Born in 1975 in Sivas, Mehmet Odabaşı graduated from Marmara University’s Faculty of Theology in 1998. He obtained his master’s degree in Islamic Law in 2005 from the Institute of Social Sciences at the same university. Odabaşı, presently writing PhD thesis on Islamic Law at the same university, has held multiple roles on the Advisory Board of Kuveyt Türk Katılım Bankası A.Ş. from 2004 to 2016. In 2016, Odabaşı was appointed to the Advisory Board of Kuveyt Türk Katılım Bankası A.Ş. Alongside this role, he also serves on the Advisory Boards of Neova Sigorta and Katılım Emeklilik.
Since his entrance to Marmara University in 1993, Odabaşı has been immersed in Arabic and Islamic sciences under the tutelage of the late Nurettin CAN. During this time, he also served on the translation committee for Imam Serahsi’s “Mebsut” and “İthafü'l-kârî Bihtisâri Fethi'l-bari.” Odabaşı played a key role in a notable project where the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) served as the Supporting Institution, the Participation Banks Association of Türkiye (PBAT) was the Project Sponsor, and Istanbul Zaim University took on the role of the Translation Institution. He contributed by translating half of “al-Meâyîrü'ş-Şar'iyye,” a seminal work published by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), into Turkish, with the translated work titled “Faizsiz Finans Standartları”.
Odabaşı, a father of three, continues to pursue scholarly and practical research in the field of interest-free banking and insurance.