[1] Zeti Akhtar Aziz was born in Johor Bahru, Johor on 26 August 1947; to father Ungku Aziz, who is of Malay, Circassian[2][3] and English[4] descent, and mother Sharifah Azah Mohamed Alsagoff, who was of Hadhrami Arab and Malay descent.

As part of her PhD dissertation, she carried out pioneering work on capital flows and its implications for monetary policy.

Zeti began her career as an economic analyst for the South-East Asia Central Bank Training & Research Center, remaining at that post from 1979 to 1984.

[8] On 20 May 2011, Bloomberg columnist William Pesek had picked Zeti, during her post as Bank Negara governor, as one of his top four nominees to head the prestigious International Monetary Fund after the position became vacant following the resignation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn who was arrested in New York, and is presently facing sexual assault charges.

[12][13] Zeti who was the Chairman of the Asian Institute of Finance has also receives the William “Bill” Seidman Award for Lifetime Achievement in Leadership in the Financial Services Industry for 2018.