Board Chair and President
Monem Salam is Executive Vice President and a Director of Saturna Capital. He received his degrees from the University of Texas: BA (Austin) and MBA (Dallas).
He worked as the Chief Investment Officer for ITG & Associates (Dallas) until 1999; then as a representative with Morgan Stanley (suburban Dallas) until joining Saturna Capital in June 2003. He served as the Director of Islamic investing and a Deputy Portfolio Manager to the Amana Mutual Funds Trust until moving to Kuala Lumpur in 2012 to oversee Saturna Sdn. Bhd. In 2018, he returned to the United States and resumed his role as Deputy Portfolio Manager of the Amana Income, Amana Growth, and Amana Developing World Funds.
Board Treasurer
Esha Mughal currently works as an independent Consultant with a focus in business process improvement. She has 20 years of global experience working for Fortune 500 companies like Lafarge Holcim and State Farm in the field of finance including insurance, risk, auditing, and business process optimizations. She is also a certified Lean Six Sigma professional.
She grew up in North Carolina where she received a Bachelors of Science in Economics at North Carolina State University and a MBA at Western Carolina University. She has experienced living in different geographies in the last two decades but finally calls Dallas, TX home where she resides with her husband and two daughters.
Board Member
Hud Williams is currently an Associate Director at AT&T). He has over 20 years of financial services experience, working in a variety of fields from financial systems implementation to sharia compliant home finance.
His education background includes an undergraduate degree in Economics, MBA with a finance concentration from GA Tech and he is currently working on a Certificate in Islamic Finance from The International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF) that is located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Hud’s interest includes educating and facilitating the adoption of Islamic Finance products for the average American. Outside of work, Hud is Husband and father of four young boys (Yahya, Lut, Zayn & Ibrahim). Hud serves as a Board member for The Atlanta Masjid of Al Islam.
Board Member
Sadaf Haq born in New York State and raised next to Fort Drum Army Base, where her mother was a civilian doctor on base, she attended public schools before getting a Bachelors in biology and a Masters in Public Health from SUNY-Albany.
She went on to work in public health for the State of New York, Humana, Inc., and the University of Miami. She has been published twice in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. With her husband, Dr. Adeel Haq, she co-founded a medical practice in Frisco and currently sits on the Leadership Frisco Advisory Council. She is a passionate community advocate- she is a board member of the Mayoral ad-hoc Frisco Inclusion Committee, Chair woman of the City of Frisco Social Services and Housing Board, a member of all 65 FISD PTA chapters, a Platinum Supporter of Frisco Police Officers Association, a member of Frisco Women’s League, a Frisco Interfaith Alliance member who serves on the Texas Healthcare Advisory Council and the Texas Health Resources Community Impact Council for Collin County. The Haq’s’ medical practice is a member of the Frisco Chamber of Commerce
Board Member
Aishah Aslam, A board-certified cardiologist at Ascension St Joseph hospital in Milwaukee, fellow of the American College of Cardiology. Medical training and undergraduate degrees from Michigan State University and University of Michigan.
She has Performed medical mission work in refugee camps in Lesvos, Greece and Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh and has a keen interest in global humanitarian relief efforts as well as healthcare accessibility here in America. She also has a passion for Muslim community development with a focus on youth and convert programming and mental health.
Board Member
Larry Bisno is Director of Strategic Initiatives and Chief Compliance Officer for Health Services of North Texas (HSNT), Larry has been with HSNT for over 7 years.
After spending well over 25 years with international advertising agencies, Larry transitioned to the world of NGO’s 14 years ago. Prior to joining Health Services of North Texas, he served as Corporate Relations Officer for Islamic Relief USA and was a Business Director for a Dallas based non-profit helping economically disadvantaged children prepare to succeed in school. Larry’s childhood consisted of living in Oregon and abroad while his father worked for the foreign service (including Europe, Middle East and Asia).
Board Member
Basit Khan has over 15 years’ experience working in Business Development across various sectors, including financial services, tax planning and fundraising.
Having spent the early part of his career advising high net worth individuals with their financial and tax planning needs, he went on to become the Head of Fundraising at Islamic Relief, where he was instrumental in building a major giving department and increasing voluntary income to £30million. As a result of this, he was nominated as an Ambassador for the Institute of Fundraising 2015 National Convention, Best You Can Be campaign.
Board Member
Frank Mesina began a career in the financial sector, working in pension and 401(k) plan management for his firm’s clients – all among the Fortune 200.
He began a financial services practice in 2004, was named the 2006 Illinois Advisor of the Year, and awarded the 2010 Illinois Partner of the Year. Frank later accepted a Managing Director role, where he was the recipient of the 2014 Presidential Citation Award, as one of the top five Managing Directors in the nation. Frank is a platform speaker for the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, a licensed pastor, and an Arbitrator for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. As a Managing Partner at New York Life, he delivers talks for universities, corporations and the U.S. Government – demystifying financial topics, and teaching communities to break from cycles of poverty.
Board Member
Asim Mohammad is a Vice President of Customer Success for StreamSets Inc, a software company specializing in data movement, based in San Francisco, California.
Prior to StreamSets, Asim was Chief Information Officer for a technology services company focusing on the federal business. Prior to that he was the Senior Vice President of Data Management at Westfield Corporation where he addressed the problem of offline retail moving to online retail.
Asim began his career in financial services, where he rose to a Senior Vice President for Data and Analytics for Consumer Banking at Bank of America. Asim has an MBA from Duke University.
CEO
Azhar Azeez was born in Hyderabad, India. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance and a Master’s in Business Administration. After a successful career in the corporate world, at General Electric and Capital One, Mr. Azeez transitioned his life long passion of serving humanity into his field of world. For the past 16 years he has served in different capacities as an executive at Islamic Relief USA.
Mr. Azeez was elected as the President of Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) twice, which is the oldest Muslim organization of US & Canada. He is also the past President of the North Texas Islamic council (NTIC), which represents 45 plus Muslim organizations in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. He is the Founder and the past President of Islamic Association of Carrollton, Texas, one of the large mosques in the suburbs of Dallas, TX. He also currently serves on the board of The Islamic Seminary of America (TISA).
Mr. Azeez continuously works towards building bridges between people of various faiths and is nationally known for his interfaith work. He is a well known public and motivational speaker who travels regularly around the US for local, regional and national events of various faith-based and humanitarian organizations. He has addressed events, seminars, summits, conferences & banquets in more than 600 communities/cities across US & Canada.
Mr. Azeez has advised two former US President’s, President Jimmy Carter and President Barack Obama and currently resides in Plano, TX with his wife and children.