Feature Archives - MLE Connect

Ahmed Ait Moha

Ahmed Ait Moha graduated from the University of Amsterdam in business economics. He specialised in ethnic marketing. Ahmed has more than 15 years of experience in the field of market research. He is a specialist in research among ethnic minority groups and advises various organisations on how to better meet the wishes, needs and lifestyles of ethnic minority groups.Ahmed regularly publishes on research findings and social trends and gives lectures on the theme of diversity and Muslims in the West.

Sufyan Ismail

Sufyan Gulam Ismail is an award-winning serial entrepreneur and philanthropist and was recently ranked amongst the 500 most influential Muslims in the World. He graduated from the University of Manchester and then started his career training with Deloitte. Sufyan has built numerous businesses over the years specialising in financial services, private equity and real estate. His businesses have won numerous awards including ‘UK’s fastest growing company’, NW entrepreneur of the year and have been listed in the Sunday Times Top 100 Fast Track corporate listings. His businesses have donated over £5m towards alleviating poverty in developing countries, supporting orphans and providing emergency medical relief in disaster zones. Sufyan has also authored various briefing papers and part-authored a university textbook on Islamic finance.

In 2014, Sufyan formally retired from full-time business activity to focus on philanthropic adventures with a key focus on tackling Islamophobia. To this end he was the founder of MEND which specialises in tackling Islamophobia via a dual approach of advocacy in Westminster and media engagement as well as improving media and political literacy of grass roots British Muslims across the UK.

MEND’s work has been recognised by the World Economic Forum. In 2016, Sufyan formally stepped down as CEO of MEND.

Omair Khan

Omair Khan is a serial entrepreneur, Co-founder, and CEO of SALAM PLANET, the first lifestyle app for Muslims. Omair has a financial background and has vast experience in launching new concepts and products in the Nordics for some of the largest companies in Denmark.
He started his first business in 2002 launching IP telephony targeted the Muslim segment in several EU countries.

Susana Córdoba

Susana Córdoba is Head of International Trade at Greater Manchester Chamber, UK

Martijn Lampert

Martijn Lampert leads the Glocalities values, brands and trends research program covering 24 countries, based on interviews with more than 100,000 respondents. He generates breakthrough knowledge of global change, brands, generations and sustainability. Martijn is a cross-cultural expert and marketing consultant. He enables multinational brands and NGO’s to use social intelligence in order to achieve their goals in an ever changing sociocultural context. Lampert founded the values based Mentality research program in the Netherlands. In 2012 he was elected Agency Researcher of the Year at the Dutch MOAwards. Martijn Lampert frequently publishes reports about a variety of Glocalities insights and trends.

The reports can be downloaded at http://www.glocalities.com/reports/.

Sadiq Basha

Sadiq Basha is young entrepreneur from Chennai, India and student of Crescent University. In 2001, Sadiq completed his Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Greenwich, London, UK in 2002. He grew up in a very modest middle-class family in Chennai . His father came from humble beginnings and neither of his parents went to college.
He has worked in the field of oil and gas instrumentation for many years before starting up his own business in the field of Education. Sadiq had a passion for education and he felt a need for honest advice for international students to help them achieve the right educational pathway. He currently runs a highly successful organisation called IEC Abroad which was set up in 2006. Sadiq felt there was a strong need for a niche, high quality English Language courses and bespoke programmes and English language centre, so in 2010, he set up his own institution (formerly known as New College Manchester) and now called NCG (New College Group). Today, he is the owner of 3 English Language Institutions in the UK (Manchester, Liverpool and Dublin) and IEC Abroad with offices globally (UK, India, China, Saudi and Bangkok ). This is the story of a man who decided to become an entrepreneur during his college days and successfully went on to achieve his dreams.

Sheikh Bilal Khan

Sheikh Bilal Khan is Co-Chairman and Partner at Dome Advisory, a leading Islamic finance and Shari’ah advisory firm headquartered in London. Sheikh Bilal serves both as Adviser to the Shari’ah Standards Review Committee of the Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) and as Takaful Panel Member of the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation (ICMIF).

Musadiq Jivraj

Musadiq Jivraj joined ASDA as a Senior Buying Manager in April 2014. Having previously worked at Tesco. Musadiq has 12 years experience in retail running his own frozen distribution business and later working as a consultant for Tesco World Foods. He currently oversees 5 categories for ASDA within the World Foods Team Chilled, Frozen, Fresh, Halal Pre-Pack Bakery, Halal and Polish Counters.

Afzal Khan

Afzal Khan is the Labour MP for Manchester Gorton. Afzal is the first person from a BME background to represent a Manchester constituency in Parliament. In July 2017, just one month after being elected, he was appointed as Labour’s Shadow Immigration Minister.

Prior to being elected as a Member of Parliament, Afzal was a North West MEP. Born in Pakistan, he moved to the UK when he was adopted out of poverty as a child. He worked as a labourer in a cotton mill, a bus driver and a Greater Manchester Police Officer, before qualifying as a solicitor and becoming a partner at his own firm. In 2000 he was elected to Manchester City Council, rising to become the first Asian Lord Mayor of the city and a member of the Council’s Executive.

In 2008 Afzal was awarded a CBE for his work on community cohesion, inter-faith and local government. In March of this year, Afzal was awarded the Sitara-i-Quaid-i-Azam, by President Mamnoon Hussain, the highest civilian honour which recognises the contribution of individuals and organisations to the overall welfare of Pakistan and its people.

Azam Jaafri

Azam Jaafri is a British Muslim serial entrepreneur, founder, and CEO of multiple brands. His business interests are food, tech, property, and marketing. Most recently he acquired and re-launched We Know You a full-service digital agency and consultancy supporting brands and investing in startups globally from offices in Lisbon and London.

Azam set up his first business in 2000 renovating houses; he launched Nustone the first of several e-commerce companies in 2007, by 2016 he had delivered two innovative Halal food brands (Gourmosa and Foodery) listed by Sainsbury’s, Asda, Ocado, and Tesco.

Shelina Janmohamed

Shelina Janmohamed is the Vice President of Ogilvy Noor, the world’s first bespoke consultancy for building brands with Muslim audiences. She is the bestselling author of Love in a Headscarf and recently published “Generation M: Young Muslims Changing the World. She was named by the Times as one of the UK’s 100 most influential Muslim women, and by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising as one Britain’s Future Female Leaders of Advertising.

Navid Akhtar

Navid is the Founder and CEO of Alchemiya.com, a global SVOD platform that showcases the best films docs and lifestyle content from across the Muslim world. He is an award winning Producer and Broadcast journalist, with over 20 years of experience in mainstream UK television and radio. During his time at the BBC he worked in both the arts and history departments, and advised senior management on diversity issues.