Ilham Aliyev, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan signed an Ordinance on November 27, 2008 approving the new composition of the Supervisory Board of the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ). According to the Ordinance the following people were approved as the Supervisory Board members: Artur Rasizadeh, Prime Minister, Valeh Aleskerov, Vice-speaker of Milli Majlis (MM-Azerbaijan Parliament), Vahid Akhundov, State Councilor on Economic Policy, Samir Sharifov, Minister of Finance, Shahin Mustafayev, Economic Minister, Elman Rustamov, Chairman of the Board of the National Bank, Mahmud Karimov, President of the National Academy of Sciences.