Board of Directors

Headed by our CEO, Iftikhar Ahmad Shaheen, Islamic Relief’s Board of Directors is responsible for ensuring policies laid out by the Board of Trustees are implemented. It is comprised of the directors of each of Islamic Relief’s divisions, and supports the work of other staff and volunteers within the organisation.

Iftikhar Ahmad Shaheen

CEO of Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW)

Iftikhar Ahmad Shaheen joined Islamic Relief Worldwide as Chief Executive Officer in 2026.

He brings over 20 years of experience as a humanitarian and international development practitioner, leading programmes across Sub Saharan Africa and Asia. Iftikhar also served as Country Director for DT Global in Somalia, where he held fiduciary responsibility for major governance and resilience programmes, including the USAID-funded Transition Initiatives for Stabilisation Seddax (TIS3) and the USAID- and FCDO-funded Inclusive Resilience in Somalia (IRIS). Before this, he was Strategic Stabilisation Adviser with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM), advising the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative (SRSG) and sector actors on sequencing and layering of stabilisation and transitional governance priorities at a critical phase in Somalia’s state-building process.

Iftikhar has managed complex, high-value portfolios across Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Pakistan, apart from supporting programmes in Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Papua New Guinea, specialising in governance, stabilisation, conflict sensitivity, and multi-sector humanitarian responses.

Beginning his career as a Community Health Coordinator in Pakistan in 2005, Iftikhar has held senior positions overseeing programmes with budgets exceeding $100 million. He holds an M.A. in International Affairs from The Fletcher School at Tufts University (USA) and a B.S. in Microbiology from Hazara University, Pakistan.