| ZAYTUNA’S BOARD OF
DIRECTORS
Names appear in alphabetical order (by last name)
Hisham A. Alireza
Hisham is a retired
businessman from Saudi Arabia. He was one of the founders and Executive
Director of Xenel Industries Ltd., which was formed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in
the 1970s. Xenel had direct equity
interests in companies engaged in a range of activities: manufacturing,
trading, investments, healthcare, oil and gas exploration, logistics and
infrastructure development, including power generation and real estate
development.
Over the years Hisham has
become a staunch believer in the social responsibility of business
organizations to the community they operate in, and benefit from. To this end,
at a business level, he has introduced financial concepts and business models
within Xenel which have led to the creation of opportunities for the younger
generation to develop their skills and pursue values and concepts leading to
human betterment. At the community level Hisham remains actively involved in
facilitating those who have a thirst but not the means to acquire quality
education. This is done mainly through specific and general grants and/or
scholarships, enabling many students to acquire education through premier US
universities.
Hisham’s belief in the
importance of providing the Saudi Arabian youth with an innovative and high
quality education has led to the establishment of Dar Al Fikr Schools, an
independent, not-for-profit, private school in Jeddah which has been in
operation now for over two decades, and is the only private school in Saudi
Arabia allowed to follow its own curriculum. Several students from this school
have been selected for higher education by Ivy League schools in US.
Hisham is also one of the
principle founders of Dar Al-Hekma College, the first private not-for-profit
women’s college in Saudi Arabia.
At a global and spiritual
level, the thrust has been towards creating the environment and facilities to
develop innate human capabilities and a conscious relationship with the Divine.
Again, a charitable not-for-profit organization, The Book Foundation (BF), was
set up and funded by Hisham and other like-minded individuals and
organizations. This foundation has been responsible for promoting better
understanding between the east and west, promotion of Islamic Art, philosophy
and the development of a universal curriculum intended to integrate man’s
understanding of God, the universe and his own nature.
Hisham was schooled at
Falah Schools in Jeddah, Wellington College in England and thereafter studied
Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley (1969), and
obtained a Masters in Business Administration from Columbia University (1971).
Before establishing Xenel
with other family members, Hisham worked in the early 1970s for Charterhouse –
London, Morgan and CIE – Paris and Morgan Stanley – New York.
Shaykha Aisha bint
Faleh Al Thani
Shaykha Aisha bint Faleh bin Nasser Al-Thani is a
member of the Supreme Education Council, appointed in early 2006 to a
three-year term. For a number of years now, Shaykha Aisha has combined her
interests in business and education. She holds a MBA degree from the University
of Hull in the United Kingdom where she is also a PhD candidate.
In 2000, Shaykha Aisha founded Doha Academy, a
private primary and secondary school that emphasizes two areas: the British
curriculum and instruction in moderate Islamic studies. Shaykha Aisha Al-Thani has also become involved in
the Reach Out to Asia charity initiative which, in addition to giving aid to areas
in need, is looking at ways to support schools in different Asian countries.
Each year, Shaykha Aisha helps organize a high-profile conference on an
educational issue.
Shaykha Aisha is also the
CEO of Al Faleh Group of Companies. A new educational support centre was recently added to the group. The centre caters to students with
special needs and promotes learning languages. An early learning centre is also
expected to be launched in September 2006.
Shaykh Hamza Yusuf
Hanson
Founder & Chairman of
the Board of Directors
Shaykh
Hamza was born in Washington State and raised in Northern California. In 1977,
he became Muslim and subsequently traveled to the Muslim world and studied for
ten years in the U. A. E., Saudi Arabia, as well as North and West Africa. He
received teaching licenses in various Islamic subjects from several well-known
scholars in various countries. After ten years of studies abroad, he returned
to the USA and earned degrees in Religious Studies and Health Care. He has
traveled all over the world giving talks on Islam. He also founded Zaytuna
Institute which has established an international reputation for presenting a
classical picture of Islam in the West and which is dedicated to the revival of
traditional study methods and the sciences of Islam. Shaykh Hamza is the first
American lecturer to teach in Morocco's prestigious and oldest University, the
Qarawiyin in Fes. In addition, he has translated into modern English several
classical Arabic traditional texts and poems. Shaykh Hamza currently resides in
Northern California with his wife and five children.
Liliana (Umm Yahya) Hanson
Liliana
received a general degree in Business from Imperial Valley College in Southern
California. She has fourteen years
of experience in the field of conflict resolution management and has served as
the office manager of various medical offices in the San Francisco Bay
Area. She currently resides in
Northern California with her husband and their five children.
Dr. Suhail Obaji
Dr. Suhail M. Obaji
started a private practice in the field of hematology/oncology.
After he finished his
training in July 1994, he practiced in the Memphis area as a solo practitioner
until he joined Dr. Earle Weeks in 2002 to become co-founder of Family Cancer
Center which now includes nine physicians and eleven offices in Tennessee,
Mississippi and Arkansas. Dr.
Obaji strongly believes in delivering the best and honest medical care to his
patients. He also has a keen
interest in clinical research. He
loves community service, traveling and reading. Since age 13, Dr. Obaji has had
a thirst for traditional Islamic sciences and spiritual purification. He had the opportunity to study in Quran,
Fiqh, and Aqida with many well known scholars in Aleppo, Syria; mainly Shaykh
Mohamad Salkini, Shaykh Abdel-Kader Eissa, and Shaykh Abdullah Siraj. Dr. Obaji participated in many
interfaith meetings and he has been mentoring and teaching young children about
Islam.
Hamed Omar
Hamed is the Senior Vice President of technology
infrastructure for SallieMae Corp. in Indiana. He is responsible for planning, deploying, and directing 5
technology management departments and is responsible for the strategic planning,
deployment and management of information technology at SallieMae. He directs
groups that manage the corporate voice and data networks, technology
architectures, mainframes and client/server systems, corporate databases,
development technologies and information security. He has served as the Vice President, and managed various
groups for USA Group in the 1980’s and 1990’s.
In addition to his position at SallieMae, Hamed
also volunteers his time as a member of the Hamilton County United Way Advisory
Board, as a member of the Management Committee of the Indianapolis Muslim
Community Association, as a member of the Technology Advisory Committee, ITEC
and also sits on the Majlis Shurah of Masjid al-Fajr in Indiana.
Dr. Tayyib Rana
Tayyib was born in Philadelphia and raised on the
east coast of the US. He started
his undergraduate education at Wake Forest University and then completed his
degree at Harvard University. He
received his medical training at West Virginia University and completed his internship
in internal medicine at George Washington University. He completed his residency in ophthalmology at the State
University of New York and his fellowship at Johns Hopkins University’s Wilmer
Eye Institute. Tayyib is a member
of the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the
American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery and currently runs an
active medical practice in the Washington DC area.
Tayyib also spent 18 months studying Islam in
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. He is a
member of various organizations including the Islamic Medical Association
(IMA), ADAMS Center, and many Medical Societies. He is the current representative for the Association for
Pakistani Physicians of North America (APPNA) in Virginia and is the founding
member of the Islamic Society of the Appalachian region. He currently serves as a faculty
advisor to various MSA branches in the DC area and is also a pioneer member and
advisor to Unity Productions.
He lives in the DC Area with his wife.
Syed Mubeen Saifullah
Vice Chair - Board of
Directors
Syed Mubeen graduated with Dean's honors in three years from the University of
California at Irvine, taking a degree in Economics with a focus on Management
in December 1997. He also completed his MBA from St. Mary’s University in
California in 2006. He was recruited directly out of the university and
joined Andersen Consulting’s (now known as Accenture LLP) strategy consulting
division in 1998. He worked for over a year at BellSouth Mobility’s CLEC/Wireless
project. He subsequently joined NightFire Software (now known as NeuStar Inc.)
in June 1999 in the Supplier Relations division and has been distinguished on
numerous occasions for commitment, dedication and high quality performance. He
has served as a productive member of the international telecommunications
industry body since 2000 and has contributed heavily to the successful domestic
launch of Wireless Number Portability by identifying and solving issues within
the inter-carrier process. He has also been featured as a keynote speaker and
lectures frequently at telecommunications forums and sits on the inter-carrier
vendor panel hosted by CTIA, the FCC and Bennet & Bennet, PLLC.
Since 1997, Syed Mubeen has taken classes with Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, Shaykh
Muhammad al-Yaqoubi, Imam Zaid Shakir and many other visiting scholars, and
maintains his Islamic studies at Zaytuna. He has also served as Zaytuna’s
President, Vice Chair and Shaykh Hamza’s scheduling assistant since 2001.
Syed Mubeen has also been mentoring and teaching male youth at the San Ramon
Valley Islamic Center since 1994, and participates in the San Ramon Valley
Interfaith Council. He has been featured as a speaker in various MSA forums and
Islamic awareness activities. Syed Mubeen resides in Northern California with
his mother, wife and daughter.
Imam Zaid Shakir
Born in Berkeley, California,
Imam Zaid Shakir accepted Islam in 1977 while serving in the United States Air
Force. He then obtained a BA with honors in International Relations at American
University in Washington D.C. and later earned his MA in Political Science at
Rutgers University, where he was co-leader of a successful South Africa
divestment campaign and also co-founded a local Islamic center, Masjid al-Huda.
After a year of studying Arabic in Egypt, he settled in New Haven, Connecticut,
where he co-founded Masjid al-Islam, the Tri-State Muslim Education Initiative,
and the Connecticut Muslim Coordinating Committee. As Imam of Masjid al-Islam
from 1988 to 1994 he speared-headed a community renewal and grassroots
anti-drug effort in the local neighborhood, and taught Political Science and
Arabic at Southern Connecticut State University. For seven years in Syria, and
briefly in Morocco, he immersed himself in an intense study of Arabic, Islamic
law, Quranic studies, and Islamic spirituality with some of the top Muslim
scholars of our age. In 2001, he graduated from Syria's prestigious Abu Noor
University and returned to Connecticut. In 2003, he moved to Hayward,
California to serve as a scholar-in-residence and lecturer at Zaytuna Institute
where he now teaches regular courses on Arabic, Islamic Law, History, and
Islamic Spirituality. He has translated several works from Arabic into English,
including “The Heirs of the Prophets,” published by Starlatch Press in 2001. In
2005, he released “Scattered Pictures,” an anthology of diverse essays, through
Zaytuna Institute. He is widely regarded as an articulate voice on Islam and
African-American issues and frequently speaks at major events on those
subjects.
Zaytuna Board Observers:
Ali Jalil Hassan
Chief Financial Officer –
Board Observer
Ali Hassan graduated from
Southeastern University in Karachi, Pakistan, with a bachelors degree in
marketing in 1998. He was recruited as a cross currency manager for Vital
Capital Markets Limited. In 1999, he accepted a position with Taurus
Securities (an affiliate of HSBC) as a portfolio manager where he managed
assets in excess of $20 million for both foreign and domestic institutions.
He then moved to the US and joined Silicon Valley Securities (an affiliate of
Raymond James) in San Jose, California. After working there for a year
and a half he joined the MBA program at Santa Clara University where he
graduated with honors in 2003. He has since been the Chief Financial
Officer at Zaytuna Institute and has assisted the organization in developing
its financial infrastructure, raising funds and developing Zaytuna’s
programs. He is currently working with Zaytuna’s Board to develop Zaytuna’s
seminary program and endowment.
He currently resides in
Northern California with his wife.
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