Stella Cox CBE
Stella Cox CBE has worked within the Islamic financial marketplace for more than thirty years. Since 1998 she has been Managing Director of DDCAP GroupTM. Under Stella’s leadership, DDCAP has pioneered Sharia’a compliant intermediation services, bringing automation to the industry sector through the Group’s ETHOS AFPTM, serving clients and counterparties across the globe. DDCAP has also invested, for its own account, in a number of Islamic financial sector firms and initiatives.
On 26th November 2016, DDCAP was one of the first Islamic financial sector firms to be awarded Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) Signatory Status. DDCAP is also a Stakeholder Endorser of the UNEP FI Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB). Stella represents DDCAP within the Islamic Finance and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Taskforce, the inaugural meeting of which took place in July 2020, convened by the Islamic Finance Council UK (UKIFC) in partnership with the UK Government. With a US$2.5 trillion per year financing gap, the UKIFC has committed to a 24-month action-oriented program of activities to address barriers blocking Islamic financial institutions from embracing the targets of the SDGs.
Previously Stella was a Director of merchant bank Kleinwort Benson Limited, where her team managed assets aggregating over US$2bn. Whilst at Kleinwort, Stella was involved in structuring The Islamic Fund, the first Sharia’a compliant global equity fund which launched in 1986. She was also a Director of the Al Meezan Commodity Fund plc, a joint venture initiative with a GCC Islamic bank that invested in non-ferrous metals traded on the London Metal Exchange.
Since 2015 Stella has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the RFI Foundation, where she also sits on the Governance and Risk Committee and previously served as an Advisory Board member for the Ethical Finance Innovation Challenge Awards (“EFICA”), co-sponsored by Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Thomson Reuters. She is serving her second rotation as a member of the Nomination Committee for Malaysia’s Royal Award for Islamic Finance (The Royal Award).
Outside of her work as a financial markets practitioner, Stella speaks regularly at international conferences on a broad range of topics and has contributed to many publications. Specifically, she was co-author of Structuring Islamic Finance Transactions published by Euromoney Books and co-authored the Islamic Finance Qualification (IFQ) jointly offered by the UK Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) and the École Supérieure des Affaires in Lebanon, contributing the Islamic Asset and Fund Management module.
Stella is a personal advocate of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals objectives and the relevant responsible practices championed by DDCAP. She supports educational initiatives that are relevant to the market and the development of its human capital. She has served as a member of the University of East London’s Islamic Finance and Banking Advisory Board and has been a visiting lecturer at Durham University’s Islamic Finance Summer School Programme, as well as the Cambridge Islamic Finance Programme at Clare College, Cambridge and the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.
Expert Profile
Stella Cox CBE
Islamic Banking and Finance
- DDGI Limited – 5 January 1998
- DDCAP Limited – 1st September 2005
- DD&Co Limited – 1 September 2005
- Codalph Limited – 7 January 2015
- Outstanding Contribution to Islamic Finance in the UK’ – IREF
- Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). The honour was for her services to the Economy and, specifically, as a Champion for the Development of Islamic Finance in the UK – 2016
- Ranked number 1 in the ‘Top 10 Women in Islamic Banking & Finance’ listing published by ISFIRE 2017
- Ranked number 1 in the ‘100 Most Influential Women in Islamic Finance’ of the WOMANi 2018 Report published by ISFIRE
- Freeman of The City of London (2019)
Chair/Board/Trustee/Patron
- Chair of the Islamic Finance Market Advisory Group formed by TheCityUK
- Member of the Board of Trustees of the RFI Foundation, Member of the Governance Committee
- Member of the Nomination Committee for the Malaysian Royal Award for Islamic Finance (RAIF) (since 2018)
- Appointed Patron-in-Chief of WOMANi (2019)
Advisory
- Advisory Board member to Ethical Equity (2020)
- Advisory Board member to Kestrl (2021)
- Represents DDCAP on the Market and Product Development Committee (MPDC) of the International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM), of which DDCAP is a member.
- Fellow of the Institute of Islamic Banking and Insurance (IIBI) in the United Kingdom and has served on its Board of Governors within the Islamic Banking Group
From 2007-2009 Stella served as an Independent Non-Executive Director of Gatehouse Bank, a UK Islamic investment bank.
Outside of DDCAP, Stella has had the privilege to be appointed to numerous industry think tanks, working groups and committees. These include membership 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 assisting the Dubai International Financial Centre Islamic Advisory Committee with its work on selected strategic development initiatives. Stella served as a member of the Islamic Financial Services Board Money Market Task Force on Markets and Instruments for Sharia’a Compliant Liquidity Management and currently represents DDCAP on project specific Working Groups of the International Islamic Financial Market.
In 2013, the UK Government launched its first Islamic Finance Task Force. The ministerial led Task Force was established to refocus on Islamic finance and the UK proposition. Stella was one of a small group of non-ministerial industry experts within the Task Force and acted as practitioner lead for the regulatory work stream. With support from the Task Force, the UK Government announced plans to launch an inaugural sovereign Sukuk at the World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) in October 2013 in London, with the successful issuance following in June 2014.
In 2014, Stella was appointed Chair of the Islamic Finance Market Advisory Group formed by TheCityUK, the financial services professional body that champions UK-based financial and related professional services. It is a membership body, lobbying on the industry’s behalf, producing evidence of its importance to the wider national economy.
In June 2016, Stella was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Stella was honoured for her services to the Economy and, specifically, as a Champion for the Development of Islamic Finance in the UK. In 2017, she was ranked number 1 in the ‘Top 10 Women in Islamic Banking & Finance’ listing published by ISFIRE, and in the ISFIRE ‘WOMANi 2018′ Report she was ranked number 1 amongst the ‘100 Most Influential Women in Islamic Finance’. She was appointed Patron-in-Chief of WOMANi in April 2019.
In January 2019, Stella became a member of the Astana International Financial Centre’s Advisory Council on Islamic Finance (“ACIF”) and in July 2019 Stella became a Freeman of the City of London.
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). The honour was for her services to the Economy and, specifically, as a Champion for the Development of Islamic Finance in the UK – 2016
30 Years