Name:Oliver Agha
Position: Founding Partner
Organization:Agha & Co.
Country: United Arab Emirates
Mr. Agha is a New York lawyer who before founding the first Shari’ah-compliant law firms, was a Senior Partner and the Global Head of Islamic Finance as well as the Head of the Saudi Arabian and Finance Practices at DLA Piper and before that was with Am Law (50) firms (Fulbright & Jaworski and Clifford Chance affiliate); in early 2009, Mr. Agha founded the first Shari’ah compliant law firm with its own board of some of the World’s leading scholars.
Mr. Agha is a leading international lawyer having closed scores of international transactions (capital markets, asset and mortgage backed securitizations, complex restructurings, syndicated multi-lateral transactions and project and other financings) across Asia and the Middle East including in China, Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, and India, including as a senior lawyer seconded to the IFC in its Asian offices (Hong Kong, Beijing and New Delhi); more recently Mr. Agha has been one of the lead lawyers in leading deals in the GCC (Saudi and UAE) that aggregate over US$40 billion.
Mr. Agha’s experience includes developing innovative, genuine and commercially viable Islamic structures for working capital facilities, substitute financing arrangements (for commodity murabahas), Islamic Insurance (takaful) and Islamic Trusts and Estates (waqf) structures for leading Islamic banks and financial institutions.