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I found the team to be very interesting and cool to say the list. Bringing a Muslim "too" platform to the crypto-verse that is Shari'ah compliant is not the easiest project to pull off but they did it. On with the second round $MRHB token presale. Here's the very interesting white paperLite paperGreen Paper (this one is the Shari'ah concept paper).
Getting +1 billion people to believe and buy into the cryptoverse from a religious community that believes some currency-related staff to be haram (sin/the opposite of what's worthy of praise ). Things like interest rates on assets of any kind on finances are considered personal gains and therefore not halal.
The Merhaba Defi team has 13 very able-minded (intelligent) members, 4 of them are tech Dr's The rest of the team is just as epic!
Here's the team formation
The Main Team
Naquib Mohammed (Australia)
CHIEF STRATEGIST
Naquib is a global fintech influencer and an ardent advocate of the bright side of a borderless economy. The biggest asset that Naquib brings to any organization is himself. He responsibly advises and provides mentoring to many emerging startups, who are trying to wiggle their way into the Blockchain bandwagon, effectively playing the role of a catalyst to bring the most innovative solutions for the community.
Naquib has an overall experience of 12+ years in the IT Industry and has worked with organizations like Ericsson, Huawei, Digicel, STC traveling half the globe to deliver and implement solutions.
He has been recognized as a Global Distinguished Fintech (Blockchain & Cryptocurrencies) Talent by the Australian Government and was invited to move to Australia.
Naquib is the Founder and brain behind MRHB, and Innovation Consultant to Blockchain Australia
Deniz Dalkilic
PRODUCTS & ARCHITECTURE
Deniz Dalkilic is the CTO of MRHB Decentralized Finance and is an experienced Software Engineer with a decade of experience in developing small to large (distributed) systems, primarily focusing on backend development.
Deniz has been involved in the blockchain space for the past 5 years and has been building (and co-founding) decentralized platforms for the people regardless of their physical locations.
Deniz is particularly interested in expanding blockchain (and decentralization) ideas beyond its boundaries and always looking out for opportunities to offer cryptocurrencies to the masses.
Deniz has earlier co-founded Bounty0x, which is an automated cryptocurrency bounty hunting platform. The platform has now distributed assets, across borders, close to $5m notional-value to its end-users.
Harly Zappino (Australia)
LEGAL & COMPLIANCE
Harly Zappino is a co-founder and partner of Neo Legal specializing in corporate advisory, technology, and financial services. Harly is responsible to ensure all the Legal & Compliance Aspects of MRHB, including but not limited to corporate governance and operations, compliance, Digital Currency Economics, and capital raising.
Harly has a deep understanding of blockchain technology, cryptocurrency, and the law surrounding it. Harly initially entered the cryptocurrency space in 2015 mining Bitcoin. He has since helped to establish multiple digital currencies, digital exchanges, and blockchain projects on both a national and global scale. Harly often provides transactional advice on high-net-worth cryptocurrency transactions and the legalities surrounding those transactions. Currently, he is supporting the movement of technological advancement in the traditional capital markets via blockchain technology. Harly’s business acumen and extensive knowledge of the field translates to great success when working in corporate law and advisory. Harly has advised international and Australian companies on reverse takeovers, Initial Public Offerings, and mergers and acquisitions.
In addition, Harly often advises on non-cash payment facilities, managed investment schemes, and the set-up of derivatives. His work has allowed many clients to divert from an unregulated path, attaining the necessary legal structuring required to set up their relevant endeavors.
Harly has developed strong negotiation skills and is able to think outside the box, which has allowed him to attain results that are both successful and innovative. Harly is one of the few lawyers in Australia with a genuine understanding of cryptocurrency’s many complexities and the laws that may relevantly apply. Harly successfully led, managed, and sought regulatory approval for the first Initial Public Offering in the world that accepted cryptocurrency as a form of consideration. The company (West Coast Aquaculture Group Limited) raised approximately 5 million Australian dollars in capital.
Hazem Ben Taarit (Saudi Arabia)
OPERATIONS & FINANCE
With 25 years+ of experience in building and scaling IT Startups, Hazem is based in Riyadh Saudi Arabia, and is the CEO of French-based Integration and consultancy company EMGS Group.
Hazem worked for 14 years in consultancy and IT companies such as Accenture, Atos, IBM, Nokia, before becoming an entrepreneur.
An executive with experience of working across Europe and in the Middle East, with a proven track record of delivery and a strong understanding of business start-up and development inside transformational businesses.
An inspiring leader of people with a particular focus on people performance and talent management, who believes the value created by the group is far larger than the sum of its parts.
Amirsan Roberto (China)
HEAD OF INVESTOR RELATIONS
Amir is a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience in Blockchain, China-centric digital infrastructure, AI-led marketing, sharing economy, and knowledge sharing industry in particular.
He founded and co-founded a number of startups some of which got funded, including Wonder. Wiki 500K USD (exited successfully in 2017), Genaro Network 12.5 million USD, and WiredIn that has attracted 100K USD seed funding.
Amir also consults, engages, and works with startups, SMEs helping them with China-centric digital strategy challenges, concept localization, seed funding assistance are among others.
He Co-Founded and invested in Sinofy Group, helping tech companies access the world`s most connected country — China.
Ahmed Jawa
#mashallamoney
MARKETING & OPERATIONS
Ahmed is currently a Business transformation consultant for IBM. He has worked with various top Financial organizations within Canada, providing them consultation on how they can use the technology solutions provided by IBM to increase their customer experience.
On the side, Ahmed is a passionate Islamic Finance advocate. He uses his passion to create Social Media content for people to learn from and to use to make Halal investment income - in other words, Ahmed likes to call it #mashallahmoney. His brand for his content is under the name of Think Halal And/& Grow Rich.
For education, Ahmed finished his Honours in Business Administration (Co-op) with a concentration in Finance. Over his time at University Ahmed worked at General Motors as a Manager within the Equinox manufacturing facility, where he managed and lead 25+ workers towards production, quality, and safety goals. After that, he worked for the Regional government in a Financial Analyst role where he focused on development charges and government Bond creation. In addition to these, his last Co-op was with the United Nations of Cambodia (UNDP Cambodia) as a Junior Economist Consultant, where he focused on Macro level projects that ranged impact from local villages - to the entire country. His work for the UN has been awarded Locally (university) and Nationally (Canada) as he won 1) the Brock University Co-op Student of the Year Award and 2) the National Co-op Student of the Year Award.
Furthermore, Ahmed has worked with a few startups in Canada at BioLinc (Brock University accelerator/incubator). In these engagements, he focused on Business strategy.
#mashallahmoney
Dr. Ajmal Muhammad (Sweden)
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT & RESEARCH
Dr. Ajmal is a Telecommunication Engineer with Ph.D. in Telecommunication Systems and Networks. Become interested in developing expertise in the fields of Distributed LEDGER Technology (DLT) and Decentralized Finance (Defi) back in 2018. He has vast working experience with Research Institutes, Research Funding Agencies, and International Standardization Organizations such as IEEE, 3GPP, IETF, meanwhile gaining valuable experience in how to patent an idea. Dr. Ajmal has 33 patents related to 5G Radio, Machine Learning (ML), and Blockchain technologies and has authored a whopping 42 research articles including conference and journal papers.
Dr. Ajmal was the Head of research for Spherium Finance and one of the earliest team members, where he was instrumental in developing the product concepts of the entire platform, which later became the part of Spherium’s whitepaper, that helped Spherium successfully close an oversubscribed fundraising round of 3.4 million US Dollars.
The Shari'ah Board
Dr. Farrukh Habib
SHARIAH PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Dr. Farrukh Habib is the Co-Founder & Managing Director of Alif Technologies, Dubai, UAE. He is an expert in Shariah (Islamic law), finance, and fintech. He is an advisor, consultant, trainer, and product developer by profession with a strong educational background and vast global experience. He is involved in the Islamic fintech and halal digital economy, focusing on crowdfunding, micro-investments, tokenization, decentralized economy, halal supply chain management, and Shariah compliance. He believes in enhancing shared prosperity by using blockchain, internet-of-thing (IoT), artificial intelligence, big data, and predictive analytics in the halal sector, including Islamic finance. Therefore, he has contributed to several projects, researches, corporate training, workshops, and consultation work. He has also developed his own proprietary shariah-compliance screening criterion for crypto-assets.
Previously, he was a Researcher at the International Shariah Research Academy for Islamic Finance (ISRA), a research institute under the Central Bank of Malaysia (BNM). He is also the co-editor of ISRA Journal of Islamic Finance (indexed by ESCI and SCOPUS) and a reviewer of various reputable academic journals. He has been doing research in the capital market, Sukuk, banking, and social & ethical finance. He has also been a prolific speaker in several international dialogues, conferences, and seminars; and extensively written in numerous academic journals, reports, research papers, and business magazines.
Dr. Farrukh Habib holds a Ph.D. degree in Islamic Finance from INCEIF, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He acquired a master’s degree (M.Sc.) in banking and finance from Queen Mary, University of London, UK. Prior to that, he obtained master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Karachi, both in economics. He also received traditional Islamic (Shariah) education through an extensive eight-years-course in Jamia Uloom-E-Islamya Banuri Town, Karachi, acquiring another bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Islamic studies.
Mufti Billal Omarjee
SHARIAH COMPLIANCE OFFICER
Mufti Billal leads the Shariah team for MRHB Platform and is the co-founder of Shariah Experts, a company with a primary focus on guiding innovative ideas and tech-driven projects from the financial space to comply with the Islamic law (shariah).
Mufti Billal completed his 6 years of Islamic theology studies at the Darul Uloom Bury in 2004 under the guidance of many prestigious scholars of fiqh and hadith. He graduated with a BA in Banking and law from London Metropolitan University and subsequently also trained as a Mufti in Darul Uloom Blackburn. He also holds a postgraduate diploma from the Institute of Islamic Banking and Finance, London along with a Certified Sukuk Professional from Al Huda CIBE, Pakistan.
He has worked as a research assistant for Mufti Zubair Butt; chair of the Al Qalam Sharia Panel and served as Imam of Chingford Masjid, London.
During his time at the National Zakat Foundation, Mufti Billal answered a thousand zakat queries and delivered hundreds of workshops for various mosques across London.
He is currently a consultant for Islamic Finance Guru (IFG) where he is leading the Islamic Will service, as well as answering queries related to Islamic finance on the IFG forum.
Mufti Billal has also launched the My Halal Odyssee blog to help French Muslims understand the concept of halal finance in the context of life in France.
Dr. Mohammad Abdullah
ISLAMIC FINANCE EXPERT
Dr. Mohammad Abdullah is a reputed Shariah Scholar and an established Researcher. He enjoys a blend of Academic and Professional Experience in Islamic Finance, Shariah Advisory, Shariah Training, and Islamic Social Finance. He is an Expert in Waqf Studies. Abdullah is a Certified Shariah Advisor and Auditor (CSAA) from AAOIFI. Abdullah is a UAE Central Bank-approved Shariah professional and is currently heading the Shariah Department of an International Bank in the UAE.
Dr. Abdullah has produced a number of research papers on different aspects of Islamic Finance and Islamic Endowment (Waqf) Studies. He has presented his papers in different International Conferences across American, European and Asian countries including Germany, Norway, Italy, Ireland, Scotland, UK, Trinidad & Tobago, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, and Dubai, etc.
Abdullah was a recipient of the highly prestigious IDB International Scholarship for his Doctoral Research in the UK. He holds Masters in Islamic Finance from the University of Gloucestershire UK, and a Degree of Aalimiyah (Bachelor in Shariah and Islamic Sciences) from Nadwatul Ulama, India.
Dr. Abdullah is the reviewer of Policy Research Papers for IRTI/IDB & a number of other International Academic Journals. He is a Member of the Editorial Advisory Board for Sahulat Journal of Interest-Free Micro Finance, and he sits at the Advisory Board of Iportal.live (an Islamic Digital Economy Platform). His areas of Interest include Shariah Advisory, Waqf & Fiqh al-Awqaf, Sukuk Structuring, Shariah Governance, Islamic Social Finance, and Takaful and Re-Takaful.
ADVISORY BOARD
Dr. Rami Akeela
ECOSYSTEM ARCHITECTURE ADVISOR
Blockchain Hardware Architect and consultant with a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Through extensive research experience and several publications (first and mostly only author) working on various topics, Rami has demonstrated the ability to conquer any field with passion and determination. His recent research interest is FPGA-accelerated Blockchain and ML applications. Realizing the significance of these technologies in today's industry, he uses his knowledge in HW/SW partitioning and FPGA acceleration in order to optimize complex applications.
Rami is the co-founder & CTO of Sukhavati Labs (a decentralized cloud service network focused on storage. Its mission is to inspire and incentivize improvements to the distributed storage ecosystem and expand a wide range of application scenarios for the implementation of the Web3.0 vision) and the Blockchain Architect of Findora Foundation (a zero-knowledge proof based blockchain providing confidentiality while retaining the transparency of other blockchains).
Khalid Howladar
CHAIRMAN OF ADVISORY BOARD
Khalid Howladar is the Senior Managing Director and Head of Credit & Sukuk for R.J. Fleming & Co. and advises institutional and sovereign clients With his global perspectives, he is a recognized authority in his field and has addressed investors worldwide as well as audiences at the World Bank, IMF, ECB, and IMF. Khalid is also an active innovation investor, advisor, and Board Member for a diverse mix of fintech, edtech, crypto, and Islamic Economy start-ups through his firm Acreditus Partners.
His most prominent start-up role was as Chairman of Small Pharma, a pioneering UK biotech that successfully made the transition from startup to a public 2021 listing in Canada. Khalid gained his initial industry recognition from 15 years at Moody’s Investor’s Service London and Dubai as both Global Head – Islamic Finance, Head of the GCC banking team responsible for a diverse portfolio of around 60 financial institutions. He was also a Credit Committee Co-Chair for the European, Middle East & Africa Banks and a senior member in GCC Sovereign and Sukuk committees after senior roles covering securitization and structured credit in London. Previously Khalid spent four years at Credit Suisse in the Emerging Markets Risk team in London. Khalid has provided over 100 briefings on both regional credit markets and Islamic finance to stakeholders such as BlackRock, Fidelity, AIG, Threadneedle, Ashmore, ECM, LIM, Goldman Sachs, JPM AM, Franklin Templeton, and BlueBay the amongst others. His research and views have often been quoted by the FT, Bloomberg, Reuters, WSJ, The Economist, CNBC Arabiya, and other media outlets He is an active LinkedIn influencer and a well-respected speaker at conferences with his passionate and dynamic style engaging audiences at the most senior levels in globally for institutions such as the World Bank, IMF, ECB, IIF, IsDB, AMF and the IILM.
A keen UAE educational supporter and has lectured students in Dubai (Edinburgh, London, and Cass Business Schools), Abu Dhabi (Paris-Sorbonne and New York Universities), and Lisbon (Nova Business School) in Islamic fintech, risk, ratings, banking, and Sukuk finance. Khalid holds an MSc in Finance from London Business School, an MSc in Advanced Information Technology, and a BEng in Software Engineering both from the Imperial College of Science and Technology and Medicine.
Ravi Sharma
BUSINESS MENTOR
Ravi Sharma has over 30 years of professional work experience. Ravi has worked for reputed multinationals at senior levels and has specialized in managing joint ventures and new business launches. Ravi was the Managing Director – Investment Consulting for Sun Life Financial of Canada. He has also worked for Sun Life Hong Kong and was the CEO for the Sun Life joint venture in Vietnam, based in Hanoi. He has been part of Sun Life Global Investments, Toronto. Prior to joining Sun Life, he has previously worked for multinationals like Aditya Birla Group. Panasonic, Sanyo, and Hawkins.
Ravi is a keen contributor to society and believes in trusted relationships. Ravi is a seasoned traveler and has visited over 40 countries, servicing his clients. Ravi has delivered guest lectures at renowned business schools and at Industry forums. Ravi is a keen contributor to society and actively works for the underprivileged and supports organizations.
That's four Dr's on merhabadefi.com Totally impressive, can't wait to peek into the future with $MRHB.
Merhaba!!!
#mashallahmoney
