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Home >> Management
Our team members are highly qualified and seasoned professionals who are passionate about Islamic Finance. Their wealth of experience in financial markets combined with their strong Islamic legal knowledge allows us to provide advisory services that bridge boundaries, languages and cultures.
Asim Khan — Executive Director |
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Asim Khan is a Chartered Accountant with more than 14 years experience in providing assurance and business advisory services, primarily to the financial services (including conventional and Islamic financial institutions) and oil & gas industries, across the Asian sub-continent, Middle East and Europe while working with top tier organizations like PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deutsche Bank. Asim has planned and led various assurance engagements, fraud investigations, IPOs and Mergers & Acquisitions. In early 2008, Asim also founded Khalij Islamic, a London and Dubai based Shari’a consultancy firm.
Asim advises on developing and monitoring Islamic Financial Products and has successfully structured and converted various conventional products into Shari’a Compliant products (including credit cards, home finance, personal finance etc based on Musharika, Ijara, Istisna and Salam). Asim has developed various Shari'a compliant investment funds (including Sukuk funds, hedge funds, long only funds, etc); established Shari'a Compliant monitoring processes (with particular reference to Islamic Indices, Shari’a Compliant Investment Banking Products, Private Equity and Infra-structure Funds); and purification strategies for non-Shari'a compliant income.
Asim has worked and continues to work with world renowned Shari’a Scholars from the Middle East and Far East and has coordinated the Shari’a process for various clients to facilitate the Shari’a Scholars review and sign-off. Asim also leads operational review engagements for Shari’a Compliance, both at corporate as well as individual product level and devised actions and steps that were implemented by client management to mitigate risks for non-Shari’a Compliance. Asim has also presented and continues to present on various topics on Islamic finance on renown platforms. Asim brings with him a vast experience of development, structuring, implementation and operations of conventional and Islamic financial products across different regions along with his relationships with world renown Shari’a Scholars and Financial Institutions.
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Saud Siddiqui — Senior Consultant |
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Saud is a qualified accountant with over 9 years of experience in assurance and business advisory services primarily focusing on financial services (conventional and Islamic) and insurance sectors with one of the big four audit firms while working in the Middle East and Europe and later on with a leading European insurance company. Saud is also a qualified internal and IT auditor accredited by international professional bodies. He has managed various assurance engagements, including Sarbanes Oxley compliance reviews, and has led various engagements including creation and restructuring of business department, vendor management reviews, and IT infrastructure reviews. In early 2008, Saud also participated in set-up of Khalij Islamic, a London and Dubai based Shari’a Consultancy firm.
In recent years, Saud has been heavily involved in the Islamic Financial market and has a good understanding of structuring and on-going monitoring of Shari’a Compliant products. He has advised clients on implementation of Shari'a screening procedures, system developments and purification strategies. Saud works closely with world renowned Islamic scholars and has facilitated the development, review and sign-off of Fatwa documents over Shari’a Compliance of products by Islamic Scholars. Further, Saud has been actively involved with presentations on Islamic finance.
Saud’s assurance and consulting experience, complimented with his Shari'a knowledge, provides him with unique edge to offer practical and operationally effective solutions/advice on Shari'a structuring, audits and compliance. |
Sayd Farook — Senior Consultant |
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Sayd Farook is an Islamic Finance specialist with a unique combination of Islamic Finance structuring knowledge and a range of technical finance skills, gained through a blend of research, consulting and lecturing in Islamic Finance for a number of prominent Islamic Financial Institutions. Sayd earned his Doctorate (Islamic Finance), Bachelors of Laws (LLB), Business (B.Bus) with First Class Honours from the University of Technology, Sydney and is a Certified Islamic Professional Accountant (CIPA).
Sayd conducts extensive empirical and analytical research on matters relating to Islamic Finance Governance, Product Development and Structuring, Risk Management, Financial Economics and Social Responsibility. Sayd’s papers are widely published in peer-reviewed journals, magazines and as chapters in edited books. Sayd is also on the international editorial board of the Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research (Emerald Insight). Sayd has also been invited to present his research and views at a number of renowed international gatherings on Islamic Finance. Sayd is a Governance Standard consultant for the AAOIFI and delivers their CIPA qualification.
Prior to joining Dar Al-Istithmar, Sayd was the Research and Development Manager at the Center for Islamic Finance at the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance (BIBF). He was responsible for conceptualising and executing the Center’s growth strategy, which involved developing the Center’s complete intellectual infrastructure. In addition, he provided consulting and policy advice to financial institutions and Islamic Finance infrastructure bodies and delivered courses on Islamic Finance.
During his doctorate studies, Sayd was a lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) and the Australian Catholic University, where he was responsible for advanced courses on Financial Statement Analysis, Valuation and Business Combinations. He gained significant consulting experience in equities valuation for corporates. Prior to undertaking his doctorate, Sayd was employed by the Internal Audit and Finance Departments, HSBC, where he conducted extensive business operations auditing and financial control functions. |
Faizal Karbani — Consultant |
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Faizal Karbani is a graduate of the LSE and a Chartered Accountant with excellent and varied professional experience. The first decade of his professional life was spent primarily working with two world class organisations, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), before he entered the Islamic Finance industry in 2005.
In 2005, Faizal joined 1st Ethical, the UK's leading firm of FSA registered Independent Financial Advisors (IFA's) giving Shari'a compliant advice to High Net worth Individuals and Corporates on investments, pensions and related tax strategies. Over 3 years, Faizal built a sizeable client base for 1st Ethical in London, taking responsibility for the marketing and business strategy to win clients as well as servicing and giving advice to clients. In 2008, Faizal took on a 12 month consultancy assignment with European Finance House (EFH) in London, subsidiary of Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), to play a key role in building the Finance function of the bank to best practice as well as providing support on Shari'a related issues.
Faizal is passionate about contributing to the positive growth of Islamic Finance and regularly presents on Islamic Finance. Faizal is also an advisor to Al Qalam, a Shari'a panel comprising of UK based scholars, set up on a "Not-for-Profit" basis to research and provide accessible guidance on Islamic Finance issues to UK individuals and businesses. |
Syed Zahid Ali — Consultant |
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Zahid advises on the Shari’a monitoring processes and has performed Shari’a monitoring services for various Islamic Funds and Islamic Indices. He has advised on purification strategies and recommended procedures that management implemented to ensure on-going Shari’a compliance of their respective Islamic Funds. Zahid has also been part of Shari’a compliance reviews of Shari’a screening systems and has reviewed IT structures of such systems and its securities to ensure they are implemented viably.
Zahid’s in depth knowledge and experience of project management and Shari’a compliance allow him to produce timely and quality deliverables whilst working at the highest level of professional standards. |
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