Dr Ismail Mesut Sezgin, born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey was awarded his PhD at Leeds Beckett University on the subject of Moral Responsibility in Contemporary Islam. He is a research assistant in Religion and Society, Regent's Park College, Oxford and a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for Governance, Leadership and Global Responsibility at Leeds Business School. Dr Sezgin's research expertise and interests in relation to political Islam, extremism, ethics and religious movements (the Hizmet Movement in particular) have led to him speaking at conferences internationally and offering comment and interviews on various media platforms, including the BBC's Hardtalk.

Dr Sezgin is also Co-Founder of the Centre for Hizmet Studies, a London-based non-profit organisation providing information, research analysis and critique on the Hizmet Movement, a civil society grassroots​ movement originating out of Turkey and active in over 160 countries worldwide.