Mehmet ODABAŞI
Head of Advisory Committee

He completed Religious Vocational High School in Sivas in 1993. While in high school, he took Arabic and Islamic sciences lessons. In 1993, he was accepted to Marmara University Faculty of Religious Studies and graduated from that school in 1998. He received his graduate degree in Marmara University Institute of Social Sciences Department of Islamic Law in 2005. Currently, he prepares his thesis for his doctorate degree at the same university in Islamic Law. He took lessons of Arabic and Islamic Sciences from valuable instructors during his undergraduate and graduate studies. He was a part of translation committee of el-Mebsût of İmam Serahsi and İthâfu’l-kârî bihtisâri Fethi’l-bârî. He was part of the translation project of el-Meâyîrü’ş-şer’iyye published by the Islamic Board of AAOIFI (Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions) into Turkish with the name Interest-free Financial Standards. In this translation project, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) was the Supporting Institution, the Participation Banks Association of Türkiye (TKBB) was the Project Sponsor and İstanbul Zaim University was the Translation Organizer. He translated half of the afore-mentioned standards. He was the part of establishment of Turkey’s first Islamic Financial Consultancy company. Mr. Odabaşı was a part of structuring of establishment processes of Ziraat Participation, Turkey’s first public participation bank in accordance with participation finance principles, and has provided consultancy services so far. He was also in the project of implementation of Turkey’s first window model participation insurance application within Ziraat Insurance. He was part of Turkey’s first sukuk issuance project based on agricultural commodity. He was also a part of establishment of Ziraat Participation Index. During his studies at İSFA Islamic Financing Consultancy, he took part in numerous sukuk issuances, establishment and structuring projects of real estate investment funds, venture capital investment funds, stock market investment funds and pension funds.

Prof. Dr. Süleyman KAYA
Vice Chairman of the Advisory Committee

Mr. Kaya graduated from the Faculty of Theology at Marmara University in 1998. He completed a Master’s degree in the Department of Islamic Law at Marmara University in 2000 and completed his doctorate in 2007. He completed his master’s degree in the Department of Economic History of the same university in 2003. He is currently working as a faculty member at the Department of Islamic Law in the Faculty of Theology, at İstanbul University.

Prof. Dr. Necmettin KIZILKAYA
Advisory Committee Member

He graduated from the Faculty of Theology at Marmara University in 2001 before going on to complete a Master’s degree in the Department of Islamic Law at the same university. He completed his doctorate studies at the Social Sciences Institute from Selçuk University in 2011. Mr. Kızılkaya’s work is more focused on the Islamic Law and the Economy. He is especially interested in the History of Islamic Law, Modernization and Fiqh, the 19th Century Economic and Legal Transformations, Islamic Legal Literature, the Islamic Economy and Contemporary Fiqh Issues. Mr. Kızılkaya, who has published many studies in various languages in the field of Islamic Law, is still working as a faculty member in the Department of Islamic Law, Faculty of Theology at İstanbul University.