Crescent Group hires head of strategy

Crescent Group has appointed Sayd Farook to lead the firm's five-year strategy to grow its assets under management to $5 billion.

Crescent, which has pioneered Islamic investing in Australia, plans to achieve this through the launch and issuance of Islamic-compliant mortgages by subsidiary Crescent Finance and the strong growth of Crescent Wealth, the Islamic-compliant superannuation fund.

As head of strategy,  Farook's role will be to serve the needs of Crescent Wealth's 11,000 customers while supporting the growth and execution of the Crescent Finance proposition, harnessing data and analytics throughout the growth journey.

Most recently, Farook was executive director of the Crescent Foundation, a not-for-profit to raise funds to support refugees, and the homeless.

Before this, Farook ran Islamic capital markets for Thomson Reuters (now Refinitiv) for five years.

He has also acted as a strategy and innovation advisor to the executive office of the vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates.

Crescent Group founder Talal Yassine said the group was firmly focused on its next phase of growth which would involve engaging Muslims with high-quality propositions built on best-in-class infrastructure.

"Combining his experiences incubating and leading large strategic growth initiatives and in global Islamic finance with our leadership position in the Australian market, we believe we can improve access to financial services for Australia's Muslims, which have almost reached 1 million," Yassine said.

Farook said the growth of Crescent Finance and the issuing of Islamic-complaint mortgages would be significant because it would help address the financial services exclusions faced by Australian Muslims due to their beliefs.

"Having served in global overseas roles over 14 years, it was a travesty to learn that Muslims back home are excluded from being able to buy a house due to the lack of authentic Islamic options that avoid the paying of interest, which is forbidden in Islam," he said.

Farook noted that the total addressable Australian market for Islamically compliant finance and investment is $250 billion.

"Access to authentically compliant residential finance is a major pain point given the importance and security of having a home to every person," he added.

"Islamic residential finance is limited in Australia and those that do offer it receive funds from conventional interest-bearing financial institutions.

"That is why I'm so excited to support the Crescent Group in opening up financial security for all Australians by leading the growth strategy of Crescent Wealth and Crescent Finance."

Crescent Finance is chaired by John Hewson -  founder of Macquarie Bank and former Liberal party leader -  while Crescent Wealth is chaired by Dianne Yerbury.