Gulf Research Meeting
Dr. Shehab Marzban
Dr. Shehab Marzban is currently Lecturer in Islamic Finance at Qatar Faculty for Islamic Studies as well as Co-founder and Managing Partner of Shekra Crowdfunding, the first Shariah-compliant crowdfunding platform initiative globally. For these efforts, he received the Ethical Finance Initiative Award by Thomson Reuters and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank as well as the Islamic Economy Award for Best SME Development Initiative by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Ruler of Dubai in 2013. 6 Additionally, Dr. Marzban is currently an External Senior Financial Sector Consultant to the World Bank focusing on Islamic MSME finance and Venture Capital strategies in MENA as well as an Islamic Finance Consultant for the Islamic Development Bank MSME Financing Facility for the Social Fund of Egypt. Prior to this, he worked with a number of startups driving innovation and was Product Development Director and Head of Research for IdealRatings Inc. a San Francisco-based startup focusing on Shariahcompliant Fund Management Services and CIWI GmbH, a software service for grant and fund management in Germany. Dr Marzban received his Ph.D. specializing in Ethical Portfolio Management from the University of Cologne in Germany and has published in the areas of Shariah-compliant Crowdfunding, Entrepreneurship, Islamic funds, Shariah Screening and Purification, and SME Development. His works have appeared in numerous ranked international journals including the Journal of Banking and Finance and the Banker, and in the G20 World Bank Policy Papers on SMEs Financing. Besides, he has participated in events such as the Harvard Islamic Finance Forum. He has been a Visiting Fellow at Durham University and is currently a Visiting Lecturer at various universities in Europe, Malaysia, and MENA, a full time lecturer and researcher at University of Cologne and Cairo University as well as as a technical committee member of the Finance Accreditation Agency in Malaysia.
