Dr Ziyaad is an Associate Professor, Lead Researcher (Shariah) for the Centre of Excellence in Social Finance, and Head of Online Programs at INCEIF University. As a Shariah Advisor, Dr Ziyaad has supported Islamic finance, regulation, social finance, fintech and sustainability for almost 25 years. 

His work spans over 20 countries, with more than 12,000 participants attending his training programs on various aspects of Islamic finance. Dr Ziyaad has received several international awards for his social finance models. His unique funding models include flood disaster recovery using blended Islamic social finance, Sukuk-Waqf for water and sanitation for the International Federation of Red Cross in Switzerland, zakat fintech solutions on blockchain, and zakat agency models for the Pakistani and Malaysian Red Crescent, amongst others. 

He is also a World Bank consultant and Adjunct Professor at the Asia School of Business (collab with MIT in the USA). Dr Ziyaad is Chairman of Shariah boards of HSBC Amanah, Tajbank, FBN Quest and One17 Capital in Nigeria, Ayady Takaful and BML Islamic in the Maldives and iConsult Africa in South Africa. He holds a Master’s and PhD in Islamic Finance from Malaysia, an MBA from South Africa, a BA (Hons) in Business (Finance) from the UK, and certification in the Islamic sciences from South Africa and Jordan. 

He lectures in Islamic Jurisprudence, Law of Contract, Sustainability and Social Finance, with over 100 publications in academic and professional output.