Dr Shiraz Kabani is leading and managing the Department of Communications and Development at IIS. His professional experience includes eleven years as Executive Officer of the Ismaili Tariqah and Religious Education Board for the USA (1987-1998) and as the Managing Director of an IT consulting firm in Houston (1998-1999).

He joined The Institute of Ismaili Studies in September 1999 as Executive Officer (1999-2000). He was appointed as Head of Resource Development and Communications in 2000 and subsequently as Head of Operations, Finance & Development (2005-2011). He also served as Secretary to the Board of Governors from 1999-2013. Thereafter, he was appointed Head of Community Relations, in which position he served until February 2024.

In addition to a BSc in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (1987) and an MBA (1997), Dr Kabani has earned a Doctor of Management in Organisational Leadership (2017). His dissertation, entitled Linking Ethics and Leadership, was based on a hermeneutic phenomenological study to explore the role of ethics in organisational leadership practice in non-profit organisations in the United Kingdom.

Dr Kabani’s research interests include leadership in non-profit contexts and ethics in cosmopolitan societies. Over the past 35 years, he has served as a public speaker and faculty member for human resource development programmes of the IIS and Ismaili community institutions in Europe, North America and South Asia.

He has also participated in the conceptualisation of various international projects for the Ismaili community and has served as the Vice President of the Ismaili Council for the United Kingdom (2009-2015) as well as Vice Chair of the Local Advisory Board of Park Hill Junior School (2018-2021).