Dr. Abul Jalaluddin is currently a Director of Islamic Financial Services Council of Australia (IFSCA). He received his Ph.D. in financial economics from the University of Wollongong; Maser of Taxation Law from the University of New South Wales; Master of Economics (Honours) and Bachelor of Economics (Honours) degrees from the International Islamic University Malaysia. He has professional experience in income tax, indirect tax, superannuation guarantee, self-managed superannuation funds, taxation of Islamic finance, university level teaching and research.

He has published many papers on economics and finance in scholarly journals including the Economic Papers (published by the Economics Society of Australia), The Middle East Business and Economic Review and Indonesian Management and Accounting Research Journal. He also authored 2 books entitled “Profit/loss Sharing Method of finance: An Empirical Study in a western Country” and “Role of Government in an Islamic Economy.”

He presented research papers on economic and financial issues in international seminars/conferences in different countries including Australia, UK, Malaysia, Qatar and Bangladesh. His professional and research interests include taxation, Islamic Finance, Islamic Superannuation, Islamic Insurance (Takaful) and Financial Economics.

Almir Colan is a Director of Australian Centre for Islamic Finance (AUSCIF), Director at Awqaf Australia and Board member at Garden College. Almir is also an adviser to number of institutions that provide Islamic finance and member of a working group at AAOIFI.

Ariff Sultan joined IdealRatings in 2012 as Regional Director – Asia and is responsible for the business in this region. IdealRatings is a solution provider for Islamic Capital Markets for Asset Management and also for the Responsible Finance / Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) sectors.

Prior to this, Ariff was the Regional Director for Russell Indexes and Dow Jones Indexes, and was responsible for developing their businesses in the Asian market, both for the conventional and Shariah index sales.

He has 17 years of experience in financial and banking software sales, successfully selling into APAC and the Middle East financial institutions. He has worked with the leading financial software providers including London Bridge Group, Fair Isaac and Callatay & Wouters and Misys. Prior to his sales career, Ariff started his career as a software developer and project manager for financial software applications with Deloitte and Touché and subsequently with OCBC Bank in Singapore.

Ariff Sultan was admitted to the degree of Master of Business (IT) with RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia in 1995. He also attained the Diploma in Islamic Banking and Finance in 2003 from the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM). Ariff Sultan has been a speaker and moderator at Conferences, find below the list of conferences and events he has participated in.

• Conference Speaker and Moderator at the following Seminars & Conferences
  • Islamic Finance News events (2009 – current)
  • Islamic Banking & Investment Asia/Middle East Congress 2016: Singapore
  • IFAM, Singapore (2013-15)
  • WIEF Kuala Lumpur (2015)
  • GASCIA, Singapore (2012-14)
  • KLIFF 2010, Kuala Lumpur (2010, 2015)
  • South Asia Federation Exchanges Conference, Mauritius (Apr 2010)

Chaaban Omran is a pioneer in Islamic Finance in Australia. Chaaban is the former Managing Director of MCCA, former CEO of Crescent Wealth, former COO Quordoba Investments where Chaaban was instrumental in the formation and development of their Australian Financial Services Licenses. Chaaban has a career in Superannuation & Investments spanning 25 years where he has worked at AMP, MLC, IOOF and Perpetual in senior capacities. Chaaban is the current CEO of the Islamic Financial Services Council of Australia and has been a regulator contributor to IFN News as the Australian correspondent.

Christopher Aylward is a partner and head of Banking and Finance at Madison Marcus Law Firm based in Sydney. His practice area spans both conventional and Shari’ah compliant project, syndicated and trade finance, property and construction finance, as well as banking regulatory and foreign investment. He acts for borrowers, lenders and other transaction participants.

Dale’s practice focuses on asset and structured finance, financial regulation and derivatives. He has acted on a number of Sharia compliant finance structures for banks, funds and sponsors in real estate and aviation deals in Asia and Australia.

Imran is a Director of Islamic Finance in the Private Capital Markets team at the National Australia Bank (NAB). His primary responsibility is building the Islamic finance capability for bank’s Corporate and Institutional Banking division. Prior to this, he was the national Product Manager for NAB’s multi-award winning Microenterprise Loans. Imran was appointed by the Foreign Minister to the Board of the Australia-ASEAN Council, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and he is an Advisory Board Member of the Islamic Museum of Australia. Imran is also an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute for Religion, Politics and Society at the Australian Catholic University and the Founder of an online Arabic learning platform called arabicmadeinchina.com. In 2018, Imran was ranked in the top 500 who make the Islamic Economy by ISLAMICA 500.

Hakan is a seasoned and successful leader with a track record of producing, presenting and managing the implementation of innovative business solutions. Highly motivated with a proven ability to develop people and commercialise all aspects of a business. Experienced in converting every opportunity into success and of driving profit and growth. Well networked within the Islamic community as well as the broader Australian community and highly successful in implementing business process improvements, defining company direction, achieving goals, change and optimising business procedures.

Hilton has over 20 years of banking experience, working 15 years at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, a stint at Arab Bank Australia and in 2012 established the Sydney Representative office of Doha Bank. Hilton has held numerous positions, working across Operational, Product, Account Management, Sales and FI’s, roles including Global Head of Banking Partnerships, Head of International Business and to his current position as Chief Representative Officer.

Through Hilton’s banking career he has travelled extensively to the Middle East and maintains strong networks across the Banking, Government and Corporate sector. Hilton has previously served on the committees of the Australia Arab Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Australia Arab Business Council and is currently the Treasurer of the Overseas Bankers Association of Australia and on the board of the Canterbury-Bankstown Rugby League Referees Association.

Issam is a Portfolio Manager in Sigma’s small capitalisation investment team and has 22 years of experience in equity markets. Prior to being a Sigma foundation director, Issam was a Director of Credit Suisse Asset Management, based in Sydney and an investment manager in the Small Cap Australian Equity Team. Issam joined Credit Suisse from ING Australia Ltd where he was the Head of the Small Companies Fund. Prior to ING, during his 11 years at Macquarie Bank Limited he held risk management, dealing and portfolio management roles for Equities, Property Securities and was the Head of the Australian Small Companies Team when he left in 2004. Issam holds a Bachelor of Business, Accounting, Economics and Finance from the University of Technology Sydney and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Issam has also been involved as a co-founder and investor of a start- up investment wealth management business, Crescent Wealth, which is Australia’s first shariah compliant wealth and superannuation business. Issam was involved in the licensing, negotiating service provider contracts, product development and marketing, as well as being the portfolio manager of the Crescent Australian Equity Fund from 2011-16.

Dr John Hewson is one of Australia’s most experienced economists, financial experts and company directors. He is also a former politician and was the leader of the Liberal Party and leader of the Opposition from 1990 to 1994.

Since leaving politics, Dr John has forged a very successful career in investment banking and at the elite levels of business.

Dr John was the founding director of Macquarie Bank, chairman of ABN AMRO and dean of Macquarie of Graduate School of Management. Currently, he serves as a board Member of IBA Group and the chairman of the John Hewson Group; General Security Australia; Signature Gold;, Northern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust for NSW Government; and Port Augusta Graphite Energy. He is also a professor of economics and finance at the Australian National University Canberra; a professorial fellow of Crawford School, Australian National University (ANU); a professor and chair of the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, Crawford School, ANU; an adjunct professor of UTS Business School and a director of EG Funds Management, North Queensland Bio-Energy Corporation, Solastor Pty and other public and private companies.

With this background, Dr John offers audiences around the world a unique view of politics, economics and business. He has written columns, given hundreds of speeches/lectures at conferences around the world and appeared regularly as a radio and television commentator for nearly 35 years.

I have 16 years of customer service, high net worth customer acquisition & relationship management and sales of Islamic Banking as well as conventional products, customer and product portfolio management, service quality & process reengineering and customer service improvement projects from Standard Chartered Bank in Bangladesh and Singapore & The City Bank Ltd in Bangladesh. With these experiences in 10 different fields of Retail Banking Division, I have grown professionally equipped with hands-on involvement in acquisition, development and support of wide range of mainstream, Islamic banking as well as premium customer service & relationships and redesigning, repackaging & rewriting of products and processes.

I have done Economics Hons from Aligarh Muslim University, India and Masters of Business Administration (Marketing) from Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. During my 16 years of career I held the positions of Alternate Distribution Channels Manager, Branch Manager, Senior Asset Portfolio Manager, Head of Sales, Head of Governance & Projects, Head of Service Quality & Reengineering and Senior Vice President and Head of Retail Banking Products in Standard Chartered Bank and The City Bank Ltd Bangladesh from 2003 till 2014. Currently I am employed as Operations Manager of Islamic Cooperative Finance Australia Ltd.

Mohamed Hage is the Head of Research and Investments of CPG Research and Advisory. In this capacity, Mohamed oversees the investment research and strategy for CPG’s institutional and government clients.

He has built more than 15 years’ experience in many aspects of professional investment management, with leadership responsibility taken for multiple investment management and consulting roles. This includes responsibilities for global investment research, asset allocation, strategy and risk, portfolio construction, manager selection and portfolio management strategies.

Mohamed is widely endorsed for his experience in the areas of investment, portfolio construction and foreign direct investment having been nominated as one of five panelist that included sovereign wealth funds at the international Hedge Funds awards.

Mohamed is also the state Chairman of the Australian Arab Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the peak body of foreign investment and trade between Australia and the MENA region. He received the 2017 NSW Premiers medal for economic participation , recognizing outstanding success in fostering economic and investment activities for the state of NSW.

Mohamed obtained his graduate and post-graduate degrees in Commerce and Business with a specialisation in Finance and management.

A brief biography of Dr Muhammad M Khan Dr Muhammad M Khan has been serving in various capacities primarily in the following areas:

• CEO & Director, Halal Australia, a Department of Agriculture accredited body to provide Halal certification for the export as well as domestic market since 2004.
• Director, Marketing and Product Development (Since 2009), ICFAL, Australia
• Chairman and Director (1998-2009), ICFAL, Australia
• Co-ordinator and a key team player of the steering committee for proposed Islamic Co-operative Finance Australia Limited (ICFAL) and nominated as the chairperson in its successful launch during the formation meeting prior to its registration in 1998
• Chairman & Director (Retired), Board of Trustees, Al-Barakah Welfare Trust Australia (Managing Quakers Hill Masjid – 2009-2017), an initiative of Blacktown Hills Islamic Centre since 1995), NSW Australia
• Chairman & Director, Islamic Help Australia, UK based charity organisation (Since 2014)
• Chairman & Director, BOD, Penny Appeal Australia, UK based charity organisation (Since 2015)
• Active member of Muslim Community Co-operative Australia Limited (Since 1993)
• Active Member of Muslim Investment Group, (1987-1992) Toronto, Canada
• Executive Member, Muslim Students Association (1989-90), U of M, Canada
• President, Bangladesh Students Association (1989-90), U of M, Canada
• Vice President, BOD (1990-91), Univillage College Housing Co-operative (Managing 200 Apartments Complex), Winnipeg, Canada
• Chairman, BOD, Univillage Housing Co-operative Society International Students Child Care Centre, (1990-1991) Winnipeg, Canada
• Full financial member, Islamic Association of Western Suburbs (since 1992), Sydney Australia
• Secretary & Treasurer, BOD, Australian Islamic College Sydney (1996-1997)

In addition, Dr Muhammad M Khan holds a PhD (DU), MSc in Food Science & Technology (U of M) and M.Pharm and B.Pharm (Hons) in Pharmacy (DU) and has had a professional career working in both the food and pharmaceutical industry for many years. He worked as a research associate as well as in the research and development area in both educational institutes such as UWS and the food industry such as Dairy Farmers. He also successfully completed his MSc and full term Course on Introduction to Economics (1986-87), University of Manitoba, Canada. He has been an international speaker and delivered speeches in the provision of Halal food and Islamic finance in many countries and is currently the chairman and director of the BOD of Halal Australia Trust. He is also the chief executive officer of Halal Australia, a nationally and internationally recognised Halal food, meat, pharmaceuticals and consumables products certification body. Halal Australia is a member of the Australian Govt. accredited Halal Consultative Committee under DAFF-Biosecurity Export Control Act 2005 and its regulation for the red meat industry sector. Dr Khan was the consultant for one of the largest Airline catering companies, Alpha Flight Services, and on behalf of Halal Australia, he had developed a total Halal quality assurance program for (namely) Alpha Flight Services that caters halal meals for Royal Brunei Airlines, MAS, Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways (2004-2012).

Muzzammil Dhedhy is an Islamic Scholar, Financial Adviser, Financial Counsellor and Mortgage Broker who is passionate about helping others build, manage, and protect their wealth, in an ethical and Sharia compliant manner.

• Shri’ah graduate with Speciality in Hadith from Islamic University Patya Chittagong, Bangladesh.
• Licentiate in Arabic and Islamic Studies, Islamic Call College, Tripoli, Libya.
• M.A. the University of Sydney
• Ph.D. on ‘Developments in the Legal Principles of Islamic Financial System”, Law School, Macquarie University, Sydney.
• Teacher of Islamic Banking and Finance, Universiy Uttara Malaysia (UUM), Kedah
• Director/Secretary, Islamic Bank Australia (IBA) Project (working towards being licensed) Sydney, Australia.
• Shari’ah Scholar on dynamic compliance of Islamic financial laws in modern regulatory environment.