Aktham Almaghaireh is Professor of Finance in the Department of Accounting and Finance at KFUPM Business School and a Research Scholar at the Interdisciplinary Research Center for Finance and Digital Economy. He earned his Ph.D. in Finance from Durham University in the United Kingdom. His research interests include financial economics, FinTech and digital finance, asset pricing, corporate finance, financial risk management, systemic risk, banking stability, Islamic finance, and energy and commodity finance. At the Center, he aims to advance rigorous and policy-relevant research on financial innovation, digital financial inclusion, artificial intelligence in finance, and the implications of FinTech for financial stability, with particular emphasis on Saudi Arabia and the GCC region.