Business
‘You’ll never discover new oceans until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore’
Immediately following graduation I commenced employment with Deloitte in an Advisory capacity and then in Wealth management and Consultancy. It was a great Blue-chip corporate experience even though much of my business life thereafter was in the cut and thrust of the OMB Entrepreneurial field.
In 2001, I set up 1st Ethical, the UK’s first ever fully FSA authorized financial services business. I was 26 at the time and the youngest principal of an authorized IFA firm in the UK.
1st Ethical was primarily dedicated to servicing the investment, pension and financial needs of the UK’s Muslim community by specializing in shariah-compliant finance.
In 2003 1st Ethical won UK’s fastest growing company in the Shell Livewire awards and myself and fellow Director won NW Entrepreneur of the year. Over the years, we won numerous awards and amassed scores of media coverage which you can view here
By 2005, the bottom had started to fall out of the financial services market and successive legislation meant the writing was on the wall. I therefore converted 1st Ethical into a charity known today as 1st Ethical Charitable Trust (1ECT). Over the years 1ECT has spent over £3M on humanitarian relief aid, including financing hospitals, clinics, emergency relief, medical operations and more. You can learn more about its work and projects here
The blazing business trail continued with me setting up OneE Group in 2006. This is a specialist advisory unit for high net worth entrepreneurs, footballers and celebrities.
OneE Group is dedicated to sourcing investment opportunities for such niche clients which whilst providing a very real investment proposition also possess a tax saving.
Our Investment opportunities vary from some of the World’s leading luxury hotel brands to high tech pharmaceutical investments.
OneE Group, has become a supremely successful enterprise and today sits as the market leader in its industry. From 2011 onwards, we have consistently won a place in the Sunday Times Top 100 Fast Track or Profit Track listings. The business now boats over 70 full time staff, has 3 offices, the best product range in the industry and over 1,000 Charted accountants as introducers. In 2014, I formally stepped down as CEO of OneE Group to pursue philanthropic ventures.
Like any Entrepreneur, whilst I was building OneE Group, I had fingers in other corporate pies.
The most notable being the creation a global property empire that is now managed by our specialist firm, Select Concierge, which also specializes in high-end concierge services including private flights, chauffeurs and client property portfolios. I still develop property, it’s a great feeling seeing it develop from thought to finish.
PRIVATE EQUITY
Inspired by the Islamic -finance principle of ‘Musharaka’, (which simply translates in practical terms to profit sharing and loss sharing), I started investing considerably in SMEs and start-ups over the last decade.
Many of these embryonic businesses are now flourishing enterprises in industries such as general Retail, food and Pharmaceuticals. Their cumulative market value now exceeds $1Billion mark.
