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Arshad Matin CEO, President and member of the board, Seismic Micro Technologies Arshad Matin is CEO, President and member of the board of SMT. SMT is the global leader in Oil and Gas E&P technical software marketplace with over 2,500 customers in 85 countries. Mr. Matin has over 20 years in the high technology industry. Prior to joining SMT, Mr. Matin was vice president of the compliance and security management business unit at Symantec. Mr. Matin joined Symantec through the company’s acquisition of BindView Corporation [NASDAQ: BVEW] in January 2006. At BindView, he was president and COO directly overseeing products, sales, marketing, corporate development and services functions. He led the successful turn-around at BindView which established the company as the leader in IT policy compliance. Before joining BindView in April 2004, Mr. Matin was partner at the Houston office of McKinsey & Company where he served clients in both high tech and energy industries. He started his career as software developer for Oregon-based Mentor Graphics Corporation Mr. Matin earned his MBA from the Wharton School, MS in computer engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and BE in electrical engineering from Regional Engineering College in India. Long time Houston resident, he and his wife have three daughters. |
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Farooq Kathwari, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. Farooq Kathwari is the Chairman, President and Chief Executive officer of Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. He has been president of the Company since 1985 and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since 1988. He received his B.A. degree from Kashmir University in English Literature and Political Science and an M.B.A. in International Marketing from New York University. Mr. Kathwari serves on several not-for-profit organizations, including: Chairman of Refugees International, Chairman of the Kashmir Study Group, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Trustee of Freedom House, a Director of Henry L. Stimson Center, a Director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, and a Director and Former Chairman of the National Retail Federation. He has received several recognitions, including the “Outstanding American by Choice Award” by the United States Government; “Spirit of Asian American Award” from the Asian American Federation of New York; Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal; “National Human Relations Award” by the American Jewish Committee; “American Muslim Recognition Awards” by several organizations; Worth Magazine Recognition of one of 50 Best CEO’s in USA; the National Retail Federation Gold Medal; recipient of the International First Freedom Award from the Council for America’s First Freedom, Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the Anti-Defamation League’s Humanitarian Award. |
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Maha El Genaidi, Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer, Islamic Networks Group (ING) Maha has spoken to hundreds of schools, churches, synagogues, police departments, corporations and other public agencies; has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, and is author of seven training handbooks on outreach for American Muslims as well as eight training modules for public institutions on "developing cultural competency with the American Muslim community". She's also currently active with many state and federal governmental agencies, and is a former commissioner on Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante's Commission for One California, Santa Clara County Human Relations Commission, and an Advisor to California's Commission on Police Officers Standards and Training for cultural diversity and hate crimes. She's also recipient of numerous civil rights awards, which include the 2002 "Citizen of the Year" Award from the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. Maha received her B.A. in Political Science & Economics from the American University in Cairo (AUC). She is married and lives in Santa Clara, California. |
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Imam Zaid Shakir – Founder, New Islamic Directions & resident scholar, Zaytuna Institute Imam Zaid Shakir is amongst the most respected and influential Islamic scholars in the West. As an American Muslim who came of age during the civil rights struggles, he has brought both sensitivity about race and poverty issues and scholarly discipline to his faith-based work. |
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Afzaal Akhtar, Co-Founder, Interactive Broadband Consulting Group and DigiForce Afzaal Akhtar is a co-founder of two companies in the broadband and convergence space focused on service providers (fixed line such as cable and telcos and wireless including satellite companies), and media companies. Interactive Broadband Consulting Group, LLC (www.ibbconsulting.com) is a boutique management consulting company founded in 2001 and currently employs ~50 consultants. Afzaal develops and leads major client engagements and is responsible for the company’s administrative operations. DigiForge, LLC is a technology and products development and implementation venture founded in 2008 and currently has ~5 employees. Afzaal participates in setting the strategic direction, identifying “white spaces” or product opportunity areas and is responsible for managing the company’s administrative infrastructure. Previously, Afzaal held senior consulting and industry positions with leading companies including McKinsey & Co., PA Consulting Group, Fidelity Investments, and ALCOA (Aluminum Company of America). Afzaal holds Master of Engineering (ME) and Bachelor of Science (BS) degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He completed his thesis work on “automated planning and generation for continuous path manufacturing processes” with the Robotics Institute and Mechanical Engineering departments. |
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Arif Hyder Ali, Co-Chair, Crowell & Moring LLP Arif Hyder Ali is Co-Chair of Crowell & Moring LLP’s International Dispute Resolution Practice. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, and an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Dundee’s Centre for Energy, Mining and Petroleum Law and Policy. He has represented private and state parties in commercial and investor-state arbitrations and mediations involving thermal, nuclear and hydro power plants, oil and gas pipeline construction and concession-related matters, tourism projects, project finance and development agreements, patents and trademarks, and information technology. He has also represented parties before inter-governmental tribunals, such as the United States-Iran Claims Tribunal and the United Nations Compensation Commission. Mr. Ali has been recognized as a leading international lawyer and arbitration practitioner by Who’s Who in American Law, Who’s Who in Public International Law, Chambers and Partners (USA), The Legal Media Group's Guide to the World's Leading Experts in Commercial Arbitration, The International Who’s Who of Commercial Arbitration, and Lawdragon. In 2001, he was decorated with the Order of Bahrain (II) for his role in representing Bahrain in its territorial and maritime border dispute with Qatar before the International Court of Justice. He is a member of the arbitrator panels of several leading arbitral institutions, and lectures on arbitration worldwide. He has an extensive list of publications relating to international arbitration, including two forthcoming books: “The International Arbitration Rule Book: A Practitioner’s Guide,” and “Arbitration in South Asia.” He received his Juris Doctor from New York University Law School (1990, Vanderbilt Medal), and his B.A. in Political Science from Columbia University (1986, Summa cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa). His working languages are English, Spanish, and French. He is conversant in Portuguese, Hindi, Urdu and Bengali. Prior to joining Crowell & Moring, Mr. Ali held senior positions at the United Nations Compensation Commission, the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center and practiced international arbitration with Freshfields, Bruckhaus, Derringer (Paris office), and Fulbright & Jaworski LLP (Houston and Washington, D.C. offices). |
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Asaad K. Siddiqi, Associate, Walder Hayden & Brogan Mr. Siddiqi earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Rutgers College, Rutgers University in May 1998 and his Juris Doctor degree from St. John’s University School of Law in May 2001, through its Accelerated Program. While in law school, he received the First Prize Award in the 2000 Nathan Burkan Memorial Writing Competition, the Dean’s Academic Achievement Scholarship Award, and the Second Prize Award in the 2001 Los Angeles County Bar Association’s National Writing Competition. He also served as an Associate Articles Editor and staff member on the New York International Law Review and as an executive board member of the Asian American Law Students Association. After graduating from law school, he served as law clerk for the Honorable Madeline Cox Arleo, United States Magistrate Judge for the District of New Jersey (2001-2002). He is a member of the New Jersey State Bar Association and the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association (ABA). He is also currently serving a two-year term as Vice-President of the Muslim Bar Association of New York. He is admitted to practice law in New Jersey, New York, and the District of New Jersey, and practices in the areas of commercial and corporate litigation and white-collar criminal defense. |
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Atif Chauhdry, Consultant, Healthcare and Legal Services staffing Atif Chauhdry’s career has focused on working with and developing start up companies. His main focus has been the development of staffing companies, particularly in the healthcare and legal-services industry. Mr. Chauhdry was a part of a management team that built and sold a San Francisco-based healthcare staffing business to Medical Staffing Network (NYSE: MRN) in 2002. Following the sale of the company, he assumed control of operations for the newly acquired business unit during its transition period. He went on to join Healthcare Consulting and Staffing Services, a labor consulting and strike staffing company, where he advised hospital management leading up to and during labor strikes by unionized workforce. Currently Mr. Chauhdry consults for healthcare staffing companies and is a part of a team developing a legal-services staffing firm in New York. Mr. Chauhdry also has experience in public relations, strategic marketing and communications. He specialized in representing private equity firms that invested in Asia and Asian entrepreneurs in the United States. Mr. Chauhdry holds a J.D. from the St. John’s University School of Law and a B.A. with honors from Colgate University. |
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Dalia Mahmoud, Director of International Pricing, Roche Pharmaceutical Prior to joining Roche – Dalia worked as a Senior Consultant at Cambridge Pharma Consultancy in Manhattan. She has also worked at Medco Inc as a Senior Manager of Business Development and she has worked in similar roles at Pfizer’s headquarters in Manhattan and at Ethicon Inc. (J&J). Dalia received her MBA from Columbia Business School in 2003 and her BS in Engineering from Princeton University in 1998. Dalia is the founder and president of the MFPA (Muslim Finance Professionals Association of NY - www.nymfpa.com) and is launching the NY office of MPAC (Muslim Public Affairs Council – www.mpac.org). Dalia serves on the board of Turning Point – a NYC-based organization aiding Muslim Women who are victims of domestic violence (www.turningpoint-ny.org). |
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Farooq Azami, Vice President, JP Morgan Chase, Global Technology Infrastructure Farooq has over 15 years experience in Technology. He has been with JP Morgan Chase (JPMC) for the last 11 years, prior to JPMC he worked for a European-based software house, developing applications for the financial services industry. He has held several roles throughout his career at JPMC – including leading roles across operations, integrations, mergers as well as outsourcing programs. His most recent role, prior to relocating to New York, was Head of Infrastructure Operations for JPMC India, based in Bangalore, where he led the build out of JPMC’s infrastructure “start-up” operations. In his new role, Farooq is responsible for leading Productivity and Process Re-engineering efforts across technology infrastructure. Farooq completed his Bachelors (BSc Honors) in Computer Science & Management from Kings College, University of London (UK). |
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Firas Ahmad, Journalist and Entrepreneur Firas is a columnist and writer for Islamica magazine whose commentary and analysis has appeared in the Economist, the Washington Post and other national and international media. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and received his Masters in public policy from Harvard University. He currently works with a renewable energy startup company in Massachusetts |
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Fu’ad Butt, Corporate Vice President, New York Life (NYL) Insurance Company Over the last 9 years at NYL, Fu’ad has held many varied positions with increasing responsibility. In his current capacity, Fu’ad manages two teams: managing NYL’s Lead Generation efforts to the 10,000 US based NYL Financial Planners, and acting as the corporate IT liaison to NYL’s affinity marketing groups such as NYL AARP, NYL Long Term Care, NYL Guaranteed Lifetime Income and NYL Group Membership. Prior to joining NYL, Fu’ad worked for PNC Financial. Fu’ad graduated from Virginia Tech with a BSc in Finance and a BSc in Economics. He went on to get his Masters in International Business from the University of South Carolina and has a Certificate of Professional Development from UPenn’s Wharton School of Business. Fu’ad is involved in a number of volunteer efforts, including serving as the Chairperson of the Career Advancement Program (CAP) at the Islamic Society of Central Jersey. Fu'ad is on the Advisory Board for CAMP Philadelphia and is also on the Board of Directors for theMLink.com. |
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Hassan Mohaideen, Founder, Health Plan Systems Dr. Mohaideen is the founder of Health Plan Systems, a provider of administrative software solutions. Throughout his career, Dr. Mohaideen has been involved with managed health care and the evolving use of technology in health and benefits administration. Dr. Mohaideen currently serves as a consultant to several physician groups that contract with insurance companies. He also serves as a committee member on several health insurance plans. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of Aetna Health Plans of New York for 11 years, and was formerly the Senior Vice-President for Managed Care of the Brooklyn Hospital Center. He also has held the position of Medical Director at several self-insured funds. Dr. Mohaideen practiced general and vascular surgery for more than twenty years in Brooklyn, New York, and was as member of the faculty of the State University of New York – Downstate Medical Center. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada. He holds an MD degree from Stanley Medical College, India and an MBA from Wagner College , New York , and is a Certified Physician Executive. |
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Miral Sattar, Technical Producer, TIME.com A graduate of Columbia University, Miral Sattar is a software engineer, writer, journalist, and entrepreneur. Currently, she is a Technical Producer at TIME.com and oversees development for TIME.com. In 2003, in an effort to create space for South Asian women’s voices, Miral founded Divanee. Currently, she serves as Divanee’s Editor-in-Chief, and writes about desi artists, social pressure within desi culture on women, violence against women, and the American war on terrorism. She has written for Jane Magazine, TIME.com, Shaadi Style and various publications. She has been featured on Chicago Public Radio, WBAI in New York City, PTV, GEO, the New York Times, Glamour Magazine, Good Morning America, and Gotham Magazine. She has participated in gatherings across the country on issues related to South Asian American experiences, including the 2005 South Asian Awareness Network conference, and the 2004 Indus Women Leaders. She speaks formally and informally about South Asians and the media, and issues that confront South Asian women. |
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Mohammad Abdul Aziz, Analyst, Macquarie Capital Mohammad is an Analyst at Macquarie Capital in their Industrials’ Team pursuing principal investment opportunities in infrastructure assets, having previously worked in their Airports group. Prior to that, he spent two years in Corporate Strategy & Planning at Citigroup. He is on the New York admin team for Muppies, an organization dedicated to developing Muslim professional leadership; and holds a Bachelors degree in Industrial Engineering from Columbia University. |
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Mona Diab, Associate Research Scientist, Center for Computational Learning Systems, Columbia University Mona Diab received her PhD in 2003 in the Linguistics department and UMIACS, University of Maryland College Park. Her PhD work focused on lexical semantic issues and was titled Word Sense Disambiguation within a Multilingual Framework. Her area of expertise lies in computational linguistics “using computers to process natural language”. Mona is currently an associate research scientist at the Center for Computational Learning Systems, Columbia University. Before Joining Columbia University, Mona pursued a postdoc at Stanford University. Her research focus now is on Arabic computational linguistics. In 2005, she co-founded the Columbia Arabic Dialect Modeling (CADIM) group. She has published over 40 articles in different conferences, journals and workshops. Mona has presented her work in numerous lectures both for academic and industrial audiences. Mona is actively engaged in different national and international organizations for the involvement of women in science and technology. She is also involved in several projects whose goals are to improve research and education in the Arab and Muslim world. |
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Murad Pandit, Principal, KSK Development LLC & The Plan Source LLC Murad Pandit is a Principal at KSK Development LLC & The Plan Source LLC. He combines eight years of land development experience as an owner-developer with over three years of capital markets experience in investment management on the buy side. Murad is currently a Principal at KSK Development, a Virginia based real estate investment advisory and land development company, and is also the President of The Plan Source, a business to business services company focused on land development design, planning & engineering with operations in Bangalore, India. KSK is focused on mixed use projects as well as investments in wind farming and hospitality. Murad previously co-managed the four star Morningstar rated MTB Mid Cap Growth Fund with $250MM assets under management as a Fund Manager and Equity Analyst. Prior to MTB, he was the Implementation Planner for the US Region for ExxonMobil Fuels Marketing and was involved in market development, capital budgeting, permitting, economics, design and construction management of retail facilities. Murad has an undergraduate degree in Civil/Environmental Engineering from Virginia Tech and an MBA from The Wharton School with a dual major in Marketing & Entrepreneurial Management. |
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Nasrina Bargzie, Attorney, ACLU Nasrina Bargzie is an attorney in the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation's National Security Project. At the National Security Project, Nasrina works on various issues, including, surveillance, the First Amendment, detention, civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, ideological exclusion, and law enforcement "voluntary" interviews. Nasrina holds her law degree from U.C. Berkeley Law School (Boalt Hall), and her B.S. from Hayward State. Nasrina also clerked for Judge William A. Fletcher on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. |
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Naveed Siddiqui, CEO and founder, Zayan Finance, LLC Mr. Siddiqui has held senior management roles in the international banking arena. Formerly a Senior VP at Citigroup’s Consumer Assets Group, Naveed left the bank to manage the launch of three separate specialty firms. At Citigroup’s Global Corporate and Investment Bank, Mr. Siddiqui served in various management roles developing key corporate relationship with international financial institutions in the US, the Middle East and South Asia. Mr. Siddiqui was also chosen to serve as VP at the bank’s E-Citi initiative targeting innovative product lines against corporate clients in the Energy Sector. Mr. Siddiqui then moved on to serve as Senior VP and Chief Marketing Officer at Citigroup’s Consumer Assets Division where his group implemented successful consumer marketing and distribution strategies across North America . Mr. Siddiqui left Citigroup to help start up three financial service firms, executing successful business development strategies focusing on specialty finance markets in US and abroad. At IslamIQ, Mr. Siddiqui served as Head of Development for the first global online provider of Sharia complaint investment products. In this role, he partnered with major global financial firms to deliver a viable delivery platform. Later, Mr. Siddiqui joined Guidance Financial Group as National Director of Business Development and Marketing. In this role, he had the unique opportunity to plan and launch one of the most formidable Islamic financial services firm in North America. Under his leadership, Guidance Financial became the largest provider of Islamic home financing products in North America. Mr. Siddiqui then joined Unison Site Management, a specialty finance arm of Soros Private Equity, where he led the development of successful asset accumulation and distribution strategies. |
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Named one of Wall Street's "Top Ten Most Influential Technologists“. Mr. Amanat is a pioneer in the electronic brokerage industry. He began his entrepreneurial career at Datek Online, which was sold to Ameritrade. He left Datek to co-found CyberBlock and co-designed the trading platform CyberTrader, which was acquired by Charles Schwab in 2000. Most recently he was the founder, CEO and majority shareholder of Tradescape Corporation, a next-generation brokerage and technology firm. | ||
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Rubina Siddiqui, Secondary School Teacher, Peel District School Board Rubina Siddiqui graduated Magna Cum Laude from Hunter College – City University of New York with a joint major in History, Teacher Education, and the Thomas Hunter Honors Program. During this time she was employed as a Research Assistant and worked on a Staff Development Project for District IV Middle School Teachers in NYC. |
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Saba Ali, Reporting Assistant, Dow Jones Newswire Saba Ali is a reporting assistant at Dow Jones Newswire. Her previous work experience includes staff reporter for The Press of Atlantic City and internships at The Star-Ledger and Syracuse Post-Standard. In 2006, Saba placed second for the Robert P. Kelly award from the New Jersey Press Association for her work at The Press of Atlantic City. She received her M.A. in journalism from Syracuse University where she was accepted into the Newhouse Minority Fellowship program. As a writer, she has contributed to The New York Times and Islamic Horizon. |
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Saadia Akhtar, Residency Program Director, Dept. of Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Medical Center Saadia Akhtar is a graduate of The Aga Khan University Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan. She did a combined Residency in Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center and was the Chief Resident. She is an Assistant Professor at Beth Israel, and has been the Residency Program Director for the Department of Emergency Medicine since November of 2006. |
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Sajitha Jahangir, Associate Director, English Language Arts Curriculum, Kaplan K12 Learning Services Sajitha Jahangir has been with Kaplan, Inc. for about 3 years, working to build English workbooks for students in grades K-12. A former middle and high school English teacher, Sajitha now observes students, coaches teachers, and works with school administrators to develop educational solutions. She has a B.A. in English from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and an M.A. in Educational Psychology from New York University. |
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Sajjad Chowdhry, Area Manager NY/NJ, Zayan Finance Sajjad Chowdhry is the Area Manager for NY/NJ at Zayan Finance. Sajjad is responsible for commercial real estate finance origination and business development in the NY metropolitan area. Prior to joining Zayan Finance Sajjad worked as a Senior Analyst at Gramercy Capital Corp., a boutique commercial real estate investment firm, where he analyzed investments and was part of the team that arranged the issuance of the largest Commercial Real Estate CDO that had come to market at the time.Sajjad began his career at Standard and Poor’s Ratings Services as a Senior Research Assistant in the Credit Card team of the Structured Finance Ratings Group. At S&P Sajjad was involved in the rating and analysis process for asset backed securities issuance. He was exposed to financial modeling and worked with senior analysts to ensure the proper assessment and surveillance of a host of issuers and their billion dollar plus issuances. Sajjad later worked on the structured finance research desk as a Summer Intern at Barclays Capital. Sajjad is also co-founder of DinarStandard.com – a leading web portal dedicated to covering issues related to the business environment in the Muslim World. Sajjad holds Master’s degrees in Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations and International Affairs from the Hartford Seminary and the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, respectively. He also holds certificates in Islamic finance and Islamic investing. Sajjad lives in New York with his wife Maliha and their sons Haneef and Dawood. |
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Salam Al-Marayati, Executive Director, Muslim Public Affairs Council For the past 16 years, Salam has had the opportunity to speak to congregations at community-sponsored events, temples, synagogues, churches, high schools, and college campuses. He has written extensively on Islam, human rights, democracy, Middle East politics, the Balkan Crisis, and the Transcaucus conflict. His articles and interviews have appeared on such prominent newspapers as The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The LA Daily News, The Chicago Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle and USA Today. He has appeared on radio and TV talk shows, including The Dennis Miller Show, Tonight with Deborah Norville, Politically Incorrect, and has been featured on C-SPAN and NBC. Salam has also been deeply involved in interfaith activities. He served as co-chair of the Interfaith Coalition to Heal Los Angeles, which formed as a result of the Los Angeles uprising in the Summer of 1992. Salam also works as an advisor to several political, civic and academic institutions seeking to understand the role of Islam and Muslims in America and throughout the world. |
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Salim Manzar, Executive Director, Princeton Advisory Group, LLC Salim Manzar specializes in consultancy in all aspects of mergers & acquisitions, as well as advice in strategy, business and financial matters. He also offers an exceptional depth and breadth of expertise in the life insurance industry.Until recently, Salim was Sr. Vice President & CFO of MetLife International, a $3 billion dollar line-of-business within MetLife, Inc. In this position, he had responsibility for managing all financial aspects of the business. In addition, he was Officer-in-Charge of Planning, New Business Development and Mergers & Acquisitions for MetLife International where he was instrumental in guiding the strategic direction of MetLife International, as well as strengthening the organizational integrity, effectiveness and controls of the business. Salim was also Global Head of Mergers & Acquisitions for MetLife (1994-2001). |
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Sameer Shariff, CEO, Impelsys Inc Sameer Shariff is a serial entrepreneur with the passion of turning ideas into real businesses. As the founder and CEO of Impelsys Inc., Mr. Shariff drives Impelsys' business vision, strategy, value and growth. Impelsys is Mr. Shariff’s second start up, he has grown the company to become a leader in online content delivery for the STM, Children’s and educational publishing markets. Impelsys helps over 50 publishers with their online content delivery strategy through Impelsys products and services. Customers include major publishers Reed Elsevier, McGraw Hill, Wolters Kluwer, Thomson, Springer, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to smaller publishers Marshall Cavendish, Benchmark Education and Prufrock Press. Mr. Shariff’s first company he founded was Medsite Inc. As Chief Strategic Officer and Executive Vice President of Sales, Mr. Shariff helped Medsite become one of the largest Internet pharmaceutical marketing companies in the United States. Mr. Shariff was instrumental in guiding Medsite during its early period of financial and organizational growth. Under Mr. Shariff's strategic direction, Medsite grew to include more than 200 employees and increased in sales from $0 to over $20 million. In 2006, Medsite was sold to WebMD for over $ 40 Million. Mr. Shariff is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned his BS degree in Entrepreneurial Management from the Wharton School of Business. Mr. Shariff has served as a guest speaker at several industry events and has been featured in Forbes, India Today and Silicon India among other publications. |
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Saquib Toor, Principal, Centerbridge Partners Saquib is a Principal at Centerbridge Partners, a New York-based $5 billion private equity and credit hedge fund. Prior to joining Centerbridge, Mr. Toor was a private equity analyst at JLL Partners, where he worked on a variety of distressed and private equity transactions. Prior to JLL, Mr. Toor worked as an associate director at UBS Warburg where he focused on restructuring transactions. Mr. Toor began his career as an investment banking analyst in Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette’s Los Angeles office. Mr. Toor graduated magna cum laude from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Toor earned his M.B.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Toor is also the co-President of the Muslim Finance Professional Association in New York. |
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Sayyeda Mirza-Jafri, Project Manager, One Nation – Rockefeller Philanthropic Advisors Sayyeda Mirza-Jafri is the Project Manager for ‘One Nation- with Liberty and Justice for All’ (ON) whose mission is to invest in ideas, people and groups working to realize the American Dream of freedom, liberty and justice for all. This project, housed at the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA), aims to reframe perceptions of Islam and Muslims in the American context. Mrs. Mirza-Jafri prior to ON was engaged in developing a Middle East and North Africa leadership program for EWI when she joined in February 2004. Prior to EWI, Mrs. Mirza-Jafri served as Program Associate for the Bridging Leadership Program at the Synergos Institute, where she managed a global network of partner organizations, organized and co-facilitated the global leadership trainings in Southern Africa, Latin America and SE Asia, developed overall communication strategy and materials both internally and externally, engaged in research initiatives of conflict resolution, leadership development and systems thinking. Additional endeavors include foreign policy work experience at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) where she focused on issues related to Islam and was involved in the project ‘Pluralism in Muslim Societies’, sponsored by the Ford Foundation. At the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) she focused on the Middle East and North Africa. Furthermore, her background in international economic development, specifically microfinance, working for the Grameen Bank/Trust in Bangladesh and India are also to be noted. Mrs. Mirza-Jafri obtained a Masters degree in International Political Economy (PWE MSc) from the London School of Economics in 1999 focusing on issues of economic development, investment and political barriers in developing countries (specifically in the Middle East and North Africa). She was born and raised in the United States, with an ethnic background from South Asia and Iran. She graduated cum laude from New York University with a BA in International Politics and Middle East Studies and her honors thesis focused on Islamic reformist feminist thought. Her language skills at various levels include: Arabic, Bengali, Hindi, Persian, Spanish and Urdu. Her interests include poverty alleviation, globalization, US foreign policy, leadership thought and theory, Islamic reform, travel, yoga, swimming and interior design. |
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Active in articulating the voice of American Muslims. As editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com, an online newsmagazine covering issues related to Islam in the West, Shahed writes and speaks regularly about the challenges and opportunities facing Islam in America. His work and writings have been featured in Newsweek, San Jose Mercury News, New York Times, Washington Post, BBC News, National Public Radio, Belief Net, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, San Francisco Chronicle, and the Voice of America. His television appearances include "Nightline with Ted Koppel", CNN Headline News, the "Today Show", and "Hannity & Colmes". Shahed is also the founder of Halalfire Media LLC (http://www.halalfire.com), a network of Islamic-themed websites with over 6 million annual visitors. | ||
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Shakil Ahmed, Managing Director, Citi Group Shakil is a Managing Director at Citi, having recently joined as the new Global Head of Quantitative Strategies, covering both proprietary trading and hedge funds. He spent thirteen years running the main proprietary trading businesses at Morgan Stanley, reporting directly to the president of the firm. He retired from day to day responsibilities in 2006 and become a Senior Advisor to Morgan Stanley. After a year of retirement, when his former boss Vikram Pandit became CEO of Citi, he was sufficiently tempted by the big challenge that he decided to go back to work and join up with his former boss. Shakil has a Ph.D., an M.Phil and an M.S. from Yale University in Computer Science. He also holds a Bachelor's in Computer Science with high distinction from the University of California, Berkeley. |
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Shamil Idriss, Acting Director, Secretariat for the UN Alliance of Civilizations (AoC) Shamil Idriss is Acting Director of the Secretariat for the UN Alliance of Civilizations (AoC), an initiative which aims to contribute to countering cross-cultural polarization and extremism, particularly in relations between Western and Muslim societies. He was appointed to the AoC Secretariat by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in October, 2005. Prior to this position, Mr. Idriss served as Senior Advisor to the Council of 100 Leaders: West-Islamic World Dialogue Initiative (C-100) at the World Economic Forum where he established that initiative's “action track” - a mechanism by which civil society organizations could obtain support from public and private donors for projects aimed at fostering mutual understanding across cultures. From 2000-2004, Mr. Idriss served as Chief Operating Officer of Search for Common Ground, a global leader in international conflict resolution and pioneer in the use of media for positive social change. As COO, he managed the global programming of the 15-office, 375-staff-member organization as well as its headquarters in Washington , DC . Mr. Idriss serves on the Boards of several non-profit organizations and was appointed in 2005 to the Young Global Leaders Forum of the World Economic Forum. He has published articles on international conflict resolution, media and social change, and “Islamic-Western” relations in European, African, Middle Eastern, American, and Chinese journals and newspapers. He lives in New York with his wife Dr. Cynthia Miller Idriss and daughter Aniset. |
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Shakeel Syed- Executive Director, The Islamic Shura Council of Southern CA Prior to joining Shura Council, Mr. Syed was based in Los Angeles as Vice President of IslamiCity, one of the largest Islamic website in the world. Prior to that, Mr. Syed spent over 15 years in various management roles with not-for-profit organizations and Fortune 500 companies. |
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Shireen Qadri, Partner, Pilot Advisors L.P Shireen Qadri is a partner at Pilot Advisors L.P. , a New York-based investment firm. Prior to helping found Pilot Advisors in 2002, Shireen was an equity analyst at Glickenhaus & Co. since 1998, and spent two years at Goldman Sachs & Co. in the research department focusing on the cable and broadcasting industries since 1996. Shireen also serves on the Board of Directors of Child Nurture and Relief (CHINAR), a non-profit organization focused on the psycho-social rehabilitation of children of conflict areas. Shireen received her BS in Business Administration and her MS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. |
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Shireen Zaman, Senior Program Officer, Middle East and North Africa, Vital Voices Global Partnership Shireen Zaman is the Senior Program Officer for the Middle East and North Africa at Vital Voices Global Partnership, an international NGO which focuses on investing in emerging women leaders by building their capacity, connections and credibility. At Vital Voices, she manages a multi-country program focusing on the development of public-private partnerships and corporate responsibility initiatives to support women’s progress in the region. This program focus especially on family violence, women’s health and economic development. She has also worked on programs focusing on women’s role in peace building in Israel/Palestine and women’s political participation in the region. She completed her Masters degree at the School of International Service at American University in Washington, DC in 2006 where she focused on democracy issues and the Muslim World. Shireen has worked with the Office of Iraq Political Affairs at the U.S. Department of State and with the international non-profit Women Waging Peace. Shireen has also worked with the Moving Ideas Network, doing collaborative communications and legislative strategy with a network of more than 130 organizations. She has also worked with the Transnational Broadcast Studies journal in Cairo, Egypt and attended the Arabic Language Institute at the American University based in Cairo. She holds a B.A. in Human Development from Boston College. |
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Umair Khan, Strategy Manager, GE Healthcare Umair Khan is currently a Strategy Manager with GE Healthcare in Piscataway, NJ. In this role, he leads business strategy projects for GE Life Sciences, a $1.5Bn business division of GE. Prior to joining GE, Umair was a strategy consultant with Monitor Group in Cambridge, MA. At Monitor, Umair helped build the life sciences group within Monitor Ventures, the venture capital arm of Monitor Group. Umair also helped create Saudi Arabia's National Competitiveness Center, an agency that is helping guide Saudi Arabia to its goal of becoming a top 10 competitive nation by 2010. Umair currently serves on the executive team of Muslim Urban Professionals ("Muppies"), an organization dedicated to developing Muslim professional leadership. He holds a BS and BBA from the University of Houston.
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Umbreen Bhatti, Staff Attorney, American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware Umbreen Bhatti is the Staff Attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware. She is a 2005 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and a 2000 graduate of Barnard College, and was a Litigation Associate at Latham & Watkins LLP in Washington, DC, from 2005 to 2007. Umbreen serves on the Civil Rights Advisory Committee of the National Association of Muslim Lawyers and the Steering Committee for South Asians for Obama, and is an active supporter of Divanee Magazine.
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Usama DeLorenzo, Investment Manager, Saturna Capital Usama DeLorenzo, Investment Manager with Saturna Capital and the Amana Funds, was born in Karachi, Pakistan. He was raised in Karachi and Islamabad in Pakistan until the age of 11 when his family moved to the USA. Usama received his BSc in Finance from Virginia Commonwealth University. In the finance industry, Usama worked part- time with Shape Financial as an analyst on a consultative basis for two years, after which he worked with Oppenheimer and Co. in New York for one year before joining Saturna. Prior to working within the world of the capital markets, Usama was engaged in IT work that varied in nature with both private and public sector entities. Usama also gives lectures at mosques, community centers, schools, and universities on the topic of finance and Islamic finance and is a Director with the NY chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations.
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Yousef Abdallah, Operations Manager - Northeast office, Islamic Relief Yousef Abdallah was born in Palestine and soon found himself receiving an education in Jordan. He moved to the United States in 1989 and immediately began his dedicated and devoted work for the Islamic-American community. He became vice-president of the North Hudson Islamic Education Center in New Jersey in 1992 and set himself as an important fixture in the Northern New Jersey area. He played a major role in developing a successful outreach program at the center and was a part of several interfaith discussions with various religious locals. He is still an asset to the center and holds a seat on their Executive Board. To continue his work in the Islamic community, Yousef Abdallah then joined the world renown charitable organization of Islamic Relief in 2005, an organization he still works for. As an Operations Manager for the Northeast office, he has traveled extensively bringing to the forefront the plight of orphans and disaster areas world-wide. Also, as part of his work with Islamic Relief, Yousef has organized several concerts and fundraising dinners to benefit various charitable causes. Though most of his time is dedicated to Islamic Relief, Yousef has also been the executive director of the Tri-State Imam’s council and is the co-founder of Family Support Services, NJ since 2007. For his passionate and committed work with various organizations, Yousef has been recognized by the Governor of NJ and the Mayor of Union City for his service to the community. He was also dubbed the Most Inspiring Leader in 2007 by CAMP (Council for the Advancement of Muslim Professionals). He is a hardworking, enthusiastic individual who hopes to continue his work helping those in need. |
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Zafar Iqbal, Director of Product Management, E*TRADE Financial Zafar Iqbal is the Director of Product Management for E*TRADE Financial, where he is responsible for the strategy, development and delivery of a portfolio of products and channels to support the global Service and Sales organizations. Prior to E*TRADE, Zafar worked as a consultant at clients including Citibank and Deutsche Bank where he was involved in the development and launch of first generation online banking, brokerage and mobile payments platforms in the US, Latin America and Asia. Zafar started his career in Public Accounting at PricewaterhouseCoopers where he completed his CPA. He has a Bachelors degree in Accounting from Syracuse University and an MBA from the University of Michigan Business School (Ross) with an emphasis in Finance and Corporate Strategy.
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Zeenat Rahman, Public Advocacy-Program Coordinator, Interfaith Youth Core Zeenat is the Program Coordinator for Public Advocacy at the Interfaith Youth Core. In this position, she recently completed a State Department tour to Italy, France, and the United Kingdom as a Citizen Delegate. She completed her Master's Degree at the University of Chicago’s Center for Middle East Studies in June 2006. Her thesis work was focused on Muslim youth in America, and the territorializing of Muslim religious institutions in America. Prior to working at the Interfaith Youth Core, Zeenat completed an internship at Chicago Public Radio, where she worked on a pilot program about immigrants and the diaspora experience. Currently, she is one of the co-creators of a play based on Muslim women and their real life experiences, told in monologue format. Zeenat earned her B.A. in Psychology from the University of Illinois, and her professional experience includes organizational development, human resources consulting and recruiting, and financial compliance. |
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