Iraj Abedian is the founder and Chief Executive of Pan-African Capital Holdings Proprietary Limited. He was Professor of Economics at the University of Cape Town, before joining Standard Bank Group in 2000 as Group Chief Economist. He obtained his BA (Honours) and MA in Economics from UCT.

He received his PhD in Economics from Simon Fraser University in Canada in 1993. He was the founder and Director of the Applied Fiscal Research Centre (AFReC) at UCT and he has been a consultant on economic policy issues to public and private sector organisations in South Africa as well as internationally. His recent involvement in policy development in South Africa includes: The Transformation of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (1995), the RDP White Paper (1995), Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR 1996), Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), and the Presidential Review Commission (PRC 1997).

He is a prolific researcher and has written numerous articles and co-authored a number of books. Iraj is an honorary Professor of Economics at Graduate School of Business, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth. He is a member of the board of directors of Munich Re of Africa and serves as a member of the Advisory Board of the Auditor General of the South African Government.