Stella Cox CBE
Stella Cox CBE has worked within the Islamic financial marketplace for more than thirty years. Since 1998, she has been the Managing Director of DDCAP Group, which is a leading provider of capital market intermediary services and related technology solutions to Islamic financial market institutions. Within DDCAP, which aspires to connect the Islamic financial marketplace responsibly, Stella has been a keen advocate of developing the connectivity between Sharia’a compliant financial practice and that of other responsible financial services subsets. Since 2015, she has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the RFI Foundation, which was established with the aim of bringing together various forms of responsible finance practices, encouraging consensus as the basis for convergence between standards, practices and regulations.
On 26th November 2016, DDCAP was one of the first Islamic financial sector firms to be awarded Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) Signatory Status. DDCAP is also a Stakeholder Endorser of the UNEP FI Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB). Stella represents DDCAP within the Islamic Finance and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Taskforce, the inaugural meeting of which took place in July 2020, convened by the Islamic Finance Council UK (UKIFC) in partnership with the UK Government. With a US$2.5 trillion per year financing gap, the UKIFC has committed to a 24-month action-oriented program of activities to address barriers blocking Islamic financial institutions from embracing the targets of the SDGs.
In 2013, Stella was one of a small group of non-ministerial industry experts appointed to the UK government’s Islamic Finance Task Force, where she acted as practitioner lead for the regulatory work stream. With support from the Task Force, the UK’s inaugural sovereign sukuk was successfully issued in June 2014. Since 2014, Stella has been Chair of the Islamic Finance Market Advisory Group formed by TheCityUK, the financial services professional body that champions UK-based financial and related professional services. She represents DDCAP on the UK Islamic Fintech Panel.
In June 2016, Stella was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Stella was honoured for her services to the Economy and, specifically, as a Champion for the Development of Islamic Finance in the UK.
Stella was ranked number 1 amongst the ‘100 Most Influential Women in Islamic Finance’ in the ISFIRE ‘WOMANi 2018′ Report and was also invited to serve as a member of the Nomination Committee for the Malaysian Royal Award for Islamic Finance (the Royal Award) 2018. In January 2019, Stella became a member of the Astana International Financial Centre’s Advisory Council on Islamic Finance (“ACIF”). She was appointed Patron-in-Chief of WOMANi in April 2019 and in July 2019 Stella became a Freeman of the City of London.
