Ashraf Gomma Ali is the managing director of Ihsan Advisory which works at the intersection of Islamic finance/Shariah/SDGs and positive impact. He believes that these areas share a natural connection and that the future of Islamic banking depends on truly embracing these concepts and integrating them in the spirit of Ihsan (spiritual beauty and perfection).

Ashraf is a leading international Shariah advisor who has worked in Shariah supervisory positions for over 15 years in nine different countries around the world in North America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from the University of Maryland (US), a Bachelor of Law degree in Shariah from Umm Al-Qura University (Mecca, Saudi Arabia) and a Master’s degree in Islamic finance practice from INCEIF (Malaysia). He is also an internationally certified Shariah auditor and advisor with AAOIFI and a registered Shariah advisor with the Malaysian Securities Commission.

Ashraf has advised on billions of dollars of projects worldwide including extensively advising on project financing, Islamic debt securities (Sukuk), corporate finance and treasury products. He has served as a Shariah board member to both traditional and digital Islamic banks. He also has a keen interest in the intersection of ESG and sustainability with Islamic finance and was part of the UN project to draft the section on Islamic banking in the UNEP FI Principles of Sustainable Banking. He currently serves as an Islamic banking, ESG and sustainability consultant based in Istanbul. Ashraf has recently joined Phi Wallet as a co-founder and CFO. Phi Wallet is an Islamic fintech which seeks to empower Shariah sensitive investors to protect and preserve their wealth through physical gold ownership and other real assets.

Bessem Soua has over 18 years of experience holding different senior and leading positions at the Central Bank of Tunisia and the IsDB Group (the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC)). He is currently leading an international team based in various locations around the world (Saudi Arabia, Senegal and Turkey) and is in charge of business expansion in sub-Saharan Africa and Europe.

Bessem has extensive exposure to business origination, structuring and closing of trade finance, infrastructure and investment finance transactions from/in Europe, the MENA region and sub-Saharan Africa. Clients have included financial institutions, investors, contractors, exporters, development banks, etc. Besides his primary role, he has also been highly involved in strategic and business planning.

Bessem’s cross-functional expertise and skills are his key strengths including business development, customer relations, marketing, project finance, trade finance, financial analysis, due diligence, negotiations of complex transactions and also budgeting, financial planning, strategic planning, strategic thinking, etc, all via various task forces in which he has played a leading role. He has been a speaker/panelist at many seminars and international conferences.

Bessem’s education accomplishments include the completion of an MBA from IE Business School, Madrid. He has also attended specialized executive education programs at Harvard Kennedy School and Berkeley Business School with a specific focus on innovation and entrepreneurship.

Esma Karabulut is the head of investment banking and investor relations at Turkiye Emlak Katilim Bankasi (Emlak Katilim) since July 2019. She is mainly responsible for originating and structuring domestic and international Sukuk, syndication and any other Islamic capital market instruments. She is also a board member of two different asset leasing companies of Emlak Katilim.

Esma started her professional career in an Islamic bank (Kuveyt Turk) in 2011 and later she was the manager of the Sukuk and Syndication Department in which she carried out many international (Tier 1, Tier 2, senior unsecured) and domestic Sukuk transactions for both financial institutions and corporates from different sectors. Esma has many years of experience and deep expertise in Sukuk, Islamic syndication loans, Islamic capital markets, structured finance, investment banking, sustainable finance, etc.

Esma got her Bachelor’s degree from the Department of Capital Markets at Marmara University in 2011 and an MBA from Istanbul Bilgi University in 2014.

Fatma Çınar works as the Islamic Finance Portfolio Lead at UNDP Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development. Prior to joining the UNDP, she worked as the director of the International Relations and Corporate Communications Departments at Participation Banks Association of Turkey between August 2020 and January 2022. Previously, she worked as the head of the International Banking Department of an Islamic bank (Kuveyt Turk) in Turkey for more than 13 years.

As an active practitioner, Fatma has deep and wide expertise in Islamic banking, international relations, correspondent banking, foreign trade, sustainability, social finance, investment banking, cash management, clearing services, structured finance, trade finance, project management, country and counterparty limit management, business strategy and corporate communication. She is on the advisory board of Marmara University Islamic Economics and Finance. She is also a global mentor at Teknopark Incubation Center and writes regularly on Islamic finance as a Turkey correspondent for Islamic Finance news. She provides lectures at universities and international summer schools. She has also been a trainer at Participation Banks Association of Turkey on Islamic finance. Fatma graduated from Istanbul University with a degree in business administration and industrial engineering in 2005 and 2006.

Sungur was born in Istanbul in 1981. He graduated from Yeditepe University, Department of Business Administration in 2003. After carrying out academic studies on ‘European Union Monetary Policy’ at Leiden University in the Netherlands as a European Union Jean Monnet Scholar, he completed his PhD in Finance at Yeditepe University.

Between 2006 and 2012, he worked in Deposit Analytics, Investment Banking and Capital Markets Product Management in institutions such as Eurobank Tekfen and Akbank. Sungur, who continued his career at Türkiye Finans Katılım Bankası between 2012 and 2021, served as Fund Collection and Investment Products Vice-President between 2018 and 2021. In 2021, he was appointed as Banking Services Coordinator to the Participation Banks Association of Türkiye. Saygın Sungur also continues to lecture on Financial Markets at Marmara University Institute of Islamic Economics.

As of April 2023, he was appointed as the Deputy General Manager responsible for Finance, Administrative Affairs and Human Resources at Katılım Finans Kefalet A.Ş.

Dr Scott Levy is the managing director of Al Waseelah, an award-winning Shariah compliant Sukuk issuance platform which includes structuring, arranging, originating and listing Sukuk. Al Waseelah was established in 2017 as a tech-savvy and cost-effective way to create Shariah compliant financial instruments, democratizing the process for issuers and investors.

Al Waseelah provides flexible and quick-to-market solutions for green and sustainable businesses, financial institutions, asset managers, corporations and family offices. The company’s focus is on Islamic liquidity management and offering a diverse range of investment opportunities, and is committed to thought leadership in the sector through IFN and International Islamic Financial Market.

Al Waseelah is leading the way in integrating ESG/SDG principles into Sukuk, and offers Shariah compliant products like XTCC, which is the world’s first exchange-traded high-quality carbon credit investment sourced from verified renewable energy.

Dr Scott is a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of International Bankers and the Worshipful Company of Musicians, a member of Lincoln’s Inn and a senior member of Wolfson College, Cambridge.

After graduating from Boğaziçi University, Department of Business Administration, Yildiz began her career at the Industrial Development Bank of Türkiye in 1998. She held various managerial positions at Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank AG, UniCredit Investment Securities and ING Bank where she assumed wide variety of investment banking roles. Yildiz joined the Development and Investment Bank of Türkiye in 2019 as Executive Vice-President, responsible from Investment Banking, Financial Analysis and Project Evaluation, Corporate Communications as well as Sustainability and Environmental Social Impact Management Divisions. Yildiz is also Chairperson of the Development Asset Leasing Companies and Board Member of Turkish Investment Initiative Portfolio Management Company. Currently, Yıldız is a Board Member of the Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD Türkiye) and Vice-Chairperson of the Impact Investing Advisory Board (EYDK). She is also Member of the Advisory Board of the Operating Principles for Impact Management.

Born in Istanbul, Turkiye in 1985, Turgay Çavaş graduated from the Faculty of Business Administration at Marmara University of Istanbul in 2007.

Turgay has worked as a foreign trade professional and agri-commodity trader at one of the top corporate companies ( listed in Turkiye’s biggest 500 companies list) in Turkiye. He
joined the Islamic banking industry eight years ago, and has been working for Kuveyt Turk Katilim Bankasi as the head of the Financial Institutions Department (responsible for correspondent banking, debt capital market activities, originations, syndicated loans ) since 2020.

Turgay worked as the precious metals trading desk manager until February 2020. He has two board memberships at two subsidiaries of Kuveyt Turk, namely KT Sukuk Varlik Kiralama and KT Kira Sertifikalari Varlik Kiralama.

Turgay also serves start-ups as a start-up mentor at the Lonca Incubation Center. He represents the bank in China, Germany and in the Qatar Business Council of DEIK (Foreign Economic Relations Board). He is also the chairman of the Employee Assembly of Kuveyt Turk.

Burak Gencoglu has over 10 years of experience in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), capital markets, banking and project finance transactions.

Burak earned a Bachelor of Law (Honors) degree from Marmara University in Istanbul and holds a Master of Law degree from King’s College London where he majored in ınternational business law. After completing his postgraduate studies in the UK, he pursued his professional career in Turkey and worked for a Legal 500 listed law firm and as a senior attorney at the legal department of PwC in Istanbul. He has represented clients in diverse sectors including finance, energy, pharmaceuticals, construction, insurance, media and telecommunications. He is the co-founder of Gencoglu & Ergun Law Firm where he provides a wide range of legal services to his clients in Turkish and international law matters including banking and finance, data privacy, commercial and corporate law and M&A.

Burak has been a team member of a number of major projects during his career and he is currently providing a full range of legal and consultancy services to his local and international, corporate and individual clients in the various areas of law.

Burak’s articles and legal opinions have been published in law journals, in addition to regular interviews and articles in the press. He regularly contributes articles and reports in Islamic Finance news as the M&A sector correspondent.

Fatma Çınar works as the Islamic Finance Portfolio Lead at UNDP Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development. Prior to joining the UNDP, she worked as the director of the International Relations and Corporate Communications Departments at Participation Banks Association of Turkey between August 2020 and January 2022. Previously, she worked as the head of the International Banking Department of an Islamic bank (Kuveyt Turk) in Turkey for more than 13 years.

As an active practitioner, Fatma has deep and wide expertise in Islamic banking, international relations, correspondent banking, foreign trade, sustainability, social finance, investment banking, cash management, clearing services, structured finance, trade finance, project management, country and counterparty limit management, business strategy and corporate communication. She is on the advisory board of Marmara University Islamic Economics and Finance. She is also a global mentor at Teknopark Incubation Center and writes regularly on Islamic finance as a Turkey correspondent for Islamic Finance news. She provides lectures at universities and international summer schools. She has also been a trainer at Participation Banks Association of Turkey on Islamic finance. Fatma graduated from Istanbul University with a degree in business administration and industrial engineering in 2005 and 2006.

Dr Kamola Bayram is an assistant professor in the Department of Islamic Economics and Finance at KTO Karatay University, Turkey.

Previously, she served as an assistant professor at the IIUM Institute of Islamic Banking and Finance and as the project director at the International Council of Islamic Finance Educators (ICIFE). She has conducted a number of training programs in Islamic finance in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines and was an editor of the quarterly ICIFE Bulletin.

Dr Kamola has served as a research fellow at the IFSB where she was involved in the development of the Stress Testing Framework for Islamic Banks. She has written articles and chapters on Islamic social finance, Islamic capital market, wealth management, behavioral finance and portfolio allocation. She teaches subjects such as Islamic economics, Islamic finance, taxation for Islamic financial institutions, Islamic capital markets and behavioral finance.

Dr Kamola is the education sector correspondent in Islamic Finance news and an editor of the Turkish Journal of Islamic Economics. She was 40^th in the WOMANi 2019 list for her excellent advocacy work for Islamic banking and finance.