Mohamed Hussain Maniku

 

Mohamed Hussain Maniku has been the Chief Executive Officer of Maldives Pension Administration Office since October 2009. He commenced his career at Department of Finance, presently the Ministry of Finance and Treasury and held number of senior management posts. He gained vast exposure in corporate business settings in many functional areas before assuming the post of Managing Director of State Trading Organization (STO) in 1993. He has held directorships in number of companies during his tenure with STO. He was instrumental in transforming the company from an import and distribution company to a holding company engaged in international trading. In February 2008, Mr. Maniku was appointed as Maldivian Ambassador to United States of America. He holds as a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from American University of Beirut, Lebanon.

Ibrahim Athif Shakoor

 

Ibrahim Athif Shakoor is the Chairman of Dhiraagu- the local telecommunication company; a joint venture between Maldivian Government and Batelco Plc of Bahrain. During his career, he has served at senior and CEO level positions of some of the biggest and most diversified corporate entities of the Maldives including Allied Insurance Company, the State Trading Organization Plc. (STO), Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company Ltd (Mifco) and Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC). In this respect, he served over eight years at Mifco, starting as head of Sales and Marketing in 1996 and finally as the Managing Director of the company. Subsequent to this, he held the post of Managing Director of MTCC from Nov 2005 to January 2009. In a career expanding over 20 years, he has held number of board positions and successfully managed biggest companies across various industries including Insurance, the Retail and Trading business, Fishery and Manufacturing, the Transport and Logistics business, the Construction and Contracting Industry as well as the Distribution and  Servicing Industry.

 

Apart from this, he is also involved in academia and has been a visiting lecturer at the Faculty of Management and Computing of the Maldivian National University and at Villa College lecturing on Business Entrepreneurship, Maldivian Business Environment and Financial Management to degree and diploma students.

 

He has also been engaged in the setup of the first Rotary Club in the Maldives; a voluntary service organization that is more than 100 years old with 1.2 million members world-wide. 

 

He has a BA in Economics, and Master’s Degree from Monash University, Australia,

 

Niyaz Ibrahim

Mr.Niyaz Ibrahim assumed office as the auditor General on 4th May 2011 to begin his 7-year term as the head of the Supreme Audit Institution of the Maldives.

Mr.Niyaz is a professionally qualified chartered accountant with experience in the auditing and accounting profession. His formal education qualifications include Master of Science in Audit Management and Consultancy from Birmingham City University, Bachelor’s Degree (Hons) in Accounting and Finance, University of East London of the United Kingdom and ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), United Kingdom.

Prior to Mr.Niyaz’s appointment as the Auditor General, he was the head of Internal Audit Department of the state-run Maldives Ports Limited. Mr.Niyaz has extensive experience working in the Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) of the Maldives. Mr.Niyaz first joined the Auditor General’s Office (then Maldives Audit office) as an Accounts Officer (trainee) in the year 2000 and became an audit Manager in 2004. When Niyaz left Auditor General’s Office to take employment with Maldives Ports Limited, he was working as Deputy Director General at the Auditor General’s Office.

 

Kirthisri Rajatha Wijeweera

Kirthisri Rajatha Wijeweera (Rajiv) is an Economist attached to the South Asia Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit. He is also the World Bank Country Economist for the Republic of Maldives. He has been in the bank service since 2005. At the World Bank, he is primarily responsible for macroeconomic monitoring, macro risk assessments and the preparation of key economic briefs and policy reports on both Sri Lanka and the Maldives. In addition, he co-led the first ever Development Policy Lending (DPL) operation for the Maldives in 2010, and was also the Task Team Leader of the Maldives Tourism Sector Technical Assistance work which spanned 2011-2013. Rajiv is currently the task leader for the Maldives Interim Strategy Note (ISN) which will go to the Bank Board in January 2014.

From 1996 to 2005, he has worked as Manager Research & Corporate Planning at Hatton National Bank, Sri Lanka. Before joining the bank he worked as an Economist at Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. He has also served in number of committees in the public-private sector.

He holds a Master’s degree in Economics from University of Colombo and Double Degree in Science & Economics from Australian National University.

Dr. Simad Saeed

Dr. Simad Saeed is the Managing Director of CDE Consulting. He is also the Chairperson of the Advisory Board to the Institute of Governance and Development. He was the National Consultant to Ministry of Planning and National Development on Millennium Development Goals - the internationally agreed goals to reduce extreme poverty, disease, and hunger by the year 2015 and was the National Facilitator for the Seventh National Development Plan of the Maldives. He was a member of the taskforce appointed by the President of the Maldives to develop the strategic policies for Vision 2020.

He contributes to community development through active volunteering and was instrumental in facilitating the formulation and adoption of Vision Addu. He is a member of the national NGO Volunteers for Environment, Social Harmony and Improvement (VESHI) and atoll level NGO Develop Addu. Simad worked for the Government of the Maldives for more than 10 years from 1989 to 2001 at various positions in the Ministry of Planning and the Ministry of Environment. His areas of interest are sustainable development, governance, climate change; sustainable tourism; and social development. 

He holds a Bachelor of Science (Environmental Science) from Southampton University UK, Master of Science in Environmental Assessment and Management from Oxford Brookes University, UK and Doctor of Philosophy from Australian National University, Australia.

 

 

Riluwan Shareef

Mr. Riluwan Shareef is the Managing Director of Villa Air Pvt. Ltd. Villa Air is an affiliate company of Villa Holdings, one of the largest private business establishments in the Maldives. It operates the popularly branded FlyMe domestic carrier.

The Villa group owns and operates five tourist resorts representing some ten percent of room inventory of Maldives resorts; the group also has several other businesses including fuel trading, shipping, fisheries and education.

Before venturing into the private sector Mr. Shareef served with the government of Maldives, including over ten years with Department of Posts and Telecommunications.

During the time spent with the Posts and Telecommunications sectors, he was key in negotiating and forming the highly successful and profitable company Dhiraagu, one of the first joint venture companies of the country between the Government and a multinational company which in this case was Cable & Wireless plc, of the UK. After incorporation of Dhiraagu in 1987, he served on the Board of Directors of the newly formed company for over five years.

Between 1993 and 1996 served as the Deputy Executive Director of The Asia Pacific Telecommunity, an intergovernmental agency established under the auspices of UN ESCAP mandated in the development of Telecommunications in the Asia Pacific Region.

From 2001 to 2008 Mr. Shareef was with the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of the Maldives, where he served several positions including Deputy Minister and Minister of State for Finance. During his tenure with the Finance Ministry he was directly responsible for managing the foreign debt portfolio. He also represented Maldives with international financial institutions in the capacity of Alternate Governor to the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank as well as the Islamic Development Bank.

Mr. Shareef has a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Auckland University, New Zealand, and an MBA in International Business & Finance from RMIT University of Melbourne, Australia.

Dr Azeema Adam

Dr Azeema Adam is the Executive Director and head of the Monetary Policy and Research Division of the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA).

She joined the MMA in 1991 and since then, has been working in the area of macroeconomic research for policymaking. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the University of Canberra, Australia, MSc in International Development and Finance from the University of Leicester, UK, and PhD in Economics from the University of Canberra, Australia. Her PhD research was on the area of exchange rate issues in the Maldives. Dr Adam’s research interests include exchange rate, public finance and tourism economics.