Our Management

The ones that make it happen

Mohammad Farrukh Raza

Founder & Managing Director
Farrukh holds an MBA in Strategic Management and brings on board exceptionally rich experience across various sectors of the Islamic finance industry. He has been playing a leading role in the development and growth of Islamic finance internationally where he led and managed ground-breaking high-profile projects at policy levels with governments, central banks and regulatory authorities, and at commercial level with institutional clients, in multi-cultural and multi-lingual business environments. He lectures on Islamic Finance in many reputed universities worldwide and speaks several languages with excellent command on English, French and Urdu.

Dr. Shaher Abbas

Co-founder of IFAAS group & Director
Dr. Shaher brings more than a decade of extensive hands-on experience in different disciplines of the Islamic Finance industry. He holds a PHD in Islamic financial engineering from Durham University (UK) and a Masters degree in Islamic banking and finance. He played key roles in many of IFAAS’s pioneering Islamic finance projects in Europe, Central America, and GCC. He is an AAOIFI Certified Shariah Advisor and Auditor (CSAA), a CISI accredited trainer for IFQ (Islamic Finance Qualification). He has been involved in many pioneering projects in Islamic Finance. He speaks excellent English whilst being a native Arabic speaker.

Boubkeur Ajdir

Director, IFAAS France
Graduated at the Ecole Nationale de Commerce (Paris BESSIERES), Boubkeur has also received specialised training in Islamic theology with focus on Islamic financial law. Currently, he is spearheading IFAAS projects in a number of French-speaking countries across North and West Africa including setting up Shariah-Compliant investment funds, Sukuk issuance and conducting feasibility studies on the launch of new Islamic financial operations. He actively contributed towards the development of the French tax reforms pertaining to Islamic Finance.

Najib Al Aswad

Director
Najib has successfully led many pioneering consultancy projects in over twenty countries spread from the USA to Singapore. In pursuit of his life’s passion for Islamic finance, he has advised policy-makers, regulators and market players on developing Islamic finance infrastructure and ecosystem. Najib is an AAOIFI Certified Shariah Adviser & Auditor (CSAA), an AAOIFI Certified Islamic Professional Accountant (CIPA) and an Accredited Islamic Finance Trainer. He also holds a Master’s degree (MSc) in Islamic Finance from Durham University (UK) and a PGDip in Finance and Banking. Najib speaks fluent English and Arabic.

Manar Abbas

Head of Product Development
Manar is a big believer in Islamic finance and has accumulated circa 10 years of valuable hands-on experience in various segments of the Islamic finance industry. She has been instrumental in delivering multiple product development projects and designing several innovative products for various clients in Europe, Asia and GCC. She has also been actively involved in preparing and delivering many of our training courses. She is an AAOIFI Certified Shariah Adviser & Auditor (CSAA) and an Accredited Trainer by the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI – UK) for the Islamic Finance Qualification (IFQ). Arabic is her mother tongue and she speaks fluent English.

Dr. Sami AS SOULAIMANI

Director
Dr Sami is the head of Sharia compliance and product development in the French speaking zone at IFAAS. Before joining IFAAS Dr Sami has successfully established and headed one of the leading offices of a Dubai based international Islamic finance consulting firm in Casablanca. Moreover, Dr Sami is the founder of the International Fiqh Forum on Islamic Finance that is gathering the African Specialized Scholars in Islamic Finance as well as many other strategic initiatives that aims at serving Islamic finance African markets. Dr Sami combines Islamic financial expertise and a deep sharia understanding that enables him to tackle complex product development and sharia compliance assignments and projects.

Mohamed BOULIF

Director
Based in Brussels, Mohamed Boulif is a seasoned expert in Islamic finance with 25 years of international experience. He joined Islamic finance while the industry was still at its first faltering steps and joined a pioneering Islamic Finance group as CFO for its Financial Holding structure and its Takaful arm in Europe. Later on, Mohamed co-founded, the historically first of its kind Islamic finance firm in Continental Europe and was also a strategic partner in the launch of another leading consulting firm today. Expert in Islamic Accounting standards, Mohamed is frequently invited to speak at major conferences and teaches Islamic Finance in many universities throughout Europe and Africa. He is also co-managing an Executive MBA in Islamic Banking and Finance.