Zeti Akhtar Aziz has been governor of Malaysia’s central bank since 2000, and was the first woman to take up the role in the South East Asian financial hub.
Aziz is Yemeni by descent on her mother’s side, and took a PhD in monetary studies and international economics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She began her career as an economic analyst for the South-East Asia Central Bank Training & Research Centre, before being appointed deputy manager of the economics department at Bank Negara Malaysia.
After a spell in the UK as the bank’s chief representative, she returned to become chief economist and head of the economics department. Aziz was appointed assistant governor of the central bank in 1995.
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