Hires further company's ambition to be Australia’s first licensed Islamic bank
Australian Islamic financial services provider Hejaz Financial Services has announced the appointment of three senior leaders to further its ambition of being Australia’s first licensed Islamic bank. Andrew Oey has been appointed head of lending; Samrah Sahi has been named head of customer service, and Michael Trist has been named general manager of sales and distribution.
Oey (pictured below) will be responsible for driving growth, developing new relationships and sourcing referral partners through the Hejaz Dealer Group network. He has a decade of industry experience, including roles at Bank of Melbourne, Ultradata and BankWest Melbourne.
Sahi (pictured below) has a background in law and more than eight years of experience managing superannuation and insurance, wealth, sales and lending in the financial and insurance sectors. She was most recently responsible for leading the ligration and startup of the Melbourne Investor Centre for FNZ on behalf of Vanguard Australia. Sahi has also held senior roles at SunSuper, Innovation Group (Suncorp) and Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Trist (pictured below) joins the company from Dark Horse Capital, where he most recently served as executive vice president. Trist has more than 23 years of financial services sales experience, including roles at Norwich Union/Aviva (Australia), Netwealth, Halifax Bank of Scotland (Australia), VicSuper, IOOF, NAB Wealth, and AMP.
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“Hejaz is on a mission to ensure that Muslims don’t have to compromise their values in order to access best-in-class financial products,” said Muzzammil Dhedhy, chief operating officer at Hejaz. “Our success so far has been founded on the world-leading expertise of our team, and the arrival of Andrew, Michael and Samrah will take us to a new level. Each brings exceptional experience and pedigree that will enable us to solidify our status as Australia’s premier Islamic bank.”
“There are roughly 1.2 million Muslims in Australia, representing an estimated market of $192 billion,” said Hakan Ozyon, founder and CEO of Hejaz. “These people want to save, invest and buy houses just like other Aussies, and our ambition is to be able to provide a full range of services to help them achieve their financial ambitions in a way that doesn’t compromise their beliefs.”
