Building an institution of community impact and legacy with my brother and dear friend Dr. Sayd Farook, Head of Group Strategy, Crescent Group

As a former investment banker, I stumbled onto Islamic finance after my first Hajj which I completed in 2007. It was that hajj with my mother and father, that solidified in my mind the need to build an institution serving the financial needs of the Muslim community in Australia, harnessing my specific talents and skills.

When the rag team of competent believers came to build this together (you all know who you are), it was really just driven by a dream to serve the community with the best-in-class infrastructure that one can afford but with little to no experience in this space. Islamic finance and asset management was a relatively new concept in Australia and we struggled to find investable assets to invest in nor did we have the deep experience in Superannuation and investment management we have now, having been in the market for 10 years delivering consistent performance for our community in a manner that complies with their faith.

That’s when I was introduced, through our mutual acquaintances, to a world leader in Islamic finance, who was then the Global Head Islamic Capital Markets at Thomson Reuters, the data and intelligence company which also happened to be the parent company of Reuters, the media agency.?

At the time, Dr. Sayd Farook oversaw a team spanning from Malaysia to the United States, covering and growing the Thomson Reuters business in Islamic finance and capital markets. Hence, when I shared with him my plans and vision to grow the first Islamic asset management and superannuation provider for Australia, I was surprised by his willingness to support and grow Crescent.

Dr. Farook, an Australian with immigrant roots from Bangladesh, shared his passion for Islamic investment and finance and how he wished to support our growth in Australia with whatever he could do. By way of background, Dr. Farook completed his studies in Australia, starting with a First class honours Business and Law degree from the University of Technology Sydney and culminating in a PhD. He is one of the very few experts in Islamic finance who has worked globally in Islamic finance, understands global Islamic finance but is very rooted in Australia. He was and still remains appreciative of the investment that Australia made in him in providing for his world class education which has allowed him to succeed globally.

So Dr. Farook and myself plotted the launch the first Australian Islamic index – that allows Muslims and Crescent Wealth to benchmark the performance of their own investments with an equivalent Islamically compliant index. These indexes are critical to our work to ensure we always track and better returns to our members. We called it the Thomson Reuters Crescent Wealth Australian Islamic Index. It was a testament of belief and passion. It made the news everywhere and was one of our early wins, which allowed us to build Crescent Wealth to what it is now – a successful financial services firm that is serving almost 12,000 Australian Muslims with authentic Islamically compliant superannuation options.

It is those early believers who have faith in your mission that change everything for you.

Since those early days, we’ve always been our mutual supporters and on every milestone that we achieved along, he would go on to use his global visibility to celebrate our wins and announce it to the world. After growing a successful business for Thomson Reuters in Islamic finance and capital markets, Dr. Farook was offered the role of being an Advisor to the Executive Office of the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. In that role, he would incubate and envision the transformation strategies for Dubai and the UAE at large. Every time, I would go to visit him in his offices at the top of the Emirates Towers in Dubai. He would reciprocate and catch up with me every time he visited Sydney with his family.

At each of those meetings, I would invite him to come to Sydney and join us in our mission to build a major financial services institution serving Australian Muslims. He would politely reply – I will join you when you are ready to have me.

Now we are ready. We are ready for significantly accelerated growth trajectory and we need the right calibre of leaders to take us that. Dr. Sayd Farook will help guide that strategy as the Head of Group Strategy for the Crescent Group (which include Crescent Wealth, Crescent Finance, Crescent Institute and the Crescent Foundation).

After having successfully operated and grown Crescent Wealth to what it is today, we are setting our sights on our new strategy for the next five years. It is bold, ambitious and will be transformative for Australian Muslims and all of the Crescent Group entities.

We sincerely want to open up financial access for all Australian Muslims. Now that we have a best in class superannuation proposition for Australian Muslims, we would like to ensure that every Australian Muslim can gain access to finance for their homes. It is a travesty and injustice that Muslims are excluded from growing the wealth from their most important asset – their own home, due to their faith and values. Our mission in the next five years will be to serve Australian Muslims, enable their success and grow their (halal) wealth, while doing good for the community through our not-for-profits Crescent Foundation and Crescent Institute.

I am also proud that to say that Dr. Sayd Farook has served as a Director of the Crescent Foundation and since 2020 as the Executive Director of the Crescent Foundation. This goes to show his commitment to Crescent’s values of community service. Ultimately, we exist to serve our community and it is from there we draw our strength. I hope you will join us as we embark on our next stage of transformation for the Crescent Group in the next five years.?