Member of Board of Directors & CEO

Fazal Bahardeen is the Founder of Crescentrating, setting up the world's first Travel portal dedicated to the Halal conscious travelers and launched its' Rating (Crescentrating) system to rate travel and tourism services for their Halal friendliness.

Prior to this, he was with Alcatel-Lucent where he held senior management roles based in Europe and Asia. During this period, he also served as a member of the Board of Directors of Alcatel-Fujitsu Joint venture for 3G technology and was a member of Alcatel University Asia Pacific International Branch Advisory Board.

Pioneer in the development of the “Halal Friendly Travel” sector, he has spoken at many international conferences and has been quoted and interviewed extensively in the media worldwide. He also has conducted exclusive workshops for the travel industry players in a number of countries on how to cater to the growing segment of Muslim travellers.

Fazal completed the Executive Program from Stanford University & National University of Singapore, Strategic Leadership Development Program from Ashridge Management School and International Management in Telecoms Industry from London Business School. He has an International Masters in Management from Management School of Lyon & Alcatel University, in addition to the Masters Degree in Computer Applications and Bachelors Degree in Telecommunication Engineering from the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications.

Fazal also has a Diploma in Islamic Banking and Finance from the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM). He is a Corporate member of IET (UK) and a Chartered Engineer (CEng) (UK)

Fazal is also a member of the Advisory Board of the SAMI (Socially Acceptable Market Investments) Halal Food Index and the SAMI Halal Participation Index (compliant with AAOIFI criteria); the world's first Halal Food indexes, which bring together the Halal Industry and the Islamic Finance Industry.