (2001), Bank Negara, the Central Bank of Malaysia (2007) and the Asian Institute of Finance in Kuala Lumpur (2010-2011).

She was awarded a one year visiting research fellowship at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, University of Oxford to pursue her research entitled “Expanding the Universe: A Phenomenological Investigation into Islamic Financial Models as Tools for Social Innovation” in 2015.

Dr Saadiah has more than 15 years of experience in Islamic Economics and Finance. She founded the Journal of Emerging Economies and Islamic research (JEEIR) in 2013 and maintained her role as the founding chief editor until February 2021. She remains in the editorial board to perform more of advisory role The journal was awarded best UiTM Journal for 2019.

Besides Chief Editor to JEEIR, she is a member of more than 10 editorial boards and scientific committees of international journals and conferences. She has contributed to the development of Islamic Finance education in the region in her role as one of the executive committee members of the International Council of Islamic Finance Educators (ICIFE), a recognised authority on global Islamic Finance education mandated by the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia (2014-2019).

She has published over 80 chapters in books, industry reports and academic papers in the areas of Economics, exchange rates, Islamic Finance and Social Finance. She is a co editor of the latest book entitled “ Membangun Ekonomi Manusiawi” published in 2021 by Forum Ekonomi Manusiawi (FEM) and NGO she co founded in 2020.

Dr Saadiah is a regular speaker at conferences and seminars. She has a wide international engagement, travelling for academic visits, conferences and work missions to many countries including Asia, the US, UK, Europe, South America, Africa and the Gulf. Currently she is a regular speaker and moderator for webinars engaging leading economists and scholars to discuss on the economic and global challenges of the pandemic.

She paved the way to bring Islamic Economics and Finance into a multidisciplinary research where she led the social science team with a project titled “Modelling the Cost Effectiveness of Drone-Assisted Technology for Mass-Disaster Victim Identification: An Islamic Maqasid-based Framework”. The team is part of a bigger team of research collaborating with the Engineering and Medical research scientists to win a transdisciplinary research grant scheme (TRGS) award from the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia (2019-2021).

In 2018, she and a few other women founded the Khadijah International Waqf Foundation (KIWF), registered in Labuan dedicated to the application of Islamic Finance and wealth management to serve women and children.

Dr Saadiah won the Top 20 Most Influential Women in Islamic Business and Finance in 2019. In this 2019 Womani 300 Award by the Cambridge International Finance Advisory, UK, Professor Saadiah is ranked number 16 from the world list of top 300 most influential women in Islamic business and finance. Dr Saadiah also won this award in 2020, ranked number 16 as well.

Prof Saadiah currently devotes her time for research and supervision of PhD students. She passionately contributes as a public intellectual and performs an activist role in promoting a more humanistic economy, one that focuses on the well-being of people and the care of the environment. Prof Saadiah co-founded Forum Ekonomi Manusia (FEM) “ Forum for a Humane Economy” and currently is the Deputy Chairman. FEM, established in 2020 is an NGO to promote an inclusive, just and sustainable economy.