Stella Cox is Managing Director of DDCAP and its wholly owned subsidiaries DD&Co Limited and DDGI Limited. Stella and her team are responsible for DDCAP’s Islamic financial sector clients and market activities. DD&Co is a leading provider of asset facilitation services to the Islamic wholesale markets. DDGI has invested, for its own account, in a number of Islamic financial services initiatives and was a founder shareholder in Islamic Bank of Britain (now Al Rayan Bank).

Previously she was a Director of Dresdner Kleinwort Benson Limited (“KB”) where she had responsibility for Middle Eastern institutional relationships and product development for KB’s Islamic clients. Stella’s team managed assets aggregating over US$2bn and extended over US$250mn of finance to their clients through Sharia’a compliant structures. Whilst with the Bank, Stella was involved in structuring The Islamic Fund, the first Sharia’a compliant global equity product, launched in 1986. She was also a Director of the Al Meezan Commodity Fund plc, a joint venture initiative with an Islamic Bank that invested in non-ferrous metals traded on the London Metal Exchange.

From 2007-2009 Stella served as an Independent Non-Executive Director of Gatehouse Bank, a UK Islamic investment bank.

On 13th March 2013, the UK Government launched the first Islamic Finance Task Force. The ministerial led Task Force was established to refocus on Islamic Finance and the UK proposition. In addition to the 4 Ministers, Stella was one of a small group of non-ministerial industry experts within the Task Force and acted as practitioner lead for the regulatory workstream. With support from the Task Force, the UK Government announced plans at the World Islamic Economic Forum in October 2013 in London to launch an inaugural sovereign Sukuk in the near future, culminating in the successful £200mn issuance in June 2014. Subsequently, Stella has been appointed Chair of the Islamic Finance Market Advisory Group recently established by TheCityUK.

Stella is a Fellow of the Institute of Islamic Banking and Insurance in the United Kingdom and has served on its Board of Governors within the Islamic Banking Group. Previously, Stella was a member of HM Treasury Islamic Finance Experts Group, where she was part of the Market Standardisation sub-group. Stella was also a member of the Working Group established by the Central Bank of Bahrain (formerly the Bahrain Monetary Authority) with the purpose of developing procedures and documentation for Islamic commodity trading and she assisted the DIFC Islamic Advisory Committee with its work on selected strategic development initiatives. Stella serves as a member of the Islamic Financial Services Board Money Market Task Force on Markets and Instruments for Sharia’a Compliant Liquidity Management and represents DDCAP on the Market and Product Development Committee (MPDC) of the International Islamic Financial Market.

In December 2008, Stella was awarded for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Islamic Finance in the UK’ at the IREF Summit.