Ali Hassan Moosa is a distinguished leader with over 30 years of extensive experience across the banking, technology, real estate and hospitality sectors. Based in Muscat, Oman, Ali has demonstrated a profound commitment to advancing financial sector development through innovation and strategic leadership. Ali’s current role as Financial Expert in the Ministry of Finance at Estidamah, the National Programme for Fiscal Sustainability and Development of the Financial Sector, underscores his pivotal role in harmonizing fiscal, monetary and economic policies in Oman. Ali is also a member of the Finance and Insurance Committee at the Oman Chamber of Commerce & Industry which plays a crucial role in fostering the development of the financial and insurance sectors within the Sultanate of Oman. Furthermore, Ali is a member of the Advisory Council at Muscat College providing expert advice and sharing latest industry trends with Academia to assist the college in teaching and research.

Dr Ehab Elsonbaty’s practice focuses on sovereign wealth funds, government advice as well as projects and affairs, corporate matters, corporate governance, sustainability, ESG and Shariah compliant legal services. He advises Middle Eastern entities seeking to do business in the Americas and American clients seeking to do business in the Middle East. Ehab’s extensive transactional and regulatory experience enables him to provide efficient and effective strategic legal support in a wide variety of business matters. Ehab is a strategic adviser to many boards or directors and advisory boards. He helps the firm deliver seamless cross-border solutions for Middle East entities. Among them are corporate enterprises, private equity investors, family offices, government entities and sovereign wealth funds. He helps clients maximize inbound and outbound opportunities arising from this dynamic region, providing comprehensive bilingual legal services and sensitive on-the-ground awareness of each geography in this diverse region. Before joining DLA Piper, Ehab served as Senior Legal Counsel and Head of Corporate Governance and Government Affairs and Senior Adviser to the General Counsel on Special Projects at the Qatar Investment Authority, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund and one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world. There, he was responsible for strategic, corporate, sustainability, ESG and special projects and transactions valued at billions of dollars as well as was a member of several management committees including the Management Investment Committee and the Crisis Management Committee. Earlier in his career, he served for six years as Senior Legal Adviser to the Amiri Diwan, the office of the Amir of Qatar at the Royal Court. During this time, Ehab was also a member of many policy and legal committees, among them the Permanent Legislative Committee of the Council of Ministers and the Committee for Review of Legislation as well as a Member of the National Committee to Review Commercial Laws of the Ministry of Economy and Trade. Ehab drafted and contributed to several laws and regulations of Qatar, GCC and Middle East. In addition, he served as a public prosecutor in the Egyptian public prosecution, and as a Judge in the commercial courts and was Assistant Minister of Justice for more than 15 years, most recently as a Judge in Cairo’s Court of Appeal. He is currently admitted to the Bar in Egypt and is a certified and practicing arbitrator and mediator and a Member of the Egyptian Judges Club. During his service in Egypt, Ehab was seconded to the Ministry of Justice’s Office for International Cooperation and Human Rights, was an Adviser to the Minister of Telecommunication and Information Technology, a Member of the National Committee for Humanitarian Law, a Member of the National Committee for Counter-Terrorism and the national committee to control the public elections. He has provided consultancy support to several regional and international organizations such as the UN, United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, International Telecommunication Union, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the Council of Europe and the Arab League.

Hakan Ozyon is the Group CEO of Hejaz, overseeing a global Islamic financial group managing more than US$4 billion in assets. He has led the launch of Australia’s first and only Islamic fintech and is now driving the expansion of Islamic fintech and digital financial infrastructure into international markets. Under his leadership, Hejaz has grown from a domestic financial services provider into a multi-market platform spanning asset management, fintech and technology-enabled ventures serving Muslim and values-driven investors worldwide. Hakan is a visionary leader with a long-term view of Islamic finance. He believes the future of the industry lies in strong governance, technological independence, and institutions built from within the communities they serve, operating at the same standards as the world’s leading financial organizations. His focus is on building durable systems rather than short-term products, positioning Hejaz as a global financial and digital platform designed to empower individuals, institutions and communities to participate in the modern economy without compromising their values.

James Sadler is Head of Debt Capital Markets & Structured Finance at Oman Investment Bank, based in Muscat, responsible for the origination and execution of public and private debt financing solutions. He has more than 20 years of investment banking experience in Europe, the US and the MENAT region, including 10+ years based in the GCC, and has led the execution of a wide range of conventional and Islamic financing transactions across sovereign, corporate and financial institutions sectors. James has worked on various significant Sukuk offerings from the CEEMEA region, including international and local currency issuances for issuers including the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Finance, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, the Government of Dubai and Oman Electricity Transmission Company (OETC), as well as senior and capital Sukuk transactions for a number of regional financial institutions. Prior to joining OIB James headed DCM origination for HSBC in Saudi Arabia, and previously held senior DCM roles at Bank of America in Dubai and New York, BNP Paribas in Bahrain, and UBS in London. He holds an MA (Hons) from the University of Oxford.

Shahariah Shaharudin is the President of Saturna, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Saturna
Capital Corporation. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Studies from Knox College, Illinois and a Master of Arts degree in Economics from University of Illinois, Springfield.

Shahariah has more than 30 years of experience in the areas of fund management, stockbroking and commercial banking. She started her career in a commercial bank with extensive experience in retail banking, trade finance and corporate banking and later joined a stockbroking company, overseeing both the stockbroking and futures broking business. She also worked for a fund management house under the Strategic Business and Market Development Division where her core responsibility was sourcing business and servicing both retail and wholesale clients. She was CEO and an Executive Director of Kenanga Islamic Investors before joining Saturna in October 2018.

Shahariah speaks at Islamic finance and ESG conferences. She is passionate about Islamic investment and has participated in the Brunei Roundtable; presented in events in Shenzen, China; and was nominated in the ‘Top 10 List for Women in Malaysian Financial Institutions’ by a local magazine.

Shahariah is currently a holder of the Capital Market Services Representatives License for fund management.

Aisha Al Kharusi is the Deputy Executive Chairperson of the Modern College of Business and Science, Oman’s oldest full-fledged private institution, overseeing transformation and innovation within the college. With a proven track record of leadership and strategic vision, she brings a wealth of experience to this pivotal role for driving progress and a commitment to excellence.

Prior to this role, Aisha served as the Assistant General Manager of Government and Institutional Banking, Chief Marketing Officer in Oman’s leading Islamic bank. From 2009 to 2012, she was the executive manager of corporate communications and strategy, a key leadership team member and a strategic, long-range business planner of Oman’s oldest commercial bank, National Bank of Oman. Earlier, she was the Deputy Regional Director of The Boeing Company, part of the team responsible for setting up the largest aerospace company, the Middle East Dubai Office, covering ten regional countries. Her responsibilities included international relations, university relations and the Global Corporate Citizenship arm.

Aisha began her career with USA Today in Washington, DC, followed by a publishing firm in Oman and a short tenure at Sultan Qaboos University. In her nearly three decades of work experience, she has held several other senior leadership positions at the corporate level and mid-level management. Aisha has completed several leadership courses and programs. In 2016, she was selected to join the National CEO program organized by the Diwan Royal Court and led by IMD Business School and the National University of Singapore. Aisha also completed a senior executive program at the London Business School. She has served on several boards, including founding board members of inJAz Oman, AEISEC Oman, Oman Business Forum, Oman Chamber of Commerce’s Businesswoman Forum and the Capital Market Authority.

Aisha has a Bachelor’s degree from the American University, Washington, DC, and a Master’s degree in Communication Design from the University of Arts London, Central Saint Martins. She has received several awards, including Woman of the Year 2012 from the Al Mar’a Excellence Award. Aisha was listed among the Most Powerful Women in Corporate Oman by the Oman Economic Review. Aisha’s leadership skills have been honed through her experiences in the UK, Washington, DC, Cologne, Germany, Dubai, the UAE and most of the Middle East. Beyond her professional life, Aisha is deeply involved in philanthropy. She sits on the board of Bwejuu Charity School in Zanzibar, East Africa, a school for underprivileged children with over 600 students. In Oman, she was a board member of Children First, UNICEF Oman Leadership Circle and a founding member of the Association of Early Intervention for Children with Special Needs.

Ali Ozyon is the Chief Marketing Officer at Hejaz Financial Services, where he leads global marketing, brand strategy and growth initiatives across Islamic finance, fintech and digital platforms. Over the past decade, Ali has played a pivotal role in scaling Hejaz’s assets under management and strengthening the group’s international presence across Australia, the GCC, the UK and Europe. He also spearheads the go-to-market strategy for Halal Money, Australia’s first Islamic fintech platform, successfully driving early market adoption and exceeding initial user growth targets. Ali operates at the intersection of strategic storytelling and technology-driven systems. He has led the development of integrated CRM ecosystems, unified telephony infrastructure and AI-enabled workflows across marketing, sales and client service functions, enhancing operational efficiency and customer engagement. Beyond his corporate role, Ali is the host of the Out of Interest, where he explores high performance, leadership insights and unconventional pathways to success.

Asad Qayyum is a highly skilled dual-qualified corporate and commercial lawyer with extensive multi-jurisdiction experience in a number of sectors of the law including capital markets, funds, conventional and Islamic finance, mergers and acquisitions, natural resources (oil, gas and mining) and project finance transactions.

Asad is qualified as a solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales, a barrister of England and Wales and an advocate of the High Courts of Pakistan. He has over 22 years of experience advising on a broad range of transactions during his time in the UK, Sultanate of Oman and Pakistan. Asad’s expertise is in advising sovereign and sovereign-owned companies and listed and private companies with respect to their debt and equity capital market financings (conventional and Islamic), registration of funds (including real estate investment funds, acquisitions and disposals of hydrocarbon assets – onshore and offshore) and negotiating clients’ commercial (oil and gas) contracts across the globe (including in the UK, Oman, Canada, the Middle East, Pakistan, Cameroon, Tanzania, Namibia, Burundi, Benin, Cameroon, Nigeria and Kazakhstan).

Dr Ehab Elsonbaty’s practice focuses on sovereign wealth funds, government advice as well as projects and affairs, corporate matters, corporate governance, sustainability, ESG and Shariah compliant legal services. He advises Middle Eastern entities seeking to do business in the Americas and American clients seeking to do business in the Middle East. Ehab’s extensive transactional and regulatory experience enables him to provide efficient and effective strategic legal support in a wide variety of business matters. Ehab is a strategic adviser to many boards or directors and advisory boards. He helps the firm deliver seamless cross-border solutions for Middle East entities. Among them are corporate enterprises, private equity investors, family offices, government entities and sovereign wealth funds. He helps clients maximize inbound and outbound opportunities arising from this dynamic region, providing comprehensive bilingual legal services and sensitive on-the-ground awareness of each geography in this diverse region. Before joining DLA Piper, Ehab served as Senior Legal Counsel and Head of Corporate Governance and Government Affairs and Senior Adviser to the General Counsel on Special Projects at the Qatar Investment Authority, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund and one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world. There, he was responsible for strategic, corporate, sustainability, ESG and special projects and transactions valued at billions of dollars as well as was a member of several management committees including the Management Investment Committee and the Crisis Management Committee. Earlier in his career, he served for six years as Senior Legal Adviser to the Amiri Diwan, the office of the Amir of Qatar at the Royal Court. During this time, Ehab was also a member of many policy and legal committees, among them the Permanent Legislative Committee of the Council of Ministers and the Committee for Review of Legislation as well as a Member of the National Committee to Review Commercial Laws of the Ministry of Economy and Trade. Ehab drafted and contributed to several laws and regulations of Qatar, GCC and Middle East. In addition, he served as a public prosecutor in the Egyptian public prosecution, and as a Judge in the commercial courts and was Assistant Minister of Justice for more than 15 years, most recently as a Judge in Cairo’s Court of Appeal. He is currently admitted to the Bar in Egypt and is a certified and practicing arbitrator and mediator and a Member of the Egyptian Judges Club. During his service in Egypt, Ehab was seconded to the Ministry of Justice’s Office for International Cooperation and Human Rights, was an Adviser to the Minister of Telecommunication and Information Technology, a Member of the National Committee for Humanitarian Law, a Member of the National Committee for Counter-Terrorism and the national committee to control the public elections. He has provided consultancy support to several regional and international organizations such as the UN, United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, International Telecommunication Union, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the Council of Europe and the Arab League.

Hassan Ali Ansari is CFO of Takaful Oman. Takaful Oman is one of the two Islamic insurance companies in the Sultanate of Oman. He started his career with PwC in 2001 and later on in 2007 he moved to AIG, where he served until 2019. He held multiple positions in AIG such as CFO of Pakistan, financial controller for MENA, country finance manager for Oman and Qatar, etc. In addition to core finance, in his current role, he oversees Shariah compliance, risk management and the information technology department. Hassan is a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan.

Dr Mohamed Eskandar Shah Mohd Rasid, the CEO of ISRA International Consulting, brings with him a wealth of academic and industry experience, having previously served as Associate Professor of Islamic Finance at the College of Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, under the Qatar Foundation. Prior to that, he held several key leadership positions at INCEIF University, including Associate Dean (Student & Internationalization), Dean and Deputy Dean of the School of Graduate Studies.

Dr Eskandar has served as a consultant to numerous government bodies and financial institutions, including Malaysia’s Ministry of Energy, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Finance, CIMB Islamic Bank, the Responsible Finance Institute and ZICO Shariah Advisory. He is currently a Financial Sector Specialist Consultant for the World Bank and an Adviser to the Brunei Institute of Leadership and Islamic Finance. His consulting portfolio covers strategic and regulatory assignments such as Sukuk documentation review for the Maldives Ministry of Finance, Islamic finance master plan development for Kazakhstan’s AIFC, SME empowerment strategies for CIMB and impact monitoring of social finance initiatives for the World Bank. He also advises fintech and sustainability-focused projects, including engagements with GFI Fintech, Alfie Tech Asia, Qatar Gas and Heritage Amanah Indonesia. He has served as a subject matter expert in Islamic finance and capital markets for various institutions, including Bank Negara Malaysia, the Securities Commission Malaysia, PNB, OCBC Al-Amin, as well as academic institutions in Pakistan, China and Bangladesh.

Dr Eskandar holds a PhD in Finance from Nottingham University Business School (UK), a Master’s in International Economics and Finance from the University of Queensland (Australia) and a Bachelor of Business Administration (Hons) from the International Islamic University Malaysia.

Sadaf Buchanan leads the tier-one ranked Banking and Finance team in Muscat and has more than 20 years’ experience in restructuring and finance work. She also heads up the Islamic Finance initiative for the Oman office.

Sadaf works alongside both lenders and borrowers in advising on security issues and options, enforcement (both solvent and insolvent routes) and commercial lending and borrowing and has also advised on a number of the landmark debt capital markets transactions from the Sultanate.

She has broad experience in acting on both local and international deals and advising banks, businesses, shareholders and other stakeholders in relation to business restructurings and financing issues involving a variety of sectors from hotel and leisure to oil and gas as well as many international companies and financial institutions considering doing business in Oman.

Sadaf is ranked as “Highly Regarded” by IFLR1000 2024/5 for Banking and Capital Markets: Debt.