| Pioneers of a burgeoning market Atif Abdulmalik Atif Abdulmalik had been a highly successful executive at Investcorp, the Bahrain-based investment bank that has raised private-equity funds from wealthy families in the Middle East and invested it in corporate acquisitions and real estate projects, primarily in the US and Europe. However, he took the bold decision to leave and take part in the creation in 1997 of First Islamic Investment Bank, which was created to conduct the same type of business, only on Islamic principles. During his time as FIIB's chief executive, Abdulmalik, who is entrepreneurial and seemingly always flying off somewhere, has presided over a dramatic expansion in its activities. |