Meet The Team.
Ahmad Ashkar
Ahmad Ashkar
Ahmad Ashkar is a decorated American-Palestinian entrepreneur and pioneer in global startup education. Recognized among the “100 Most Powerful Arabs in the World” and named GQ’s Entrepreneur of the Year, he has built programs that graduated over one million students across 100 countries.
As founder of multiple award-winning companies—including Falafel Inc, America’s largest privately owned falafel chain—Ahmad is an impact pioneer who blends purpose with profit. Through his work at Forerunners, he now equips elite founders to build startups that win with purpose.
Muna AbuSulayman
Muna AbuSulayman
Muna AbuSulayman is one of the Arab world’s most recognized media personalities and humanitarians, consistently named among the 500 Most Influential Muslims. She is a social impact investor focused on AI for education, media awareness, and effective philanthropy.
As the former Secretary-General of the Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation, she championed poverty reduction, women’s empowerment, and Islam-West dialogue. A Yale World Fellow and the first Saudi UNDP Goodwill Ambassador, she continues to drive change through Directions Consulting and Saudi Sustainable Solutions.
Omar Altalib
Omar Altalib
Omar Altalib is a seasoned entrepreneur and business leader who helped build a multibillion-dollar business at Amazon Web Services, where he served as Director of Growth, Partnerships, and Strategy. With over 25 years of global leadership experience, he has built and scaled high-performing teams that generated billions in revenue through value-based strategies, innovation, and culture.
As a co-founder of Forerunners, Omar focuses on empowering founders and organizations to discover their strengths, lead with purpose, and build ventures that create lasting and meaningful impact on society.
Awais Sheikh
Awais Sheikh
Awais Sheikh is a design thinking guru and innovation expert who has led transformative initiatives across some of the world’s most influential organizations. At Amazon Web Services, he directed strategy and execution for the company’s largest Public Sector sales division, driving multi-billion-dollar revenue growth. At MITRE, he built and scaled Capability Development, embedding design thinking and lean startup practices to spark enterprise-wide innovation.
A premier advisor to Muslim-American executive leaders and startup founders alike, Awais now serves at Forerunners, where he oversees innovation and transformation.
Dr. Omar Fisher
Dr. Omar Fisher
Dr. Omar began his career in management consulting with A.D. Little, Inc., leading organizational transformations and development projects across 26 countries. In the 1990s, he co-founded several Islamic finance startups in the U.S. and Gulf region, including Takaful and Unicorn Investment Bank, and served on multiple Shariah advisory boards.
An internationally recognized speaker and author, Dr. Omar has published books and articles on Islamic finance, financial intelligence, and conscious leadership. He also develops gamified learning tools and apps, mentoring FinTech and social impact startups to build innovative, purpose-driven ventures.