With over 15 years in financial services, Arsalaan (Oz) Ahmed is a professional with extensive experience in wholesale and retail banking, as well as a recognized leader in Islamic finance. He has held a number of senior management roles with international exposure in the UK, the Middle East and Asia. In his early career, he distinguished himself in innovating Islamic finance solutions across various jurisdictions and has advised governments on Islamic finance regulation.

Oz is credited with material contributions to the development of the global Sukuk market. In recent years, Oz has established himself as a thought leader in the social and environmental impact sectors within the banking and value-based intermediation (VBI) community. Oz is considered an expert in sustainability within banking.

Oz has a Bachelor’s degree from University College London, a Master’s degree from the University of Bristol and received an MBA with distinction from London Business School’s Executive MBA program.

Prior to becoming CEO of Al Rajhi Bank Malaysia, Oz was CEO of HSBC Amanah. He is also a founder and board member of a UK fintech company, mmob, specializing in open banking and open finance technology infrastructure.

Asaad Al Kharusi is a seasoned banker with over 14 years of experience in Islamic banking. Prior to his current role as acting COO and head of strategy and transformation at Alizz Islamic Bank, he held the position of associate vice-president and head of Islamic products at Sohar Islamic Bank following several senior level roles at Meethaq Islamic Banking and Bank Muscat across multiple divisions such as product development, management and operations. Asaad is renowned for his ability to master product development, process design and reengineering while his expertise also extends to marketing and enhancing customer experience and engagement. He has played key roles in all the organizations that he has worked for.

Asaad holds a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from Sultan Qaboos University, and a Master of Science degree in Islamic banking and finance from Bangor University, UK. He is also the winner of the NTI BizPro Award for Oman’s ‘Young Business Leaders and Super Achievers’ for 2018.

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).

Debopam has extensive experience in finance in the international as well as the Indian domestic markets, having previously worked in India, Singapore, London and Tokyo.

He leads the firm’s India Desk. With in-depth knowledge of the Indian market and regulatory climate, he advises clients on how to successfully implement their Indian-focused transactions.

He advises banks, financial institutions, agents, real estate investment trusts, sponsors, funds and multinational companies across the GCC, South Asia and South East Asia spanning a broad range of industries and asset classes on a wide range of domestic and cross-border transactions with particular focus on corporate finance, real estate finance, project & infrastructure finance, acquisition finance, trade finance, Islamic finance, debt capital markets & structured finance, debt restructuring and regulatory issues. In addition, Debopam regularly assists clients with credit agreement compliance concerns, amendments, waivers and consents on financing documents as well as routine regulatory compliance issues. Besides acting as a counsel for lenders or investors, Debopam has substantial experience in representing borrowers and issuers. He is increasingly sought out for his expertise in the space of ESG and green financing in the GCC and is a regular speaker at conferences and events in this area.

Debopam has been listed in the ALB Super 50 MENA Lawyers 2023 list as one of the most highly recommended private practice lawyers in the region and was mentioned in the IFN Lawyers Directory as a leading Islamic finance practitioner in Oman.

Kemal Rizadi Arbi has 30 years of global experience in the banking and financial industry (both government and private sectors), being involved in Islamic finance, corporate and investment banking, fund management and ESG sustainable finance, to name a few.

Kemal is currently an expert/advisor with the government of Oman and, for the last 10 years, has been with the Executive President/Vice-President’s Office at the Capital Market Authority (Oman CMA) which regulates and develops the financial industry in Oman relating to the capital market and insurance sectors (both conventional and Islamic).

Prior to joining the Oman CMA, Kemal had established strategic initiatives for the development of the Malaysian and ASEAN+3 (10 ASEAN nations with China, Japan and Korea) capital markets and evaluated corporate finance/Islamic finance transactions as the head of department at the Securities Commission Malaysia.

Kemal was awarded the Malaysian government (JPA) full scholarship for top scholars at the University of Iowa in the US and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in actuarial science. He also holds an MBA (Finance) from the International Islamic University Malaysia and a Chartered Islamic Finance Professional Master’s degree from INCEIF University in Malaysia.

Khalid Al Kayed, CEO of Bank Nizwa, is a financial industry veteran with over 30 years under his belt. Al Kayed was the Chief Finance Officer of the bank before taking on his current role. As the CEO, he is responsible for spearheading the bank’s overall business growth and strategies.

Al Kayed holds a Master’s in International Accounting and Finance from Liverpool University. He is a Certified Management Accountant (CMA), Certified Strategy and Competitive Analysis (CSCA) from Institute of Management Accountants and Certified Financial Manager (CFM) alumni of Columbia Business School Associate. He also holds Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (ACMA) and Certified Global Managerial Accountant (CGMA) designations.

Prior to joining Bank Nizwa, Al Kayed held various posts in a host of well-respected financial institutions including Deputy CEO and Chief Financial Officer at Jordan Dubai Islamic Bank, Chief Financial Officer at Standard Chartered Bank Jordan and Financial Controller at the offshore banking unit of Jordan National Bank Cyprus.

Khalid Howladar is the chairman of MRHB DeFi, the world’s first ethical and faith-based decentralized finance platform. In addition, Khalid is an active innovation angel, advisor and board member for a diverse mix of fintech, crypto, edtech and Islamic economy start-ups through his firm Acreditus Partners. Lastly, he is the senior managing director and head of credit and Sukuk for RJ Fleming & Co, the boutique merchant banking advisory of the Fleming family.

With a rare confluence of financial, tech, social and faith-driven perspectives, Khalid is a recognized authority in his fields and has addressed investors worldwide and audiences at the World Bank, IMF, European Central Bank and Institute of International Finance.

Khalid gained industry prominence from his 15 years at Moody’s Investors Service in London and Dubai culminating as both the global head of Islamic finance and the head of the GCC banking team.

Khalid’s most prominent start-up role was as angel and later chairman of Small Pharma, a pioneering psychedelic UK biotech that successfully made the transition from start-up to a public 2021 listing on the TSXV Canada during his board leadership.

Mayan Al Asfoor is the Oman country manager for Beehive Oman, where she is responsible for overseeing overall strategic direction and managing day-to-day operations. Prior to working at Beehive, Mayan had 17 years of corporate banking experience within local banks such as National Bank of Oman and HSBC. Mayan is also an entrepreneur and owner of an SME.

Mohamad Noranuar Sajari (Anuar) is currently the Head of Shariah Structuring at Bank Nizwa, the first fully-fledged listed Islamic bank in the Sultanate of Oman. His main task is managing the product engineering and Shariah affairs of the bank mainly to supervise the structuring and bespoke transactional corporate advisory activities. He previously held an additional role as Lead of the Product Development Task Force.

Anuar has close to 20 years of Islamic finance experience and possesses practical experience, a solid understanding in Shariah and experience in a diverse range of business management applications including transaction structuring, implementation of holistic product development cycle and product management as well as Shariah governance vis-à-vis corporate governance. The recent 11 years of his work experience were within the GCC (Oman and UAE) and before that in ASEAN (Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Brunei) as well as a stint in the UK.

Anuar is credited as the first Malaysian Islamic Banker to join Oman’s Islamic finance industry from ground zero back in 2012. He is also the International Industry Adviser for Universiti Malaya and Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman where he provides his industrial insight on a pro-bono basis.

Mohsin Shaik Sehu Mohamed is currently heading the investment banking and capital markets at Maisarah, Bank Dhofar. He is responsible on the overall business of investment banking of Maisarah covering debt capital markets, private equity, asset management, corporate finance, wealth management and direct investments.

Mohsin is a well-known figure in the Islamic finance market in Oman due to his role in the Sukuk space. He has been instrumental in executing the first-ever Sukuk in Oman back in 2013. In 2020, Mohsin advised the government of Oman on issuing the first ever sovereign retail Sukuk.

In 2022, Mohsin was appointed as the ‘Grand Councilor’ for Chartered Institute of Islamic Finance in Malaysia. Mohsin is also a chartered professional in Islamic finance and has been certified by the International Academy of Business and Financial Management as a certified private equity specialist. He is also a chartered Islamic finance professional with INCEIF, Malaysia. He graduated with a Master of Business (Applied Finance) degree from the Queensland University of Technology, Australia and holds a Bachelor of Accounting (Hons) degree from University Tenaga Nasional, Malaysia.

Mujahid Said Al Zadjaly is the general manager of information technology and operation at Bank Nizwa and is also the deputy chairman of the Information Technology Steering Committee. He heads the digital transformation and innovation projects in the bank which complement the bank’s long-term strategic initiative and Bank Nizwa’s vision to become the ‘Digital Bank of Choice’ for the people of Oman.

Mujahid is a strategic, decisive and result-oriented leader, having 20 years of professional expertise with an in-depth knowledge in digital transformation and innovation. He possesses the skill of managing a large team and has a strong belief in human capital and staff engagement.

Mujahid graduated from the National CEO Program Cohort-2 2016 developed under the patronage of the Diwan of the Royal Court, delivered by the International Institute of Management Development. He holds an MBA from Luton University, UK and the Diploma in Leadership & Management from the Institute of Leadership and Management, UK and has been a part of the General Management Program from Harvard Business School in the US. He has completed his certification in the Islamic Finance Leadership Program from Clare College Cambridge.

Rehab Al-Lawati has over 17 years of experience in investment and operations. Exceptionally skilled in private equity and investments with local, regional and international partners, she started her career in Oman Investment Authority (OIA) — the sovereign wealth fund of Oman — in the investment department, climbing the career ladder until leading the private equity funds section of OIA. She then worked on setting up Oman’s first infrastructure fund, Rakiza, and moved to the fund once established as COO of the general partner of the fund.

Rehab is a partner in Sustainable Investments, an Omani firm focusing on sustainable innovative investments as well as ESG training and consultancy in the MENA region.

Rehab started off her career by earning a Bachelor’s degree in finance from Sultan Qaboos University, followed by a Master of Science degree in managerial finance from Nyenrode Business School in the Netherlands. In addition to her academic credentials, she has completed multiple leadership and financial programs from Harvard Business School, London School of Economics, Yale School of Management and HEC Paris. Rehab has a passion for environmental sustainability and responsible resource management. She would like to leave behind a healthier and more sustainable ecosystem for the future generations of Oman.

Sadaf Buchanan heads up the Tier 1-ranked Banking and Finance Team in Muscat and has more than 15 years of experience in restructuring and finance work. She previously spent some time in-house on secondment to a leading international bank in Edinburgh.

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 market 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 also heads up the Islamic finance initiative for the Omani office and has been awarded ‘leading individual’ status by The Legal 500 directory for her work in Oman.

Saif Shawqi works as an Associate Director in the Islamic Finance Group at Fitch Ratings. Based in Dubai, his role focuses mainly on rating new as well as existing Islamic finance entities and transactions. He also monitors the credit developments affecting the Islamic finance industry and supports the team on research pieces across a range of industry-relevant topics.

Prior to joining Fitch, Saif worked at Al Baraka Banking Group as the Head of Section- Credit & Risk Management, where he was responsible for the credit analysis of financial institutions & sovereigns in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region. Saif is a CFA charter holder and holds a bachelor’s degree in banking & finance from the University of Bahrain.

Saifuddin Ahmed is a seasoned investment professional having over 18 years of regional experience in Shariah compliant structures. He has worked with some of the most reputed institutions and investment banks in Kuwait and Oman in sectors such as pure play real estate, hospitality, education and industrial via platforms such as funds, private equity and direct investments, corporate banking and project finance. He is a driven and motivated investment specialist, having closed over 37 transactions across various continents and geographies such as the GCC, MENA, Europe (UK), the US and Asia (China, Hong Kong and Singapore) and emerging markets (India and Vietnam).

Saifuddin is currently working for a government-owned investment company and has recently worked on transactions in the telecom sector where he was part of a team which established Oman Towers Company and Oman Future Telecommunications (Vodafone Oman).

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 until 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.

Over 17 years of successful experience in the banking sector and specifically in Treasury management. The first Omani to complete ACI Diploma Certificate, which is the top certificate for Treasury professionals and the first Omani Female Treasurer in the banking sector. Winner of NTI BizPro award in 2016 and winner of AlMaraa award of Excellence in Corporate Leadership in 2021. Winner of Cambridge IFA Womani20 award for 2021 and a certified Financial Risk Manager —by the Global Association of Risk Professionals. Featured multiple times in Al Maraa Magazine and featured in ISFIRE (Islamic Finance Review Magazine) as the Womani of April 2022 issue.

Sulaiman Al Harthy is a senior Islamic banking analyst and secretary of the High Shari’a Supervisory Authority at the Central Bank of Oman. He has diversified experience in the areas of financial services consulting and regulations, Islamic banking and finance and Shariah principles.

Sulaiman holds a Bachelor of Science degree in finance and a Master of Science degree in Islamic banking and finance. He is also a certified Shariah advisor and auditor.

Sulaiman is member of several committees and taskforces in standard-setting organizations like the IFSB and AAOIFI. Being passionate about Islamic finance, he also teaches Islamic finance-related courses at the College of Banking and Financial Studies.

Suleman Muhammad Ali is an experienced Islamic banking professional having a proven track record in leading product innovation, development and Shariah compliance at Islamic financial institutions in Pakistan and the GCC. During his career, he has enabled banks and financial institutions to develop and deliver profitable Shariah compliant financial products and solutions related to retail, corporate, treasury, trade and structured finance.

Suleman specializes in providing bespoke Shariah compliant financial solutions based on the client’s financial needs and business cycle. During his tenure at Meezan Bank in Pakistan, he engaged with various corporate and SME clients to develop short-term financial solutions such as Islamic overdrafts based on Musharakah and bill discounting facilities based on Musawwamah, among others. These solutions have now been adopted as an industry standard in Pakistan.

Suleman has also advised central banks and is also a reputed Islamic banking trainer, regularly conducting various training sessions, corporate workshops and seminars on the subject and has served as a visiting faculty for Islamic finance at the National Institute of Banking and Finance (Pakistan), College of Banking and Financial Studies (Oman) and Academy of Excellence (Oman).

Vineeta Tan is Managing Editor and Director of REDmoney Group, one of the world’s longest-running Islamic finance media houses. Vineeta oversees REDmoney Group’s stable of products including Islamic Finance news, IFN Fintech and Islamic Sustainable Finance & Investment. With over a decade of experience in the journalism and publishing industry, Vineeta specializes in ethical and Islamic finance as well as fintech reporting and analysis covering regions including the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe. As managing editor of IFN, Vineeta leads the editorial direction and business development of IFN and its sister publications in addition to authoring reports, producing podcasts and conducting video interviews. She has interviewed senior industry players, key stakeholders and senior dignitaries including the finance/economic ministers of the Ivory Coast, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Vineeta is a regular on the international conference circuit as both a moderator and speaker. She has an MBA and is trained in Journalism and Sociology. Vineeta also holds the Islamic Finance Qualification awarded by the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investments, UK.