OUR EXPERTS
OUR EXPERTS
Practitioners and scholars, working in one team.
Practitioners and scholars, working in one team.
Dunecrest's Islamic Social Finance practice combines senior strategy consulting experience with deep subject matter expertise in Shariah, Islamic law, and endowment governance. Meet the team.
Dunecrest's Islamic Social Finance practice combines senior strategy consulting experience with deep subject matter expertise in Shariah, Islamic law, and endowment governance. Meet the team.
PRACTICE LEAD
PRACTICE LEAD
Hoji leads Dunecrest's Islamic Social Finance practice. He brings fifteen years of strategy consulting experience across MENA, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia, combined with formal training in Islamic finance and applied practitioner experience across waqf, zakat, and Islamic social capital.
Prior to Dunecrest, he led his business unit's commercial and delivery activities at Frost & Sullivan, held senior roles at UCSI Consulting, and founded HM Research Group. His current focus is on catalytic instrument design for national endowment institutions, tokenized waqf structures, and the emerging sustainability-instrument landscape for Islamic social finance.
HEAD OF ISLAMIC SOCIAL FINANCE
Hoji Mirzakulov
Tashkent, Uzbekistan and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia · Practice Lead and Associate Partner
CREDENTIALS
1. MBA, Asia School of Business (MIT Sloan Global Program; Fellowship; Top 10% of cohort)
2. CIFP (Chartered Islamic Finance Professional), INCEIF (President's Scholarship)
3. BSc Economics, University of World Economy and Diplomacy, Tashkent
Languages: Uzbek (native), English (professional), Russian (working), Arabic (basic).
SENIOR ADVISOR
SENIOR ADVISOR
Subject Matter Experts
PhD-level Shariah, Islamic law, and endowment expertise, drawn from academic and practitioner backgrounds across the field. Supported by Dunecrest's core team and a wider network of Islamic finance experts.
SENIOR ADVISOR
Dr. Abdullahi Saliu Ishola
Kwara State University, Nigeria · Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria
Dr Ishola is a senior legal academic and Barrister of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, with more than two decades of practice at the intersection of Shariah, Islamic law, and endowments. He was the first Nigerian lawyer to earn a PhD in Waqf Law (International Islamic University Malaysia, 2018), and advises governments and Islamic finance institutions across Nigeria and West Africa, including the Sokoto State Zakat and Endowment Agency and Jaiz Charity Foundation. He has published over forty works on Islamic social finance law, with particular focus on waqf, zakat, and inheritance.
Credentials: PhD in Waqf Law, IIUM · LLM Islamic Law, University of Ilorin · Called to the Nigerian Bar (2007) · AAOIFI CSAA · Fellow, Institute of Islamic Finance Professionals Nigeria (FIFP)
SENIOR ADVISOR
Dr. Alam Asadov
Associate Professor, Prince Sultan University, Riyadh
Dr Asadov is Associate Professor of Finance at Prince Sultan University in Riyadh, where his research spans Islamic banking, waqf, sukuk markets, and Islamic microfinance, with particular focus on how Islamic social finance can support development across Central Asia and the CIS region. He earned his PhD from INCEIF Malaysia as recipient of the Presidential Award for Best PhD Graduand (2018), and holds AAOIFI's Certified Shari'ah Advisor and Auditor fellowship. He has authored two books and over thirty peer-reviewed publications on Islamic finance, and consults across the region for institutions including UNDP Uzbekistan, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Credentials: PhD in Islamic Finance, INCEIF University Malaysia (Presidential Award for Best PhD Graduand, 2018) · MA in Economics, University of Alabama · BA in Economics, University of Richmond · AAOIFI Certified Shari'ah Advisor and Auditor (2023)
Working with the team
Engagements typically start with a diagnostic conversation. If you are keen to explore how our expertise can help add value to your organization, we're happy to take the call.
Start a conversation
Working with the team
Engagements typically start with a diagnostic conversation. If you are keen to explore how our expertise can help add value to your organization, we're happy to take the call.
Start a conversation
Working with the team
Engagements typically start with a diagnostic conversation. If you are keen to explore how our expertise can help add value to your organization, we're happy to take the call.
Start a conversation
Ethical capital. Structured impact. Sustainable communities.
Strategic Islamic finance for inclusive and sustainable growth.
Smart policies. Strong systems. Lasting impact.
We help structure as a long-term investment in people and outcomes.
Working with the team
Engagements typically start with a diagnostic conversation. If you are keen to explore how our expertise can help add value to your organization, we're happy to take the call.
Start a conversation
Ethical capital. Structured impact. Sustainable communities.
Strategic Islamic finance for inclusive and sustainable growth.
PRACTICE LEAD
HEAD OF ISLAMIC SOCIAL FINANCE
Hoji Mirzakulov
Tashkent, Uzbekistan and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia · Practice Lead and Associate Partner
Hoji leads Dunecrest's Islamic Social Finance practice. He brings fifteen years of strategy consulting experience across MENA, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia, combined with formal training in Islamic finance and applied practitioner experience across waqf, zakat, and Islamic social capital.
Prior to Dunecrest, he led his business unit's commercial and delivery activities at Frost & Sullivan, held senior roles at UCSI Consulting, and founded HM Research Group. His current focus is on catalytic instrument design for national endowment institutions, tokenized waqf structures, and the emerging sustainability-instrument landscape for Islamic social finance.
CREDENTIALS
1. MBA, Asia School of Business (MIT Sloan Global Program; Fellowship; Top 10% of cohort)
2. CIFP (Chartered Islamic Finance Professional), INCEIF (President's Scholarship)
3. BSc Economics, University of World Economy and Diplomacy, Tashkent
Languages: Uzbek (native), English (professional), Russian (working), Arabic (basic).
SENIOR ADVISOR
Subject Matter Experts
PhD-level Shariah, Islamic law, and endowment expertise, drawn from academic and practitioner backgrounds across the field. Supported by Dunecrest's core team and a wider network of Islamic finance experts.
SENIOR ADVISOR
Dr. Abdullahi Saliu Ishola
Kwara State University, Nigeria · Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria
Dr Ishola is a senior legal academic and Barrister of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, with more than two decades of practice at the intersection of Shariah, Islamic law, and endowments. He was the first Nigerian lawyer to earn a PhD in Waqf Law (International Islamic University Malaysia, 2018), and advises governments and Islamic finance institutions across Nigeria and West Africa, including the Sokoto State Zakat and Endowment Agency and Jaiz Charity Foundation. He has published over forty works on Islamic social finance law, with particular focus on waqf, zakat, and inheritance.
Credentials: PhD in Waqf Law, IIUM · LLM Islamic Law, University of Ilorin · Called to the Nigerian Bar (2007) · AAOIFI CSAA · Fellow, Institute of Islamic Finance Professionals Nigeria (FIFP)
SENIOR ADVISOR
Dr. Shamsiah Abdul Karim
Pergas Investment Holdings, Singapore · Waqf and Islamic social finance
Dr Shamsiah brings over three decades of executive and practitioner experience in Islamic social finance, with particular depth in waqf structuring and endowment governance. She leads Pergas Investment Holdings in Singapore, and previously served as Senior Vice President at Bank Muamalat Malaysia (heading Shariah, Product Development, and Wakaf/Zakat), CEO of Albukhary Foundation, and Deputy Director for Assets Development at the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis). Her team's structuring work delivered the world's first government waqf sukuk (recognized by the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award, 2007), and she has been ranked among Cambridge IFA's most influential women in Islamic finance.
Credentials: PhD (Contemporary Shari'ah Structuring of Waqf Assets), Durham University · Postgraduate Diploma in Islamic Finance, International Islamic University Malaysia · BBA (Hons), International Islamic University Malaysia
SENIOR ADVISOR
Dr. Alam Asadov
Associate Professor, Prince Sultan University, Riyadh
Dr Asadov is Associate Professor of Finance at Prince Sultan University in Riyadh, where his research spans Islamic banking, waqf, sukuk markets, and Islamic microfinance, with particular focus on how Islamic social finance can support development across Central Asia and the CIS region. He earned his PhD from INCEIF Malaysia as recipient of the Presidential Award for Best PhD Graduand (2018), and holds AAOIFI's Certified Shari'ah Advisor and Auditor fellowship. He has authored two books and over thirty peer-reviewed publications on Islamic finance, and consults across the region for institutions including UNDP Uzbekistan, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Credentials: PhD in Islamic Finance, INCEIF University Malaysia (Presidential Award for Best PhD Graduand, 2018) · MA in Economics, University of Alabama · BA in Economics, University of Richmond · AAOIFI Certified Shari'ah Advisor and Auditor (2023)