Since joining the company 20 years ago, Mohammed Al Omar has played a major role in establishing the lender’s strategies; spearheading the group’s global expansion into the UAE and Kazakhstan, increasing its branch presence in Turkey from 26 to 130 and also obtaining a licence to operate in Germany.

KFH provides a wide range of Sharia-compliant products and services covering banking, real estate, trade finance, investment portfolios and corporate, commercial and retail financial markets and is now the world’s second largest Islamic lender.

Bucking the trend of major banks in Europe and the US, Kuwait Finance House managed to post a hugely impressive $542m profit in 2008. In November, the lender posted a 5 percent increase in net profit compared to the previous quarter.