Tarek Ben Halim was a successful investment banker who left banking in 2000 to pursue charitable work and promote justice and democracy in the Arab World. In 2004, he founded Alfanar the first Arab venture philanthropy organisation to introduce a more effective and sustainable approach to development in the Arab region.Tarek was born in Tripoli, Libya on 4 December 1955 to a Palestinian mother, Yusra Kanaan, and Libyan father, Mustafa Ben Halim.