Khalil Demir

Khalil Demir is the executive director of Zakat Foundation of America (ZF), a Chicago-based non-profit that delivers emergency humanitarian aid and establishes long-term development programs in more than 30 countries, giving Muslims a way to make their zakat (charity), one of the five pillars of Islam, a lever that can raise the prospects of the world’s poor.

Mr. Demir began his activist career as a student in his native Turkey before leaving to pursue his education in Switzerland, where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in sociology, and in the

United States, where he obtained advanced degrees in history and non-profit management.

In 2001 Mr. Demir founded ZF with a group of Muslims driven to improve the lives of the poor worldwide. Since then he has overseen the establishment of schools, orphanages, vocational training programs, and health clinics around the world; the construction of water wells, mosques and community centers in Africa, U.S. cities and the Navajo reservation; the delivery of millions of dollars in emergency humanitarian aid to survivors of wars, natural disasters and other catastrophes including the Syrian conflict, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti among others.

Mr. Demir has represented ZF on television and radio, including National Public Radio. He has visited more than 25 countries and speaks six languages fluently. He lives in Illinois with his wife and four daughters.