Mr. Ibrahim S. Malick is based in New York and looks after the strategy and international partnerships. Mr. Malick has over 20 years of news media experience from reporting for daily newspaper to producing documentaries to designing and managing broadcast network infrastructures

He has worked for Daily News, Frontier Post, Muslim (Pakistani daily newspapers), Duetsche Welle, WBAI, Morning News, Muslim. He has also contributed to DW Radio ,Germany, WBAI Radio, USA, SAMWOnline, USA, and SATribune.com and BBC among others.. He covered Afghanistan in late 1980s and wrote a book, “Afghanistan Dorahay par” (Afghanistan on cross roads).

Ibrahim has produced and directed 5 documentaries on political and social issues.

Ibrahim earned his Master’s degree in Anthropology from New School for Social Research, New York, USA.

Amer Mirza leads the strategic planning function and is responsible for creative, content driven enterprise solutions for Idea Simple. A seasoned professional, he has been instrumental in enabling organizations like Cupola with 50+ restaurants and stores across Pakistan gain visible industry leadership in various senior management capacities. Additionally, he has enabled development of franchise/distribution channels throughout the country.

Prior to joining Cupola, he headed Pizza Hut’s Marketing, Management Information Systems, Network Planning, and Projects & Corporate Planning functions. The composite functionality dictated the future growth, development and direction of the organization both internally and within the external business environment.

He was responsible for conceptualizing and developing Cupola Cares – A non-profit organization, with a start-up capital of Rs.10 million, catering to propagation, development and effective utilization of resources to focus on areas of education, health and other societal social and welfare needs.

His recent assignment was as Executive Director for the American Business Council (ABC).  He has also worked for Cupola, Dubai and First Capital Securities Corporation (FCSC) in project

development and financial advisory capacities respectively.
He was also a part of the initial launch team of the The News as a Special Correspondent and has contributed to various publications here and abroad.  He has also written a series of booklets entitled, Business Visionaries of Pakistan.  The aim was propagation of knowledge on local business leaders.  In the series three have been published, one on Saifuddin Zoomkawal (Chairman, EFU Group of Companies, Tariq Kirmani, and and Dr. Ishrat Hussain (Governor, State Bank).

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Ahmed Afzal is a seasoned development sector professional who has been involved with the development sector for the last 12 years. He has experience of working with the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector and the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector. Afzal was also the member of the launch team of the Competitiveness Support Fund.

His expertise includes value chain analysis, system analysis and design, project planning and management, and infrastructure development. He is also attached with the Universal Service Fund designing and implementing a large number of broadband based rural Multipurpose Community Telecenters (MCTs) through a Public Private Partnership program.

He has held senior management positions at the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (SMEDA)and other ICT companies in the country.

Ahmed holds degrees in Engineering and Business Administration.

Pervez Ehsan, a seasoned media professional, who has to his credit the success of setting up CNBC Arabia, Middle East Business News, Television Business Production Limited “TELEBIZ”. He has been responsible for effective media planning and communication strategies for major public and private sector organizations.

Mr. Ehsan is currently sits at the board of various for and not-for profit entities in the MENA region. He was the founding CEO of Mishal. He is currently the CEO for Source One, Beyond Borders Trading Dubai and Managing Director for Beyond Borders FZ-LLC, a media outsourcing company incorporated at the Dubai Media City, Dubai, UAE

He was also the chief coordinator for the flagship program on BBC World “Question Time Pakistan” and other national and international documentaries from Pakistan. Mr. Ehsan was responsible for the setup of CNBC Arabia in Dubai in the capacity of Director Administration and Human Resource.

Mr. Ehsan has also been associated with the financial sector at senior positions, manaing countries in the MENA region.

Irfan Aamir, Advisor on media relations is the CEO for Idea Simple, a media boutique outlet for creative and media management. He was previously responsible for cofounding the successful private marketing & media relations consultancy firm, 02 Communications in June 2002, where he also served as a partner.

Prior to O2 Communications, he was heading Adcom PRS (2000 – 2002), a sister concern of Adcom Advertising, a leading

advertising agency in Pakistan. He was an integral part of a senior management team responsible for restructuring of the company.

Before Adcom PRS, Aamir was working as Senior Brands Manager for TGI Friday’s (www.tgif.com) and Pizza Express (www.pizzaexpress.co.uk) for a middle-east based private equities holding group, Cupola (www.cupola.com) till June 2000. He was also entrusted with additional responsibilities of being the PR Manager for Cupola Group in Pakistan, in the latter part of his association with the company between 1999-2000.

During 1998 & 1999, working as Manager Public and Media Relations for CMC (Corporate & Marketing Communications), an affiliate of Manning Selvage & Lee (www.msl.com), he was responsible for management and planning for key international and local accounts. During this period he was part of various strategic efforts and extensive training sessions in the country and abroad.

Irfan’s basic work orientation has been in areas of public and media relations management, client management and marketing. For over eight years he has been a regular contributor on these subjects for the country’s leading marketing and PR journals.

Puruesh Chaudhary is driven by new and creative ideas; she has been a Broadcast Editor for over four years and has worked with the Industry’s most brilliant minds. As an Assignment Editor, she was responsible for content generation for news, current affairs and other special assignments for the leading news channels in Pakistan, both in Urdu and English.

Chaudhary is Advisor on Content. She is the CEO for FOXTROT Consultants (Pvt.) Limited, a strategic media consultancy which specializes in developing leadership in media and other emerging sectors in the region.

Her role to strategize content and special reports required her to interact and engage some of the top media professionals and journalists in the print and electronic media industry in the region, her work has been benchmarked for excellence in the broadcast industry. With a natural inclination towards stories that captured human interest she opted for issues to generate a collective behavior while evoking public debate.

In Samaa, she was given an opportunity of handling Forward Planning where she was successful in generating and implementing New Ideas and Concepts related to News and Programming while integrating the channel’s initiatives. She enabled the channel to create content on international indicators for economic growth and sustainable development issues; putting issues in domestic as well as international perspective of globalization.

Dawn News was one of the most critical career moves for Puruesh. In December 2006 she joined the Organization as a Professional Broadcast Journalist. Where she learnt to handle from basic camera-work & editing to reporting. But along the way she found her niche in Content Generation and Productions, later in News; she was given the dual charge.

Meanwhile, a degree in Business has made it all the while possible for her to understand issues related to different tiers of an organization along with behavior patterns; which made her transition from a particular industry to the next very easy.

During her stint at the Coca Cola Export Corporation before joining DawnNews, she was handling the Corporation’s Public Affairs, CSR-Activites and their European Edition. She also had a go at the Automotive Industry; where she worked with Porsche’s Management in setting up their Operations in Lahore and Karachi.

Upon completion of M.Sc. qualification in Economics (from University College London), a Bachelors degree in Economics and Management (administered by London School of Economics) and previous job assignments; Adil is currently working with Creative Energy Resources Corporation as Financial Analyst. CER was established in August 2007 as a regional power company to develop and acquire power related projects in the MENASA region.

CER is established through funding of Saudi-based Swicorp Joussour Company (SJC) and International Finance Corporation (IFC) as its shareholders. Responsibilities at CER include: conducting financial analysis to assess the economic performance of prospective investment opportunities, conducting due diligence and providing recommendations to the Investment committee.

Prior work experiences include: working as Economic Development Specialist (CSF, USAID), as Financial Analyst for Matching Grants Facility (CSF, USAID), as Business Analyst, Finance and Planning Division (Engro Chemicals Pakistan Limited), as Assistant Manager Finance (Frontier Cable Industries) and as a consumer Banking Officer (Citibank).

Before joining CER, at CSF, Adil was involved in financial forecasting and Monitoring and Evaluation of CSF’s portfolio of Matching grants projects; aimed at showcasing innovative means of increasing productivity and improving competitiveness. Prior work experience in Engro Chemicals includes Development of Financial models to determine corporate plan and financial budgets for various Fertilizer and Chemical Manufacturing, and trading, divisions of the business; Management Reporting and development of detailed financial model for the new world scale Ammonia-Urea plant being set up by Engro Chemicals Pakistan Limited.

Ameer brings with him over 10 years of experience in the Banking and Financial Services industry including over 5 years of extensive experience in the online space.

In his current role of Digital Planning Specialist, with one of the largest banks in Australia, he is primarily involved in managing the digital marketing activities for the bank and managing key relationships with multiple creative agencies.

In his recent roles within the bank, he’s been heavily involved in developing the online strategy and driving online channel direction, growth and success, managing numerous marketing campaigns and various online projects along the way.

His background in financial services extends to Zurich Life and Citibank where he worked between Istanbul, Dubai, and Riyadh in various roles between 1997 and 2000.

He has a diverse educational background with a Bachelor of Business from Istanbul University followed by a Post graduate diploma in Information Systems and a Master of IT from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne. He’s also completed various courses and professional trainings including a Business Requirements course with IBM Rational and  a Project Management traning with the University of NSW. His current focus of studies are mobile marketing and the emerging trends in the social media space.