Abdullah Han is the senior partner of Al-Sadiq Consulting based in Beijing, China and he is also the co-founder of the Society of Islamic Banking and Finance Professionals, an organization based in Hong Kong.

Abdullah has 10 years of international business experience in Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and North America. His main focus is mostly on OIC countries. Abdullah is specialized in petroleum upstream investment, business development, strategic planning, project financing and possesses a deep knowledge about the Islamic world and its links with China.

Abdullah received his Bachelor’s degree in management, from the Minzu University of China and he has been invited to give talks on Islamic finance, the Halal industry, China-Africa relations, and the silk road by various media from China and abroad. He is fluent in English, Chinese, and has basic knowledge of Arabic.

Amirali Nasir is the founder of Nasirs, a firm of lawyers in Hong Kong. He has been involved in private client Shariah compliant finance, funding initiatives, audits and structuring exercise in Hong Kong and overseas markets relating to commerce, banking, property, shipping, establishment of trusts, and associations.

Amirali has participated at various conferences on Islamic finance around the world and was the external advisor to The University of Hong Kong on the establishment of its Islamic Finance masters program and had lectured on the HKU Space Certificate in Islamic Finance and Advance Certificate in Islamic Finance.

He is a Council member of the Law Society of Hong Kong and the chairman of Hong Kong Law Society’s Working Party on Islamic Finance and in that capacity contributed to the amendments to the Laws of Hong Kong relating to Islamic finance and publicizing and promoting Islamic finance in Hong Kong.

Amirali is the former chairman and present Hon Treasurer of the Islamic Community Fund of Hong Kong, the umbrella organization looking after all Muslim affairs in Hong Kong as well as the appointment of imams, the maintenance of all Masajid, cemeteries and halls in the Hong Kong SAR and the issuer of Halal certification to airlines, hotels and restaurants, manufacturers and exporters.

Davide Barzilai is a banking and finance lawyer based in Hong Kong (being Hong Kong and English law qualified) having previously worked in our London and Singapore offices. Davide is active and has substantial experience in advising lenders and borrowers in the following markets: asset finance (particularly within the shipping sector), corporate loans (including syndicated, bilateral and asset based lending) and structured trade and commodity finance. Davide sits on the APLMA Documentation Committee. Davide is head of our Islamic finance business in Asia Pacific and has extensive experience advising European, Middle Eastern and Asian based clients in Islamic treasury, asset financing, corporate financing, real estate and funds sectors.

Davide is recommended as “highly responsive” and “exceptional” in the UK Legal 500 (2009 and 2011) and is commended by Chambers Asia-Pacific 2012 with “particular experience in shipping finance” and “a comprehensive set of skills on an international basis; he knows the markets, is very open and gets the point right away”. Davide was shortlisted for the Asia Maritime Lawyer of the Year – Lloyds List Awards 2011 and was recognised as ‘Islamic Finance Lawyer of the Year in Hong Kong’ 2014 by Corporate Intl Magazine.

Mr Fung is the Head of Market Development Division, a policy unit in the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) for promoting the development of Hong Kong’s financial industry. In this role, Mr Fung is in charge of HKMA’s efforts to promote and enhance Hong Kong’s competitiveness as an international asset management center and a corporate treasury center. In addition, as an Executive Board member of the Treasury Markets Association (TMA), Mr Fung involves heavily in TMA’s efforts in developing Hong Kong’s treasury markets and the offshore Renminbi market. Prior to his current position, Mr. Fung was the head of the Financial Stability Surveillance Division, responsible for the market monitoring and macro-prudential surveillance work in relation to strengthening the HKMA’s oversight of global financial issues.

Mr Fung joined the HKMA in 2011. Prior to joining the HKMA, Mr Fung was a senior economist at Goldman Sachs based in Hong Kong and Singapore, responsible for macroeconomic research and strategies in the Asia-Pacific region.

Florence is the Asia Pacific tax leader of financial services and asset management and the tax leader of the private equity practice in China/Hong Kong, and a member of the PwC Global Alternative Investment Management Advisory Committee. She is a member of the PwC Islamic Finance Group.

Florence has over 20 years of professional tax experience assisting clients to devise, plan and implement tax-efficient holding and operational structures for international, mainland China and regional banks, insurance companies, pension funds, traditional and alternative funds, fund managers and investors including stamp duty exemption and remission applications and transfer pricing structures and tax-exempt mergers of banks. She has also acted as a tax advisor to IPOs and M&As involving banks, insurance companies and fund managers and works closely with the industry.

Florence graduated from Imperial College in the UK with a degree in computer science. She is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, the Chartered Institute of Taxation (UK), the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Taxation Institute of Hong Kong and a registered accountant in Macau. She is a frequent speaker at seminars and a contributor of articles in Hong Kong and overseas.

Gregory Man is the head of Norton Rose Fulbright’s debt capital markets practice in the Middle East.

Gregory has extensive experience in the Islamic and conventional capital markets and structured finance transactions. He acts for leading financial institutions, key corporates and government entities in both the Middle East and Asia. Gregory has previously been based in Hong Kong where he was a senior debt capital markets lawyer responsible for leading the regional Islamic finance practice for a Magic Circle firm. Prior to being in Hong Kong, Gregory was based in Dubai for five years and therefore has a wealth of Middle Eastern experience and expertise.

Gregory advises on the full range of debt capital market structures, and has recently advised the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China on its debut Sukuk issuance, the IDB as well as the dealers on public issuances and private placements under the IDB’s US$10 billion Sukuk program and Emirates Airlines on its groundbreaking export credit agency-backed Sukuk used to pre-fund the acquisition of four A380-800 aircraft.

Michele Leung is Director, Fixed Income Indices, at S&P Dow Jones Indices. With over 10 years of investment experience, Michele has solid product knowledge across different assets class and particularly in fixed income. Michele oversees the creation and management of Asian fixed income indices.

S&P Dow Jones Indices has launched a variety of fixed income indices for different regions in Asia, including Pan Asia, onshore and offshore China, Australia, India and global Islamic. Michele assists in promoting the existing indices, while continues to build out S&P Dow Jones Indices fixed income capabilities in Asia.

Michele currently provides marketing collaterals and blogs, which are available on www.spdji.com.

Prior to joining S&P Dow Jones Indices, Michele was senior associate at China International Capital Corporation. And previously, Michele was the fixed income product specialist in J.P. Morgan Private Bank. Michele is also a chartered Financial Risk Manager (FRM).

Michele holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Civil Engineering from University of British Columbia and a Master of Science in Investment Management from University of Science and Technology.

Mohamad Safri Shahul Hamid rejoined CIMB Islamic as deputy CEO in 2011, after a stint as deputy CEO with a local investment bank based in Kuala Lumpur. Safri was one of the pioneer members of CIMB Islamic back in 2003 and credited for a number of groundbreaking and award-winning Sukuk transactions – the notable ones include all the exchangeable Sukuk transactions by Khazanah Nasional; the world’s first rated Musharakah securitization Sukuk; the world’s first Islamic residential mortgage-backed securities, the world’s first renminbi-denominated Sukuk by Khazanah Nasional; the world’s largest renminbi-denominated Sukuk by Axiata and most recently, the inaugural as well as historic global Sukuk issuances by the governments of the UK and Hong Kong, respectively.

Safri oversees the CIMB Group Islamic banking wholesale business and is a member of the CIMB Group Investment Banking Management Committee, the Group Underwriting Committee and the Group Credit Committee.

Safri had previously served as the director and regional head of Islamic structuring (Asia) at Deutsche Bank DIFC Dubai in 2008. Between 2000 and 2003, Safri was attached to Malaysian Rating Corporation; he was in charge of the ratings of Islamic instruments as well as the development of rating symbols and methodologies – another world’s first.

Raja Teh Maimunah is the managing director and CEO of Hong Leong Islamic Bank.

Prior to her current appointment, she was the global head of Islamic markets at Bursa Malaysia. And before that, she was the chief corporate officer and head of international business at Kuwait Finance House Malaysia; CEO of Bank AlKhair Malaysia (previously Unicorn Investment Bank); and head of investment banking at RHB Sakura Merchant Bank (now RHB Investment Bank).

She had also served in Pengurusan Danaharta Nasional during the Asian financial crisis and was with CIMB Investment Bank over a period of almost 10 years covering debt and equity origination and equity sales. She spent her early days at KPMG Peat Marwick Consultants.

Raja Teh is the adviser on Islamic banking and finance to the World Islamic Economic Forum Foundation.