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Our team

Our values

Our message should be easily understood, and for this reason, the team at Pfida follow these values:

People

We are here for the people. We’ve been saying it for a while; interest-based products that create and promote debt cannot be the only options out there. The finance options we have available to us currently are not in the people’s interest. We’re here to give people something different, something fair. We’re here to benefit everyone. Pfida for the people.

Purpose

Our people give us purpose. The people, the community, are at the heart of what we offer and what we do. To support the ordinary person, to invite and encourage diversity and inclusion within the community and to give everyone the chance of growing financially through an equitable, fair and ethical world. For the people.

Innovation

Our purpose pushes us to innovate. We leverage ideas and technology to deliver quality products and services. We want to learn from wherever wisdom comes to find solutions that maybe unique and different but are right for our people.

Transparent

We can only innovate by remaining transparent. We believe it’s key to always remain transparent with each other. Through open dialogue and honest feedback, we remain accessible to all, enabling us to grow as a team, a partner and a trusted business.

Excellence

We show commitment in heart and mind with a drive to excel in delivering our goals, and more. The impact of our strive for excellence should be felt positively by all people, individually and within the community.

Meet the team

Join us on the journey to fairer, more ethical, and transparent finance that gives back to society.
The Exec
Customer Relations
Underwriting
Legal
IT & Engineering
Marketing
HR & Compliance
Business Functions
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Raza Ullah
CEO & Founder
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Salman Hasan
CLO & Co-Founder
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Omar El-Said
CTO & Co-Founder
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Azhar Khan
CFO
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Forhad Ahmed
COO & MLRO
Zahra Mahmood
Customer Relations Manager
Abdul Aziz
Customer Relations & Events Associate
Shamsia Sultana
Customer Relations Assistant
Tasnim Hoque
Customer Relations Assistant
Salma Begum
Customer Relations Assistant
Asma Hasan
Customer Relations Assistant
Richard Watkin
Senior Underwriter
Iqra Rabbani
Underwriting Specialist
Lily Chu
Underwriter
Sneha Desai
Underwriter
Manju Tripathi
Underwriter
Arif Ahmed
Underwriting Analyst
Talha Ahmad
Senior Legal Counsel
Hilal Sheikh
Legal Counsel
Adnan Shafi
Legal Assistant
Basheer Khan
Head of IT
Joseph Clough
Head of Engineering
Najib Otaifa
IT Technician
Adam Ali
Frontend Developer
Sean McKenna
Graduate Software Engineer
Kaynat Choudhury
Head of Marketing
Aimee Brown
Content Marketing Lead
Sajidah Khanom
Marketing Assistant
Naima Choudhury
Social Media Content Creator
Nadia Mokadem
Junior Designer
Abdul Aziz
Customer Relations & Events Associate
Habibah Khanom
Compliance Manager
Anna Kesanli
HR Manager
Samina Irshad
Head of Finance
Amin Ahmed
Head of Research & AI
Sohail Ali
Head of Product Development
Kazi Hussain
Head of Investments
Raza Ullah
CEO & Founder

Raza Ullah is CEO and Founder of Pfida. A qualified actuary by profession, with over 17 years of actuarial experience, Raza has previously worked within consultancy at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, where he advised multinational blue-chip organisations on technical reserving processes and capital validation. He has worked in-house within the Lloyd’s of London marketplace as a technical capital modelling actuary utilising stochastic Monte-Carlo simulation methodologies to quantify risk based on thousands of calibrated possible outcomes.

He has further gained regulatory experience at the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulatory Authority where he was a risk specialist overseeing best practices across the industry for risk measurement and quantification.

Raza progressed rapidly through to senior roles within the London financial marketplace, having passed every actuarial exam first time and within 3 years (a very rare accomplishment). Consequently, he saw how different businesses work from the lenses of consultant, in-house specialist, and regulator, and across many different levels all the way up to high performing board rooms.

Raza gave up his full-time actuarial career in 2016 to pursue setting up and running Pfida and bring a revolutionary solution to a real-world problem.

Salman Hasan
CLO & Co-Founder

Salman, known to many as Badrul, is a Director at Pfida. He is a Shariah scholar as well as a Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales, specialising in Islamic banking and finance.

Salman was formerly an Associate in the award-winning banking and finance team at the international law firm, Simmons & Simmons, based in Dubai. He is a Certified Shariah Advisor and Auditor with the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) in Bahrain.

Salman has over 10 years of experience in English law and Islamic finance. He read law with LLB (Hons) at the London School of Economics after which he studied BA Shariah (Hons) at Al-Azhar University.

Omar El-Said
CTO & Co-Founder

Omar El-Said is a Director and Chief Technology Officer at Pfida. He obtained a BSc in Mathematics from Imperial College London and an MASt in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge. After graduating, he pursued a career in software development for several years, specialising in languages such as C++, Java and Python, as well as other cloud technologies such as AWS and Terraform.

Omar’s experience covers sectors such as Web Security, Security and Surveillance, Science, and E-commerce, working at companies such as PortSwigger, creators of Burp Suite, and The MathWorks, creators of MATLAB and Simulink. At PortSwigger, he helped develop the Web Security Academy, a free online web security training, and as such has gained valuable knowledge and experience in developing software with security at the forefront.

Azhar Khan
CFO

Azhar qualified as a chartered accountant with then global accounting firm Arthur Andersen. Following executive roles in internal audit and operational risk management at stockbroking firms Charles Schwab Europe and Barclays Stockbrokers, he was part of the founding management team of Islamic Bank of Britain, the UK’s first standalone retail Islamic bank.

His further roles have included CFO of Al Rayan Bank and CFO & Executive Director of Qatar Islamic Bank (UK).

Through these roles, he has significant experience of building finance strategy and operations in start-ups and developing businesses. Azhar is also an experienced charity trustee serving on the boards of a number of UK charities.

Forhad Ahmed
COO & MLRO

Forhad has an honours degree in LLB Law and shortly after graduation started his professional career in corporate social responsibility. After several years of managing and developing community development projects, Forhad moved into compliance and anti-money laundering (AML) in financial services where he developed his expertise and progressed up the ranks until he served as the Director of Compliance and the Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) in several Fintech companies.

Whilst at Guavapay, Forhad moved into the role of the Chief Operations Officer (COO) and spearheaded organisational development by hiring key personnel for various departments within the business and building the whole UK team. Forhad also established systems and processes in all areas of the business to promote effective governance. In addition, Forhad also managed all Board meetings and initiated the development of Management Information (MI) reporting.

Zahra Mahmood
Customer Relations Manager
Abdul Aziz
Customer Relations & Events Associate
Shamsia Sultana
Customer Relations Assistant
Tasnim Hoque
Customer Relations Assistant
Salma Begum
Customer Relations Assistant
Asma Hasan
Customer Relations Assistant
Richard Watkin
Senior Underwriter
Iqra Rabbani
Underwriting Specialist
Lily Chu
Underwriter
Sneha Desai
Underwriter
Manju Tripathi
Underwriter
Arif Ahmed
Underwriting Analyst
Talha Ahmad
Senior Legal Counsel
Hilal Sheikh
Legal Counsel
Adnan Shafi
Legal Assistant
Basheer Khan
Head of IT
Joseph Clough
Head of Engineering
Najib Otaifa
IT Technician
Adam Ali
Frontend Developer
Sean McKenna
Graduate Software Engineer
Kaynat Choudhury
Head of Marketing
Aimee Brown
Content Marketing Lead
Sajidah Khanom
Marketing Assistant
Naima Choudhury
Social Media Content Creator
Nadia Mokadem
Junior Designer
Abdul Aziz
Customer Relations & Events Associate
Habibah Khanom
Compliance Manager
Anna Kesanli
HR Manager
Samina Irshad
Head of Finance
Amin Ahmed
Head of Research & AI
Sohail Ali
Head of Product Development
Kazi Hussain
Head of Investments