Zayan Finance is a leader in the Shari'ah-compliant commercial real estate finance market in North America for good reason. Our team consists of finance practitioners with extensive experience with global financial institutions, and an unyielding commitment to our clients and our community.

Naveed Siddiqui is the Chief Executive Officer and founder of Zayan Finance, LLC. Naveed has held senior management roles in the international banking arena. Formerly a Senior Vice President at Citigroup's Consumer Assets Group, Naveed left the bank to manage the launch of three separate specialty firms focused on niche international and US markets.

At Citigroup's Global Corporate and Investment Bank, Naveed served in various management roles developing key corporate relationship with international financial institutions in the US, the Middle East and South Asia. He was also chosen to serve as Vice President at the bank's E-Citi initiative targeting innovative product lines against corporate clients in the Energy Sector. Naveed then moved on to serve as Chief Marketing Officer at Citigroup's Consumer Assets Division where his group implemented successful consumer marketing and distribution strategies across North America.

Naveed 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, he served as Head of Development for the first global online provider of Shari'ah complaint investment products. In this role, he partnered with major global financial firms to deliver a viable delivery platform. Later, Naveed 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. Naveed 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.

"Our insights on the financial needs of U.S. - based niche markets enable us to deliver results to the doorsteps of each of our clients."

Wahid Sarij is an Executive Vice President at Zayan Finance. Mr. Sarij has a distinguished track record working in a business advisory capacity with an international group of financial institutions and in providing investment advisory within the real estate sector.

Within the financial services sector, Wahid served as a Senior Manager and Vice President with JP Morgan Chase's Product Development Group where he managed development of new service offerings for the bank's retail client base. Prior to this role, Mr. Sarij had a longstanding consulting relationship with JP Morgan Chase where he led a business development team tasked with creation of a spin-off financial services company. As part of his responsibilities, Mr. Sarij actively worked on business strategy, product design and operations planning for the spin-off business. Mr. Sarij's other consulting work within the US financial services industry include engagements with Lehman Brothers' Commercial Lending group and NASDAQ's corporate planning. Internationally, Mr. Sarij has consulted for a number of financial institutions including CIBC in Canada, Societe Generale in France and Lloyds TSB in the United Kingdom.

During his most recent work in real estate investment sales with CB Richard Ellis, Mr. Sarij worked on the sales of residential and commercial investment properties to institutional clients as part of the Capital Markets Group. In his capacity as an institutional real estate advisor, Mr. Sarij interacted directly with institutional buyers which include REITs, private funds and pension funds. Wahid began his career at PriceWaterhouseCoopers where he was an associate within the firm's Financial Advisory Services division.

Wahid has an undergraduate degree in Engineering from Columbia University and an MBA from the Graduate School of Business of Columbia University.

"We understand the results of our work with each client must encourage repeat business."

Nasser Nubani has over a decade of legal and business development experience serving niche markets in the financial services industry including key roles at two financial services start-up firms. In 1998 Nasser co-founded the law firm of Idrizi & Nubani, a boutique full service law firm in Chicago, Illinois. At Idrizi & Nubani Nasser concentrated his practice in the areas of real estate law and civil litigation. While in private practice, Nasser represented both buyers and sellers in over 100 real estate transactions involving residential, multi-family and commercial properties.

At Zayan Nasser has been responsible for designing and developing the company's unique commercial real estate financing product. Nasser has worked in collaboration with prominent national law firms as well as rating agencies, such as Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings, in developing the Zayan program and in ensuring its products meet rating agency requirements for securitization. Prior to joining Zayan Finance, Nasser helped launch Guidance Financial Group, the largest Shari'ah-compliant provider of residential mortgages in the United States. Nasser received his law degree from Indiana University School of Law - Bloomington in 1995. He earned his B.A. from the University of Illinois - Champaign/Urbana in 1992.

"We work closely with our Shari'ah advisors and product development experts to guarantee that our clients receive only the highest quality Shari'ah-compliant solutions."

Farrukh Siddiqui's professional experience extends to over fifteen years in the Insurance/Financial Services and Technology industries. During that time Farrukh successfully optimized sales, marketing, business development, and technology initiatives for companies such as Aon Corporation, Rohm and Haas Company, Adesta Group, and Maximus. This includes nine years of direct work in sales, sales management, and operations in financial services as well as five years of technology and process management. In addition to Zayan Finance, Farrukh has directly contributed to the success of several other financial services start-up companies such as Tradescape and Guidance Financial Group.

Prior to establishing Zayan Finance, Farrukh served as Regional Manager for the Northeast United States for Guidance Financial Group, a Shari'ah compliant start-up financial services firm. As Regional Manager he was responsible for all aspects of sales and production within the region. Shortly after joining the firm, Farrukh's contributions to creating efficiencies in the company's sales operations prompted Guidance's senior management to assign him with the additional title of Sales Operations Manager. In this role, he successfully overhauled the company's mortgage origination and processing methodologies and helped launch many useful best practices to the underwriting and closing departments.

Farrukh's financial services career began in 1991 as an underwriter with the Accountant's Professional Liability Program at Aon Corporation. After being promoted to Account Executive, Farrukh was put in charge of all new business procurement and existing client management in the New England region. During his time in Boston, Farrukh successfully secured major accounts throughout the region, including the largest independent accounting firm in New England. He later went on to join Tradescape, a start-up financial services brokerage firm which was eventually acquired by E-trade, as Senior Technology Officer. At Tradescape, Farrukh made immediate improvements to the company's online reporting platform which was heavily relied on by its day trading customers.

"Our success and in-depth experience delivering quality financial products to the market is built on integrity and tangible results. This is what resonates with customers and fosters long-term relationships that drive sales and creates real interest in the market."

Sajjad Chowdhry is a Vice President, Area Manager at Zayan Finance. Sajjad is responsible for institutional business development and commercial real estate finance origination. Sajjad brings together excellent relationship management with a highly technical understanding of commercial real estate. 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 commercial real estate issuances.

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 Associate at Barclays Capital. He 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.

Mr. Ahmad Ashkar is an Area Manager for Zayan Finance LLC. Ahmad oversees activity for Zayan in the West Coast, Midwest, North Texas and the Washington DC Metro including Virginia and Maryland. Mr. Ashkar is an accomplished real estate professional with Islamic Banking experience. Ahmad has a distinguished track record in real estate and has successfully provided investment advisory services to both retail and institutional clients.

Within the financial services sector, Ahmad has served as an analyst for Axa Equitable and Business Development Manager with Reston, VA based Guidance Financial Group. While at Guidance, Ahmad played a critical role in the growth of the company, including the successful penetration of the product line into a national market and the company’s reaching the key bench mark of US$1 Billion in successfully originated Shari’ah compliant mortgage contracts.

Prior to joining Zayan, Ahmad served as a Senior Investment Associate at Marcus and Millichap Commercial Real Estate Investment Services. As part of the National Retail Group, Ahmad directly dealt with and advised private and institutional clients.

Ahmad completed his undergraduate studies at Avila University with degrees in Finance and Marketing and is completing an MBA from the University of Maryland. Mr. Ashkar is a Certified Islamic Banker (CeIB) through the International Institute of Islamic Business and Finance (Dubai, UAE) and holds a Charter as an Islamic Finance Professional from the International Center for Education in Islamic Finance (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). Along with his educational achievements, Ahmad is also a licensed securities, insurance and real estate broker.