Hesham Jamil Merdad (Ph.D), Dean of KBS, as well as Assistant Professor in the Department of Accounting & Finance. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Financial Management in 2003 from King Saudi University (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia). He obtained two Master’s degrees: the first one is in Finance in 2006 from Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, New York, USA); and the second one is in Financial Economics in 2009 from the University of New Orleans (New Orleans, Louisiana, USA). Finally, he obtained his PhD in Financial Economics in 2012 from the University of New Orleans (New Orleans, Louisiana, USA).

University of New Orleans, New Orleans LA – USA
Ph.D. in Financial Economics 2012
Dissertation: Two Essays in Islamic Finance and Investment

University of New Orleans, New Orleans LA – USA
M.S.c in Financial Economics 2009

Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester NY – USA
M.Sc. in Finance 2006
Dissertation: Two Essays in Islamic Finance and Investment

King Saud University, Riyadh – Saudi Arabia
B.A. with Second Class Honor in Business Administration 2003
Area of Concentration: Financial Management

Asset Pricing
Corporate Finance
Islamic Finance
Risk Management

Merdad, H; Hassan, M. K.; and Alhenawi, Y., Islamic Versus Conventional Mutual Funds Performance in Saudi Arabia: A Case Study; Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Islamic Economics, 2010, Volume 23 Number 2, 161-198.

Alhenawi, Y.,; Hassan, M. K.; and Merdad, H, The Relative Performance of Debt-restricted Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs): Does Faith Matter?, Southwestern Finance Association Conference in Houston, Texas, March 10-12, 2011.

Jose Francisco Rubio; Hassan, M. K.; Merdad, H, “Non-parametric performance measurement of international and Islamic mutual funds”; Accounting Research Journal, 2012, Vol. 25 Iss: 3, pp.208 – 226.

Merdad, H; Hassan, M. K., Islamic Mutual Funds Performance in Saudi Arabia; Chapter 20 in Contemporary Islamic Finance: Innovations, Applications, and Best Practices, edited by Karen Hunt-Ahmed, published by John Wiley and Sons, March 2013, pp. 303-322.

Merdad, H; M. Kabir Hassan, William J. Hippler, The Islamic risk factor in expected stock returns: an empirical study in Saudi Arabia; Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Available online 20 April 2015.

Merdad, H; M. Kabir Hassan and Mohsin Khawja, Does Faith Matter in Mutual Funds Investing? Evidence from Saudi Arabia; Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Available online 01 Sept 2015