Tan Sri Dato" Sri Doctor Zeti Akhtar Aziz is the 7th and current governor of Bank Negara Malaysia, Malaysia"s central bank.
Background
Zeti Akhtar Aziz was born in Johor Bahru, Johor on 27 August 1947, to father Royal Professor Ungku Aziz, who is of Malay, Circassian and English descent, and mother Sharifah Azah Mohamed Alsagoff, who was of Hadhrami Arab and Malay descent.
Education
She then completed her Form 6 in Saint John"s Institution, Kuala Lumpur. She continued her studies in the Department of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), an Ivy League university in Philadelphia, receiving a Doctor of Philosophy in monetary and international economics in 1978.
Career
She has been governor since May 2000, and was the first woman in the position. Zeti received early education at Assunta High School, Petaling Jaya in 1958. In 1970, she received a bachelor"s degree in Economics from University Malaya.
As part of her Doctor of Philosophy, dissertation she carried out pioneering work on capital flows and its implications for monetary policy.
Zeti Akhtar Aziz began her career as an economic analyst for the South-East Asia Central Bank Training & Research Center, remaining at that post from 1979 to 1984. She was then appointed Deputy Manager of the Economics Department at Bank Negara Malaysia.
In 2009, Global Finance magazine, named her as one of the world"s best central bank chiefs. In 2010, she was named "Tokoh Ma"al Hijrah 1432H" at the national-level Ma"al Hijrah celebration.
On 20 May 2011, Bloomberg columnist William Pesek picked Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Doctor Zeti Akhtar Aziz as one of his top four nominees to head the prestigious International Monetary Fund (International Monetary Fund) after the position became vacant following the resignation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn who was arrested in New York, and is presently facing sexual assault charges.
In 2013, Tan Sri Doctor Zeti Akhtar Aziz has again been accorded “Grade A” among the heads of central banks for the 10th time by the Global Finance magazine. She was awarded alongside Philippines’ central bank governor Amando Tetangco, Junior. and Taiwan’s Central Bank Governor Perng Fai-nan, from a list of central bank governors of more than 50 key countries. Tan Sri Doctor Zeti Akhtar Aziz is the Chairman of the Asian Institute of Finance.