Shari’a Our Credentials and Capabilities

GATEWAY LLP

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INTRODUCTION TO GATEWAY

Gateway is pleased to present an overview of its extensive credentials and capabilities in Shari’a advisory and audit.

Gateway is an international and multidisciplinary professional services firm that provides ethical and responsible advice in line with Islamic principles. Headquartered in London, we work seamlessly across four continents and currently have partners and consultants in the United Kingdom, United States, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and East Africa.

Gateway provides world-class services to address a wide range of challenges encountered by a variety of clients throughout the Islamic economy. Gateway was established, first, to offer an end-to-end Islamic professional services firm and, second, because today's challenges call for harmonious, integrated, and systemic approaches. Our professionals have hundreds of years of collective experience in numerous disciplines including banking, financial and commercial matters, legal and compliance, management consultancy, private equity, real estate, accountancy, fintech, central banking, public relations, financial regulation, technology, social impact and entrepreneurship. Throughout our work in the halal economy we integrate our extensive knowledge and experience in Shari’a advisory and audit to create holistic solutions for our clients.

THE GATEWAY PHILOSOPHY Gateway is a global multidisciplinary professional services firm, exclusively devoted to the Islamic economy and its underlying principles. Our partners, associates, and consultants are senior Islamic economy professionals recognised throughout the world for their contributions to Islamic finance and other Islamic economy verticals. They have held senior executive level positions at multinational financial institutions, prominent law firms, major accountancies, and government bodies where they have pioneered various institutions and businesses, designed legal and regulatory frameworks and cutting-edge products, and established forward thinking precedents.

We believe it is our unwavering intent to fulfil both the letter and spirit of the Shari’a, in-depth understanding of Islamic markets and principles, and firm belief that business is most successful when principle guides profit that truly sets us apart.

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GATEWAY LLP

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OUR SCOPE OF SERVICES

OUR LEADERSHIP Gateway’s senior leadership team is a group of international professionals with outstanding academic credentials and extensive industry experience. Our partners have worked for many of the most prominent banking, accounting, consulting, and legal institutions in the world, including international banks and financial institutions, such as Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Bank of America, National Commercial Bank, Gulf International Bank, Kuwait Finance House and Qatar Islamic Bank; the central banks of Bahrain and Oman; global law firms Clifford Chance, White & Case, King & Spalding, Jones Day, Ashurst and Baker & McKenzie; professional services firms including Deloitte, Accenture and IBM Consulting. They present and moderate at leading Islamic and ethical finance conferences, lecture at the world’s top universities, have published critically acclaimed books and are active members of industry bodies and associations.

The team includes recognised experts in the areas of Shari’a advisory and auditing, investment and corporate banking, financial product structuring, the regulation of Islamic banking products and services, financial technology, accounting standards, corporate and Shari’a compliance governance, business succession planning, social responsibility and impact investing, Islamic economy verticals, investment vehicle structuring, crisis management, and stakeholder relations. We bring our experience to bear by creating a rare multidisciplinary approach to the Islamic economy that always integrates our recognised expertise in the Shari’a.

SHARI’A ADVISORY AND AUDIT Gateway’s Shari’a advisory and audit team aims to deliver Shari’a compliant solutions to the most complex of business problems.  We combine front office expertise in financial, legal and commercial matters with world class Shari’a scholars.  This combined expertise allows us to manage the full transaction process including structuring, certification, execution and ongoing monitoring of products, services and transactions, including the establishment and conversion of whole businesses. Our Shari’a scholars play a critical role in the establishment and growth of the halal economy. Their education and guidance provides comfort to owners and other stakeholders that a business or product meets, at the least, minimums of the Shari’a. Gateway’s commitment to the Shari’a includes intending to implement its norms of environmental consciousness, social welfare and good governance, in order to combine form with substance and achieve the maqasid al Shari’a. We have assembled several scholars, beginning with our honorary patron Shaykh Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo, with a strong understanding of Islamic principles, commercial practices and the challenges of integrating profit with principle. Located across the world, our scholars are widely recognised for their academic accomplishments and cutting edge work in banking and finance, takaful (insurance) and trade.

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GATEWAY LLP

Gateway’s scholars work with our industry experts to structure transactions, review legal documentation and regulatory frameworks, conduct thoughtful, comprehensive audit reviews, and offer detailed written guidance be it in the form of fatwas or audit/ compliance reports. The team ensures end-to-end delivery of a project to a client via open communication channels, in a transparent and predictable manner. In addition, with scholars placed across the world in numerous markets, we offer a deep understanding and sensitivity of local markets and customs.

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GATEWAY LLP

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OUR EXPERIENCE

We set out below the highlights of the industry-leading experience of Gateway consultants:

SHARI’A ADVISORY

Gateway has 6 Shari’a scholars across the UK, US, Malaysia, Pakistan, and the Gulf. We are privileged to have Shaykh Yusuf DeLorenzo as an Honorary Patron of Gateway.

A small selection of our Shari’a advisory experience includes the following:

• CEO and Board Director of Deutsche Bank’s Shari’a advisory subsidiary, leading a successful restructuring, turn-around and sale of the business

• General Manager of Dubai Shariah Asset Management

• Shari’a advisor to Dow Jones Islamic Market Index

• Member of the Shari’a Board of the Auditing and Accounting Organization of Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI)

• Member of the Shari’a Board of International Shariah Research Academy, Kuala Lumpur (ISRA)

• Special Consultant to the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) on sukuk

• Founders of multiple Shari’a advisory firms and members of multiple Shari’a boards of financial institutions

• Shari’a advisor and auditor for Gulf-based real estate funds with AUMs of USD 144 million

• Shari’a advisor and auditor for multiple Luxembourg UCITS funds, including global trade finance fund, global sukuk fund and GCC equities fund

• Shari’a advisor to the UK National Zakat Foundation

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GATEWAY LLP

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OUR TEAM

HONORARY PATRON

Sheikh Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo

Sheikh Yusuf DeLorenzo works with international financial entities, including institutional investors, home finance providers, international investment banks, asset managers and governments. He serves as Chairman of the Shari’a Advisory Board of the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes, chaired the Shariah Board for the Islamic Interbank Benchmark Rate (IIBR), and is a member of the Shariah Boards for Wafra (Kuwait Investment Advisory Group), Oasis Asset Management (South Africa), Sidra Capital (Saudi Arabia), Guidance Residential (USA), Aspect Investment Partners (Dubai) and others. Sheikh Yusuf helped design the first Sukuk using assets based in the United States, and was Chairman of the Shariah board that approved the first corporate Sukuk in Saudi Arabia. He was also a member of the team that designed a prime broker solution for a Shariah compliant short position. Sheikh Yusuf has been a member of the Shari’a Committee of the Accounting and Auditing Organization of Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) and the Council of Scholars, International Shari’ah Research Academy (ISRA), the Central Bank of Malaysia. He was a founding member of the Governing Council of the International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF) in Malaysia and served as Advisor on Islamic Education to the Government of Pakistan from 1981 to 1984.

TEAM LEADER - SHARI’A ADVISORY AND AUDIT

Rahma Hersi

Rahma Hersi is one of the leading Islamic finance advisors throughout East Africa. She plays a critical role in the development of Islamic finance not only in Kenya but its neighbouring countries. She presently serves, for instance, as an Islamic finance expert to the Technical Working Groups advising on Kenya’s Capital Markets 10 Year Master Plan for the development of Kenya’s financial sectors.

Whilst working as lead counsel at the first Shari’a compliant bank in Kenya, Rahma advised on a number of products, transactions, and bank regulatory affairs. Notably, she advised on the first Islamic mortgage contract between the Bank and National Oil of Kenya.

As a regulatory expert, Rahma has drafted a number of frameworks, such as the Islamic Banking Rules for the Central Bank of Oman, including its modules on Shari’a and Corporate Governance, Powers of Supervision and Control and General Obligations). She has also created policy and procedure product manuals for various Islamic financial institutions across both the GCC and Africa, such as the first Islamic micro-finance institution in Ethiopia. She has also been instrumental in

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structuring Islamic micro-finance products for women and youth in Muslim- minority cities within Kenya, and thoughtfully empowering them.

Rahma is a Shari’a-trained lawyer with an LLB Honours in Shari’a and Law, and a Bachelor in Islamic Studies, both from the International Islamic University of Islamabad, a Master in Laws in International Comparative Law from the Robert McKinney School of Law in the U.S., and a Diploma in Islamic Finance Arbitration from INCIEF. Rahma is fluent in several languages including Arabic, English, Somali, Swahili, and a working knowledge of Urdu.

SENIOR SHAR’A SPECIALISTS

Shaykh Badr Al Hasan

Shaykh Badr Al Hasan is a scholar of Islamic law and a solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales. He brings extensive experience in takaful markets and the halal economy generally.

For ten years, Badr has advised international financial institutions, sovereign wealth funds, and businesses across the Middle East and North Africa on takaful, investment funds, and sukuk and capital markets. Badr has recently been appointed by the Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) to its Shari’a Standards Review Committee, joining some of Islamic finance’s most prolific scholars, such Mufti Taqi Usmani, Sheikh Nizam Yaquby, and Sheikh Esam Ishaq.

In the realm of takaful, Badr has been instrumental in structuring the UK's first Shari’a compliant and ethical home and landlord insurance product (www.insurehalal.com). He has also successfully advised on a Shari’a-compliant travel insurance product in the GCC and assisted in the structure and launch of a suite of mutual Islamic insurance products to serve the UK and European markets.

Badr has extensive experience in handling corporate, financial, and insurance matters and documentation in both English and Arabic. He was formerly an Associate at the international law firm, Simmons & Simmons, and a member of its award winning Islamic finance team based in Dubai. Badr is a contributor to Islamic Banking and Finance: What It Is and What It Could Be (1st Ethical Charitable Trust, 2010), an Islamic Banking and finance textbook. Badr read Islamic law at Al-Azhar University and English law at the London School of Economics.

Mufti Talha Ahmad Azami

Mufti Talha Ahmad Azami is an Award-winning Shari’a Scholar with over 15 years of distinguished academic and professional Islamic banking and financial services credentials acquired across global markets.

He currently serves as the Internal Shari’a Reviewer (Head of Shari’a Compliance & Audit) for Bank Sohar Islamic (Muscat, Oman), where he

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plays an instrumental role in the day to day management of the Bank’s Shari’a advisory and structuring services across the full range of products and services on offer. Until recently, he served on the Shari’a Board of Rasmala Investment Bank (in the DIFC) and European Islamic Investment Bank (EIIB) in London.

Prior to moving to Oman, Mufti Talha was based in the UAE in the Shari’a Department of Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, overlooking Shari’a Assurance, Shari'a Audit and Operational Risk Management across the full range of products and services.

Mufti Talha started his career in Islamic financial services with BMB Islamic (UK), a boutique Islamic finance consultancy, and developed a specialization in structuring innovative Islamic finance solutions for the Islamic investment banking and capital markets’ industry.

Mufti Talha has worked in Islamic academia with prominent scholars from India for more than ten years. He holds a B.A. (Alimiyyah) in Arabic and Quranic Sciences and an M.A. (Fazilah) in Islamic law from Nadwa University in Lucknow, where he studied under a number of leading Islamic jurists and Muslim thinkers. He also has an Alimiyyah Degree in Hadith Sciences from Islamic University in Deoband and an M.A in Islamic Banking and Finance Management from Loughborough University in the U.K. In addition to this, Mufti Talha has successfully completed a number of executive programs in Corporate Finance from London Business School (UK).

Mufti Faraz Adam

Mufti Faraz Adam is a Consultant and Shari'a Advisor to Gateway. He completed his Islamic studies in the six-year Alimiyyah degree at Darul Uloom Leicester. He then went onto specialise in Islamic law and graduated as a Mufti in South Africa at Darul Iftaa Mahmudiyyah. He super-specialised in Islamic finance during his studies. Upon qualifying from the Darul Iftaa as a Mufti in 2012, he was accredited with: Masters of Arts in Islamic Theology with specialisation in juristic verdicts (Iftaa) and a Diploma in Islamic Finance. Mufti Faraz completed a Master’s Degree in Islamic Finance, Banking and Management at Newman University in 2017. He has also completed the Certified Islamic Finance Executive (CIFE™) under Ethica and the Islamic Finance Qualification (IFQ) with Chartered Institutes of Securities and Investment. Currently, he is studying ACCA and is working to become a qualified chartered accountant alongside his Shari'a studies.

Mufti Faraz’s other Shari'a responsibilities include serving with the National Zakat Foundation in the Strategy, Research and Policy Department, Director of Amanah Finance Consultancy which provides holistic Shari'a consultancy services to a number of organisations across the world such as Simply Ethical, Ethica, Shariyah Review Bureau, iWill Solicitors, Ummah Finance and Gateway. Mufti Faraz also delivers lectures and workshops across the UK on different aspects of Islam and specialises in delivering Islamic finance training.

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Mufti Muhammad Abu Bakar

Muhammad Abu Bakar is graduated as Shari’a scholar and Mufti from the renowned Jamia Darul Uloom Karachi in Pakistan. He completed an 8 year Alamiyya degree from Jamia Darul Uloom Karachi under the tutelage of Mufti Muhammad Rafi Usmani (Grand Mufti of Pakistan) and Sheikh Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani (Chairman of AAOIFI), amongst other luminaries in Islamic Theology and Jurisprudence. In addition, he has completed a 3 year specialisation in Islamic jurisprudence and fiqh al-muamalat from the same institution.

Mufti Muhammad has attained additional academic and professional qualifications and certificates in Islamic banking and finance at post-graduate level from CIE, Karachi, INCEIF and ISRA in Malaysia. Currently, he anticipates the completion of Master of Science in Islamic finance from INCEIF (The Global University of Islamic Finance, Malaysia).

Mufti Muhammad is associated with various institutions and actively serves Islamic finance, halal and fintech industry as Shari’a Advisor & Consultant. His areas of research and interest including but not limited to Shari’a, Islamic jurisprudence, fiqh al-muamalat, Islamic commercial law, halal certification and compliance, and applications of fintech, blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Mufti Muhammad recently published a working paper on Shari’a analysis of bitcoin, cryptocurrency and blockchain, which is well-received by the international Islamic finance fraternity and cited in various media and news networks.

He is also an associate member of Association of Shariah Advisors in Islamic Finance.

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OUR GLOBAL TEAM

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Partners and Consultants

Consultants

Partners, Shari’a Scholars and Consultants

Partners, Shari’a Scholars and Consultants

Shari’a Scholars and Consultants

Shari’a Scholars

Consultants

Partners, Shari’a Scholars and Consultants

Consultants

Consultants

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OUR CONTACT DETAILS

GENERAL ENQUIRIES Our general enquiry email address is: info@gatewayllp.com

Alternatively, please contact our Head of Shari'a, Rahma Hersi, at:

Email: rahma.hersi@gatewayllp.com

Tel: +254 705 619699

Or Shaykh Badr Al Hasan, at:

Email: badrul.hasan@gatewayllp.com

Tel: +44 7931 330293

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Gateway Shari’a Credentials and Capabilities April 2018 Copyright © Gateway Islamic Advisory LLP www.gatewayllp.com