Syed Akbar Ali has an extensive background in Treasury & Capital Markets, Portfolio Management, Strategy, Financial and Economic Research, having worked for reputed financial institutions in a career spanning over 18 years.
Before joining Alfalah CLSA as CEO, Akbar was heading Capital Markets and Investor Relations Division at Bank Alfalah with a responsibility of leading three verticals i.e. Public Equities, Principal Investments/ Private Equity Market and Investor Relations. Earlier, he worked at UBL for over 9 years initially as bank’s Head of Research & Economic Analysis and later as Head of Capital Markets & Business Strategy at UBL Treasury. He was a key member of bank's core decision making committees, Global ALCO and Global Investment Committee. He also led Market/ Treasury Risk, FI Risk and Basel (Capital) division for a year before moving into UBL Treasury.
Prior to joining UBL, Akbar was associated with MCB-Arif Habib Savings & Investments Limited (Subsidiary of MCB Bank) where he headed the Investment Research function and was a key member of Investment Committees. He also played a key analytical role in the merger process of MCBAMC and Arif Habib Investment Limited, which required extensive financial analysis and merger valuation.
Akbar is a CFA Charter holder and a Certified Financial Risk Manager (FRM) and he has done BBA (Honors) and MBA in Finance from Karachi University Business School, where he was awarded with a Gold Medal for maintaining highest CGPA. He has been actively involved with the CFA Institute in various projects, including Global Investment Research Challenge at both local and regional levels. He has also served as the Director on the board of CFA Society Pakistan from 2015-18.
Akbar has been a regular speaker on various forums and has also been associated with the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) as a visiting faculty member.