Central Executive Committee

Shahzad Shahid is the CEO of TPS Pakistan and the Middle East. Prior to his appointment to the position of CEO, Shahzad was serving in the capacity of CMO of TPS. Joining the company as a software engineer in 1999, Shahzad moved to the TPS business development team in 2004. His instinctive flair for business was a natural fit and saw Shahzad emerge as a distinctive leader with strategic, creative and financial acumen as well as strong business intellect. He has played an integral role in shaping the e-banking landscape in Pakistan through closely working with banks, telcos and financial institutions.

Badar Khushnood is a Cofounder and Partner at Bramerz, a leading and a pioneer full-service digital media & marketing agency in Pakistan. Badar primarily focuses on Growth Hacking two Bramerz product ventures, Fishery & Publisher.

Badar was recently Twitter’s Country Representative for over a year and was Google’s Country Consultant for Pakistan for 9 years before joining back Bramerz. He acted as a one-man-army-on-the-ground for Google & Twitter liaising closely between internal teams and all-things Pakistan! He has also worked for ASUSTeK, SMEDA & Nishat Textiles. Badar is also a founding board member and an active mentor at several tech incubators & accelerators including Plan9, LUMS LCE (NIC Lahore) and The Nest I/O, Invest2Innovate, Telenor Velocity and NIC Islamabad. Badar has also been judging at APICTA (Asia Pacific ICT Alliance) for the last few years.

Badar brings along more than 18 years of rich and diverse experience working with leading brands in the global tech space. In his previous lives, Badar secured his Masters in Economics & Management from the Lahore School of Economics (LSE).

Currently serving Systems Limited as the CEO and MD – the same company where he began his career as a software developer in 1996, and now, also serving as a Member of the Board of Directors for Visionet Systems and Systems Limited.

Having majored in CS at the NUCES, he completed his MBA in Marketing and Finance from IBA Karachi. He took a challenging role at the U.S. office, and then took on a wider array of responsibilities, focusing on delivery and projects. He went on to serve as the COO of Visionet Systems from 2008 to 2012 in the U.S. before returning to Pakistan and taking charge of Systems Limited as CEO.

In the current role, he works closely with customers, partners, vendors, and governmental institutions while leading the multi-million-dollar expansion program for Systems Limited. The company has a market cap of $80m, it employees 3500 people and spans across 6 countries with ongoing projects in many other countries.

During this tenure, the company did its IPO and won several accolades, including prestigious awards by the industry associations and Principals.

Dr Shoab Ahmed Khan is Professor in the College of Electrical & Mechanical Engineering, National University of Sciences & Technology. He is an inventor of 5 awarded US patents and has 260+ international publications. His book on Digital Design is published by John Wiley & Sons and is being followed in national and international universities. Dr Shoab Ahmed Khan has more than 22 years of industrial experience in companies in USA and Pakistan. He has been awarded Tamgh-e-Imtiaz (Civil), National Education Award 2001 and NCR National Excellence Award in Engineering Education. He is a member of the Board of Governance of multiple groups in the Ministry of IT and Commerce. He has also served as a member of the National Computing Council and National Curriculum Review Committee.

Ahmed Ayub is the Country Manager for TenPearls and has over 16 years of experience in General Management, Cost and Profitability Management, Software Project Management and Software Development. He specializes in several key areas of Operations Management such as HRM, PMO, Finance, Administration and IT and has implemented end-to-end back-office systems for enterprise-level resource management, billing, invoice generation and multi-level profitability reporting. As a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP), he has established and managed PMOs, end to end project management processes and has worked on projects that cater to significant clients around the globe including SAP, Bank of America, ABN AMRO Bank N.V., JPMorgan Chase, China Mobile, Telenor and Liz Claiborne. Prior to TenPearls, he was the VP Operations for Folio3 and Head of Project Management at PixSense.

Muhammad Yusaf Raza, Head of Accounting and Finance /  Company Secretary at Ovex Technologies (Pvt.) Ltd. and is responsible for overall Financial Management, Financial Planning and Budgeting for the company. He manages all Income Tax and Sales Tax matters, supervises Financial and Tax audits for Ovex Technologies and deals with corporate clients as well as professional and business organizations such as Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), and Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP). He has 09 years of experience in various sectors of the economy like Accountancy profession, Textiles and IT Sector.

Naseer A. Akhtar is the President and CEO of InfoTech Group, a position he has held since the founding of InfoTech in 1995. As a successful entrepreneur, Naseer A. Akhtar brought InfoTech to profitability and continues to build on that success with double-digit year-on-year growth. He is a sought after speaker, mentor and has been honoured with numerous industry awards and accolades. Naseer A. Akhtar sets the corporate direction and strategy for all lines of business. He focuses on customers, strategy and innovation. He has been responsible for multimillion-dollar revenue-generating product roadmaps that have disrupted major industries like Capital Markets, G2C and Smart Grids. He has participated in over 200 conferences and read numerous papers on various forums for ICT Policy, ICT Development, Human Development, Entrepreneurship, Trade and Investment and Global Leadership forums.

As the CEO & founder of 7Vals, Ali Syed is managing a product suite focused on optimizing business processes through improved information workflows. Their products are used by industry giants like NASA, Netflix, NBC Universal, Disney, John Deere, BBC, and CBC. Ali holds an MS(CS) from UIUC and has worked for F500s and startups ranging from Sun Microsystems to Confiz Solutions.

With over 12 years of experience, Farzal has hired and mentored 100s of engineers, designed several user/product experiences, delivered dozens of Global software products and founded and run several companies profitably. He is the CEO of Next Generation Innovations and Co-Founder and Interim CEO of DotZero, a curated co-working space built with crowdsourced funding. In the last 4 years, Farzal has founded and Co-founded of 2 Tech Consulting firms, focusing on Payment Platforms, E-Commerce, M-Commerce & Information Portals – using Open Source & Mobile platforms. He has a dual Bachelor’s degree in Economics & Computer Science from UT Austin and a Masters from NYU.

As Founder and CEO of A2Z Creatorz, Muhammad Zohaib Khan, oversees all local and international corporate business development, joint venture and partnerships. As a Technical IT Professional, he engages with upcoming technologies and directs the company to ensure the attainment of sales and profit goals in order to earn maximum return on invested capital. He is responsible for the formulation of current and long-range plans and objectives and represents the organization in relations with its customers and the business and nonbusiness communities.

Talhah is working at Knowledge Platform since November 2001 and where he leads the technology team. He also manages the Pakistan operations of the business. Talhah has extensive experience in building effective teams, leading engineering operations, talent acquisition, management and engagement, strategic thinking and alignment, program management, creating customer-focused culture, ensuring cross-functional collaboration and use of performance support to drive delivery excellence. Having focused on learning solutions for the past fifteen years, he has deep knowledge of heterogeneous e-learning standards and numerous learning technology systems.

Syed Ahmad is founder & CEO of DPL, a leading software company based in Islamabad. Like no one else, DPL is setting a trend in Pakistan defying popular culture with its own counter-culture movement called “Rebel Ethos”. DPL’s mission statement reflects this: “Liberating minds to become the model IT enterprise in the region”.

Syed founded DPL in 2003 with three co-founders straight out of university. Learning from its ruthless mentor i.e. the market, DPL is now a multi-million dollar company that has top global companies as its clients in the US and Northern Europe. Syed wants to build DPL into the first large-scale IT company from Pakistan that can compete at a global stage with likes of InfoSys and Accenture. In order to achieve its goals, DPL is focusing on building a team comprised of top talent and giving them an environment and culture that is no less than Silicon Valley. DPL has already won various awards and recognition and currently going through the high-growth phase.

Amin, along with partners, founded CTO 24/7 in 2007. At the end of 2012 its biggest customer, Stewart Information Services Corporation fully acquired the company. Stewart is one of the major title insurance underwriters in the US. It is a well-respected multi-national with its headquarter in Houston, Texas. Stewart is listed on the prestigious New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘stc’. Stewart operates in more than 50 countries.

Amin heads Stewart’s Lahore operation providing technology and business services to its parent company.