Syed Sulaiman Ahmad Born in 1945, S. S. Ahmad obtained his Masters degree from Patna University and started teaching in a college in the same university. However, after a brief stint of just over a year as a lecturer, in 1969, he switched over to banking and finance; launching into the career of a professional banker as an official at State Bank of India. During an overseas posting in the Phillipines at a top management level of SBI, he was offered work at Al Rajhi Bank - the biggest bank of Saudi Arabia – which he accepted and from where he ultimately retired in 2009. With four decades of experience in banking, both in India and overseas, he has covered the entire gamut of the banking universe, working in varied areas like branch banking & branch management, credit appraisal, small scale industries & small business financing, corporate banking, innovative banking, public relations and human resources/cadre management etc. Further, at different points of time, he has held charge of international banking, limit administration of international banks & multinational corporate groups, structured trade, compliance issues as per central bank's regulations, and management of international legal cases and Special Purpose Companies. In his last banking assignment, he held the position of a Director on the Board of all the eleven European SPCs of Al Rajhi Bank; and retired from the banking job in Senior Management position from the International Division of the Bank. In the course of his official businesses in the international banking during his long and eventful banking career, he has travelled extensively

and has visited a large number of countries in all the five continents. This exposure has widened his world view. During this period, a number of his articles on various aspects of banking and finance have appeared in financial journals. Through his experience in small-scale financing and innovative banking, he has developed an academic interest in theories and practices of microfinance and was able to test some of this knowledge on the field. Similarly, his work with Al Rajhi also gave him a unique opportunity to understand and develop an insight into Islamic banking. He thinks this area is underexplored and would be happy if he gets an opportunity to probe it further to appreciate its essence. In addition to his professional life, he has always had a keen interest in language, letters and people. With a Master’s degree in English and a classical education in Urdu-Persian, and coming from a family background seeped in the tradition of Urdu literature and poetry, he could acquire an understanding of these literary traditions. Poetry and Literature have been important components of his life; he has been an Urdu Ghazal poet all through in a very private way. However, upon persuasion of friends and family, his poetic work has recently been compiled with the idea of getting them published. Furthermore, after retirement he also turned to his old love for writing. His pursuit of writing has already resulted in two books being published – one on the festival of Eid and the other, an adaptation of Amar Aiyaar - by Hachette. His passion for writing has a focus on revival of urdu-persian classical literature, especially amongst the younger generation. His second book, Amar Aiyaar King of Tricksters, is an effort in that direction: aimed at young adults, he has tried to capture the spirit of the most colourful tradition of storytelling – dastangoi – in this adaptation of the age old Urdu classic dastan of Tilism-e-Hoshroba, which draws on the Indo-Iranian cultural heritage. With a third book in the pipeline with publishers, he is currently working on his yet another one of his areas of interest – urdu poetry.

Sulaiman is also a ‘shayar’ (urdu poet) with his anthology of poems (‘Diwan’) being published by Maktaba Jamia Millia ltd. Reading on international relations and being abreast with developments in this area has been his other keen interest. That includes his extensive readings on various versions of the tragic culmination of the story of the partition of India. S.S. Ahmad has also been active in sports all along and currently been trying his hand at golf.