Joseph F.X. Zahra is a Maltese economist who has held a number of directorships in both private and public companies in Malta and abroad.
Education
Zahra graduated from University of Malta with a First Class Degree in Economics (1976) and a Masters Degree in Economics (1979). He is also a Chartered Marketer, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, besides being a member of the Market Research Society (United Kingdom). Zahra is a fellow member of the Salzburg Seminar on “Technology and Structural Unemployment” (1986).
In 2001 he was granted Honorary Lifelong Membership in the Malta Institute of Management.
Career
He is also a lecturer of economics at the University of Malta and had the appointment of “docente a contratto” at the University of Messina, Italy. He is a founding partner and Managing Director of a Maltese company, MISCO. Zahra is also a playwright and the author of a book of verse. Zahra is a former director of the Central Bank of Malta (1992-1996), a former chairman of Bank of Valletta (1998-2004), Maltacom plc (2003) and he was appointed by then Prime Minister of Malta, Lawrence Gonzi, to chair the National Euro Changeover Committee to introduce the Euro currency in Malta.
Zahra was also chairman of the Malta Council for Culture and Arts (2002-2003) and the National Higher Commission (2006-2008).
Zahra is one of five members on the International Audit Committee of the Holy See and the Vatican State. In July 2013, Pope Francis named Zahra the President of a new Pontifical Commission (the Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See), chartered to investigate current accounting practices among Vatican offices and bodies and to help devise new strategies for greater fiscal responsibility and transparency.
Membership
He is also a Chartered Marketer, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, besides being a member of the Market Research Society (United Kingdom). Zahra is a fellow member of the Salzburg Seminar on “Technology and Structural Unemployment” (1986). Zahra is also chairman of the Audit Committee of Corinthia Palace Hotel Company Limited.
Chairman of the Audit Committee of Medserv plc and chairman of the Audit Committee of MSV Life plc and member of the Audit Committee of United Finance PLC
On 8 March 2014, he was named by Pope Francis to serve as one of the Lay Members of the newly established Council for Economic Affairs, which will oversee the work of the new Secretariat for the Economy, an agency which will have financial regulatory authority over all the departments of the Roman Curia.
Zahra is a board member of the Vatican-based Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation.