Haitham Al-Sayed joins Wahed as its new Global Head of Institutional Sales and Advisory Services

Wahed, a fintech company that aims to advance financial inclusion through accessible, affordable, and values-based investing, today announced that Haitham Al-Sayed, former Manager at Saturna Capital, will join Wahed as its new Global Head of Institutional Sales and Advisory Services. His responsibilities will include solidifying Wahed's footprint in the institutional and retail space, in addition to building the firm’s global advisory services team.

Al-Sayed brings a wealth of experience in ethical investing to the role. At Saturna Capital he managed the Amana mutual funds trust, working with high net-worth clients and financial advisory groups around the country, including endowments, nonprofits and businesses. He also travelled across the US to educate firms and registered investment advisors on how to help their clients make ethical investment choices.   

Commenting on the appointment, Samim Abedi, Chief Investment Officer of Wahed said, “Haitham’s experience in the Institutional funds and wealth management space will be a great asset to Wahed’s future ETF business and overall growth. His contribution and dedication to the industry and the community is something to admire. We look forward to working with him to cement our position as the leading Islamic fintech globally.” 

Launched in 2017, Wahed has developed an easily accessible digital platform that balances ethical finance with modern investments, attracting over 250,000 active clients around the world with features such as free portfolio recommendations and no hidden fees. 

Through its US investment adviser, Wahed currently offers two ETFs: the Wahed FTSE USA Shariah ETF (HLAL), which debuted on Nasdaq in July 2019, and the Wahed Dow Jones Islamic World ETF (UMMA), which just debuted on Nasdaq in January this year. UMMA notably expands Wahed’s screening beyond Shariah-compliant or halal constituents by also filtering based on environmental, social, and governance factors (ESG). Complete information on the ETFs may be found at their respective website, funds.wahedinvest.com and umma.wahedinvest.com.

Haitham Al-Sayed said, “Educating people about investing in line with Islamic and ESG principles is my passion, so joining Wahed was a natural next step for my career. It’s an honour to be able to help them with their very noble mission of creating an alternative to the debt-based financial system, that is better and more sustainable for everyone.”