Meet the Team

Tarek El-Messidi is a Muslim American social entrepreneur and activist. In 2012, Georgetown University listed him as one of the 500 Most Influential Muslims worldwide. Between 1998 and 2006, he pursued Islamic studies at programs in the United States, Morocco, Egypt, and Jordan. In 2010, a few years after earning an MBA and beginning work as a manager at Procter & Gamble in Ohio, Tarek founded CelebrateMercy: a non-profit that teaches about the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ through educational programs and social campaigns that "respond evil with good." In 2017, CelebrateMercy mobilized Muslims to raise $162,000 to repair vandalized Jewish cemeteries, and in 2018, they raised over $200,000 for victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. In the last several years through CelebrateMercy, Tarek has led over ten similar campaigns for the victims of various tragedies. He currently lives in New Jersey.