Dr Ahmad Zahiruddin Yahya is a former Director General of Cooperative College of Malaysia (Maktab Koperasi Malaysia which is now known as Institut Koperasi Malaysia). He was born on 23rd February 1973 in Perak, Malaysia.
He is an old boy of the Malay College Kuala Kangsar, and went to the United Kingdom to read accountancy at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK (graduated 1996 and obtained the degree of Master of Accountancy from the University of Dundee in 1998. He is also the first non-teacher to graduate with Doctor of Philosophy (Phd) in Entrepreneurship from the Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI).