Chief wrapper, ToffeeTV.com

The story behind ToffeeTV.com is quite simple - it's an initiative that takes songs, stories and activities for children in Urdu, animates and publishes them for online consumption. Combined with Hindi, there are at least a billion people in the world who understand Urdu, and the amount of content that is being produced in the language for young kids, is virtually non-existent. From a business perspective, there is huge potential for ToffeeTV.com and something Garib and her team strongly believe in. Garib has worked with ACCA for a number of years and hopes to keep the straight-faced financial folks, smiling!

Regional head of education MENASA, ACCA

Dr Afra Sajjad is ACCA regional head of education for Middle East North Africa South Asia (MENASA) region. In this role, her main focus is to work with national offices in the MENASA region to drive professional accounting education excellence through engaging relevant stakeholders on best practices of student support, exploring excellence in tuition support and continuous professional development. Dr Sajjad has been associated with ACCA since 2005 in various policy and education roles. She has worked on a number of policy projects and consultative responses pertaining to narrative reporting, financial reporting, auditing and corporate governance. She is on the editorial boards of ACCA magazines Teach Accounting and Accountancy Futures. She has been the lead project manager for a number of donor funded projects including the European Commission project on sustainability reporting, DFID project on micro-finance and International Finance Corporation projects on corporate governance and gender diversity. With a doctoral degree in financial reporting from the Dublin City University, Dr Sajjad’s research interests include corporate governance, business ethics and integrated reporting. She has presented papers at national and international conferences including the World Congress of Accountants.

She has also participated in various TV and radio business talk shows and panel discussions. She has been professionally associated with a number of universities including the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) where she worked as a faculty member.

Chief wrapper, ToffeeTV.com

The story behind ToffeeTV.com is quite simple - it's an initiative that takes songs, stories and activities for children in Urdu, animates and publishes them for online consumption. Combined with Hindi, there are at least a billion people in the world who understand Urdu, and the amount of content that is being produced in the language for young kids, is virtually non-existent. From a business perspective, there is huge potential for ToffeeTV.com and something Garib and her team strongly believe in. Garib has worked with ACCA for a number of years and hopes to keep the straight-faced financial folks, smiling!

TV anchor

Sidra Iqbal is a celebrated Youth Icon of Pakistan. She is accredited with many esteemed accolades in the fields of Youth-Activism, Youth led development & Women Entrepreneurship and Television Media. Sidra Iqbal is the first and the only Pakistani to win the prestigious English Speaking Union's International Public Speaking Championship in London, UK. She emerged a winner among 58 participants from 28 different countries, an accomplishment for which, she was feted at the Buckingham Palace and awarded the winner's certificate by HRH Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh. In July 2011, Sidra became the First Pakistani to be invited as a Judge to the same esteemed international pavilion, the English Speaking Union's International Public Speaking Championship 2011, with co-judges like Lucy Hockings(Presenter, BBC World). Sidra, during her student life, represented the Pakistani youth as an Youth Ambassador and a Change Activist at a variety of power-packed forums in Australia, Cyprus, Japan, Hong Kong, Turkey, Switzerland, UAE, UK and US.

Sidra was awarded a full scholarship by the ESU Commonwealth to a Summer International Relations Program at Oxford University, UK in 2006. In 2007, Sidra was part of the special international youth committee envisioned byPrime Minister Gordon Brown at UK and presented the 'Young People's Proposal for a Better World' at the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland. Sidra was a part of Pakistan’s delegation to the esteemed marketing professionals forum: AdAsia 2011 in Delhi, India.She regularly speaks at youth conventions, colleges and universities across Pakistan.

Sidra is a prominent television broadcaster in Pakistan since 2006 and has a number of signature shows, productions and momentous coverages to her credit. Her shows have featured a number of VIP guests from Heads of States, Policy makers, corporate heads and celebrated popular icons. Sidra especially enjoys a country-wide strong youth fan base, who keenly follow her comment and advise on youth issues and self-empowerment. In July 2012, Sidra became the first Pakistani anchorperson to host the official digital platforms of the International Indian Film Awards 2012 (IIFA), the mega Bollywood extravaganza of immense global popularity in Singapore, a project that expanded Sidra’s fans base across borders.

In Early 2007, Sidra started her career in the Public Relations Industry in as the Vice President, Oglivy & Mather, Pakistan. She played a key role in coordinating with Ogilvy PR, New York in 2007-2008 as it was appointed by the Government of Pakistan to manage Pakistan’s image in the international press. She also served her assignments at Singapore and Hong Kong offices of Ogilvy PR. Today she is an entrepreneur and founder of Statuspro 360, one of Pakistan's foremost Integrated Brand Communications firms.

Chief Internal Auditor, Sui Southern Gas Co. Ltd.

Amin Rajput is a Fellow Chartered Accountant (FCA) as well as a Certified Internal Auditor. He did his chartered accountancy with KPMG Pakistan Office. Later, he joined Caterpillar, Saudi Arabia where he worked for a decade in various positions in Finance & Audit departments. Since last five years, he has been working as Head of Internal Audit in the Power & Petroleum Sectors with two major Utility Companies of Pakistan engaged in the business of Generation, Transmission & Distribution of Electricity & Natural Gas. Amin has also served on the Board of Governors of the IIA Karachi Chapter and was engaged in the training & mentoring of CIA students.

Head of ACCA Pakistan

Arif Masud Mirza was born in Karachi and moved to England where his parents migrated in 1968. He is a fellow member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and currently the Head of ACCA Pakistan.

After graduating in economics from London, he started his career in a West London firm of chartered accountants in 1985. He has worked as a tax manager at Haines Watts, Chartered Accountants, and as a financial accountant at the Daily Mail Newspapers (London). Since 1992, he has been residing in Lahore and has several years of experience in the Packages group of companies. Arif has been leading ACCA's operations in Pakistan since 1997.

Arif has taught on the MBA Programmes and several professional courses at the Rausing Executive Centre, LUMS. He is also a director on the board of Kashf Microfinance Bank Ltd, where he chairs the audit committee and is also a member of the HR committee at the same. Arif is also a director on the board of the Institute of Capital Markets. Recently, he has been appointed the ACCA technical advisor to the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC)'s Professional Accountancy Organisation Development committee (PAODC). Arif is also a member of the IFAC taskforces on International Development and Professional Accountancy Organisation mentoring.

Executive Director, Human Capital Excellence Abacus Consulting

Fatima has over sixteen years of change management, organizational structuring and human capital management and development experience through strategic formulation and oversight, service delivery and project management roles. An MBA from LUMS, Class of 1997, she has developed specialization in Human Capital Development, Change Management, and rewards and remuneration. In addition to extensive project experience in strategic change and human capital management, she has led projects focusing on the development of organizational strategies that integrate their human resources practices with their long-term strategic business plans and capacity building with intensive training programs. Her extensive experience has allowed her to partner and advise clients across leading private, public and multi-national sectors at the Boardroom level.

She is currently the Executive Director, at AbacusConsulting, responsible for the Human Capital Solutions business of the firm, and internally the Corporate HR and PMO functions. She is, also, responsible for strategically managing the alliance partnership with Mercer, a leading global HR consulting firm.

Head of ACCA Lahore

Haroon has a diversified experience in the field of technological and professional education. He has worked as a corporate trainer for many years and holds to his credit training senior professionals of many multinationals.

Haroon is responsible for leading and managing the ACCA Lahore market. He works with key stakeholder like leading employers, renowned universities and ACCA Approved Learning Providers in the region to deliver the ACCA strategy. As a market head, Haroon also contributes towards ACCA's strategy development for Pakistan. He has been involved in promotion and development of the accountancy profession in this region, by engaging with senior finance professionals, and speaking on topical issues in the accounting profes

Chief Financial Officer & Company Secretary, Tameer Microfinance Bank Limited

Naqvi is the Chief of Staff, Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary of Tameer Microfinance Bank Limited, a Telenor Group Entity. He is responsible for contributing to strategy making and execution for the core microfinance lending and branchless banking businesses, to oversee the financial control, treasury and corporate secretarial departments as well as act as the central overseer for all staff activities.

He has had vast exposure in the field of Accounting and Finance with expertise in the areas of Audit and Tax as he started his career as an audit trainee at Ford Rhodes Sidat Hyder & Co. Chartered Accountant. At Tameer, Naqvi has been instrumental in designing a back-end accounting and integration methodology for the Branchless banking platform. He has also been responsible in designing a framework for management accounting in order to facilitate the flow of information between Tameer and Telenor Pakistan.

Additionally, in his role as Company Secretary, Naqvi performs a vital role in the implementation of corporate governance principles that apply to the Bank, working closely with the regulator to promote effective governance within the growing fields of microfinance and branchless banking. As Chief of Staff, Naqvi has the added responsibility of effectively being the bank’s ‘problem solver in chief’; overseeing the staff and everyday function of the Bank, while acting as the CEO’s central liaison on general management within the organization.

Prior to joining Tameer, he was based in Saudi Arabia as a Tax Consultant for Middle East, Ernst & Young. He was primarily responsible for providing tax compliance services to different clients from banking, insurance, fertilizer, cement, manufacturing and oil and gas sectors of the economy.

He also worked as the Head of Internal Audit for Trakker Private Limited where he had a successful track record of managing and establishing internal audit procedures in all areas of operations of the company. Naqvi also has expertise in Business Planning and Development as he served at a Managerial position in a company for the House of Habib Group.

Naqvi is a Chartered Certified Accountant and has a passion for teaching. He is a visiting faculty at Lecole for Advanced Studies and teaches Financial Management to the ACCA Program and Business & Finance, Management Accounting and Corporate Finance to LSE’s External Program.

Chairman and CEO, Naseeb Networks

Monis Rahman is the Chairman and CEO of Naseeb Networks, a leading provider of recruitment, social networking, classifieds and related services in Pakistan. He was #6 in Forbes Magazine list of "Ten Big Hitting Asian Businessmen under 50". Under his leadership, Naseeb Networks is Pakistan's 8th fastest growing private company according to the Harvard University Professor Michael Porter's All World Pakistan Fast Growth 25 rankings, clocking in at 8,500% growth since 2007.

Monis launched ROZEE.PK in 2006 which is today Pakistan's most powerful recruiting platform. With over 50,000 employers and 10 Million professionals using the job portal, the company exceeds a 64% placement rate amongst its over 100 daily job postings. ROZEE.PK was visited by half of Pakistan's Internet population in 2012 and has experienced 18 consecutive quarters of growth. The site has won the coveted Brand of the Year Award for the past two years from the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Naseeb Networks is backed by leading Silicon Valley venture capital funds Draper Fisher Jurvetson, ePlanet Capital and angel investors including Reid Hoffman, Mark Pincus, Arif Naqvi, Fadi Ghandour and Ken Morse.

Monis completed his undergraduate degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and did graduate coursework at Stanford University. He has been featured by numerous magazines and newspapers including Forbes, The New York Times, CNN, InfoWorld, Red Herring, Infoweek, The Chicago Tribune and CIO Pakistan.

He currently sits on the Board of Governors of TIE Lahore, the Lahore chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), where he also served as past President. He is on the Advisory Board of Acumen Fund and Board of Directors of Kashf Microfinance Bank. He has also served on the Central Executive Committee of the Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA). He is the recipient of International Data Group CIO Pakistan Pioneer in Innovation 2008 award. He won the Pakistan Power 100 Excellence Award in 2012, an initiative promoting the 100 most powerful and influential Pakistani men and women globally. Monis is a TEDx speaker and frequently invited to talk on entrepreneurship and Internet marketing at some of the world's top business schools and conferences.

Vice Chancellor, Peshawar University

Prof. Dr. Mohammad Rasul Jan graduated with a doctorate degree from Ireland and a post docrate from USA. He has over 35 years of teaching and research experience, with 145 publications to date. He has presented papers in 9 international conferences held in UK, USA, Japan, Malaysia, Hong Kong, India, Nepal, Russia and Turkey and more than 30 papers in conferences both within and outside the country.

Previously he has been Staff Proctor, Warden Student and Teachers Hostel, University of Peshawar, moving on to become the Head of Environmental Sciences and Department of Chemistry for the same. He has served as the Vice Chancellor of University of Malakand for four and a half years before being appointed as the Vice-Chancellor, University of Peshawar with effect from January 24, 2013.

He has also been awarded the presidential award "Pride of Performance" award in the field of Chemistry.

Head of ACCA Islamabad

Currently heading ACCA Islamabad, Noor has to her credit a solid experience in finance & management including management of investment, treasury and corporate finance functions in public and private sectors. Noor works extensively with CEOs, CFOs & HR directors helping them to grow their business by induction and training of world class finance talent, cutting edge thought leadership and continuous professional development for the finance staff.

Prior to joining ACCA, Noor set-up the Shahina Aftab Foundation that is positioned as a global brand for women and children by building alliances with local and international donors and partners. Her experience includes handling the President of Pakistan's FDI portfolio of US$49.6 Billion, handling investments for 18 businesses of Pakistan's largest conglomerate, Fauji Foundation and heading Investments & Treasury at the First Women Bank.

An investment banker by profession, Noor's forte lies in solving challenging business problems through technology, innovation & financial engineering. Noor often shares her experiences through keynote addresses, trainings & her research publications on numerous international platforms. She is the recipient of International Outstanding Women Award by Women Information Network and Women Super Achiever Award by Asia Pacific HRM congress. BBC, Forbes, Martha Vineyard Times, Hindustan Times, Customer Love, Newsline Magazine and USA Today have all covered her work.

She has worked on various national & international investment policies working with UNCTAD, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, AusAid, JICA, DFID and 68 Investment Promotion Agencies across the globe. Noor holds an MBA degree in Finance and Investments and is CFA Level I qualified professional. Noor loves to read and travel and is passionate about finance, innovation and sharing value with her ever growing network.

Head of ACCA Karachi

Working in ACCA for the past one and a half years, Rehan Uddin is the Head of ACCA Karachi and leads the southern region of ACCA Pakistan. He is responsible for leading the delivery of ACCA strategy in this region to achieve membership growth and establish and maintain high-level relationships with each of ACCA's critical stakeholders. His professional career, spanning a period of more than 10 years, is concentrated in the financial services sector, primarily in capital markets. An accountant by profession, he brings with him an extensive experience while having worked with renowned names like PwC, SECP and Crosby Securities before joining ACCA Pakistan. He is a member of ACCA and ICAP, as well as CFA Charter holder.

Head of FAST School of Management

Dr Sadia Nadeem is the Head of FAST School of Management, National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, Islamabad, Pakistan. She began her professional career as an electronic engineer in Pakistan and then moved to London where she studied and worked for 13 years. She holds an MBA and a PhD in Management from Cass Business School, City University, London, UK. Dr Nadeem has carried out research and consultancy work in large private and public sector organisations. She has over 15 years of experience in the field of HR, and has presented her work at many national and international conferences. Her current areas of interest are high performance work systems, cross-cultural HRM and leadership. She is currently working on several national and international projects which cover areas of global leadership competencies, trust across cultures, performance management and organisational justice. Prior to her move to Pakistan, her primary areas of research were work-life balance, change management and discrimination and disadvantage in the labour market. She uses both qualitative and quantitative techniques for her projects. Dr Nadeem is a Chartered MCIPD (UK) and an active member of the US Academy of Management, the SHRM chapter in Pakistan and HR Forum Islamabad.

President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI)

Shaban Khalid started his career as a manager trainee at Ittehad Steel Industries and is currently the director sales & marketing. He is also the managing director at Mitsubishi Islamabad Motors since 2004 being the youngest CEO in the automotive (3S Dealerships) industry in Pakistan at the time. Shaban is also the founder of the Young Entrepreneurs Forum (YEF) of ICCI, the first forum for young entrepreneurs within any chamber of Pakistan. Under this role, Shaban has worked extensively to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit and working to change the mindset of the youth to encourage them to be job creators rather than job seekers. He is also the founding member of the Commonwealth Asia Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs (CAAYE) Alliance supported by the Commonwealth Secretariat, including other member organizations from India, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Shaban was also invited as one of the seven delegates for the summit from Pakistan to attend President Obama’s Summit on Entrepreneurship in 2010, and also invited to meet Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at the Commonwealth Day Reception earlier this year. Shaban organized the first policy advocacy Young Entrepreneurs Conference in 2012 to promote the entrepreneurial mindset among the youth of Pakistan that was attended widely by national and international delegates. Very recently, he has initiated the Indo-Pak Young Entrepreneurs bilateral pave the way for people to people interaction of the two countries, and to enable a friendship towards track to diplomacy, towards an environment of peace and trust. He has also spoken at numerous Platforms in Germany, Brussels, Poland, Czech Republic, China, Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, USA and UK. Shaban has a bachelor’s degree from Pepperdine University, USA.

Dean KSBL, Chief Executive, Karachi Education Initiatives

Dr. Shaukat A. Brah is the Chief Executive of Karachi Education Initiatives. He is also a Professor of Operations Management and the Dean at Karachi School for Business & Leadership (KSBL). Previously, he has served as Dean of the Suleman Dawood School of Business, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan, and as Dean of the College of Business Studies, Al Ghurair University, United Arab Emirates. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Houston.

Earlier, he taught at the National University Singapore (NUS) Business School for over sixteen years. He has been very active in executive education, teaching in a broad range of open and customized executive programmes including programmes for Samsung Asia, Indah Kiat Pulp and Paper Corporation, PSA-NUS operations management program, and Toshiba Asia.

Dr. Brah's research interests are in Operations and Supply Chain Management. He has over twenty international refereed papers, hundreds of citations of his research works in the Web of Science, refereed papers in international book series, conference papers, case studies and many other academic contributions.

Dr. Shaukat Brah was Associate Editor for Asian Case Research Journal from May 2003 to 2008. Recently, he served as a guest editor for a special issue of International Journal of Service Industry Management.

Dr. Shaukat Brah is a dedicated educator, committed to research, teaching and general well being of his students, colleagues and humanity. He teaches his students with dedication and commitment and deals with his colleagues in most cordial and professional manner.

Head of organizational development, Ufone

Suleman Ansar Khan has spent the last ten years working globally in different capacities as an Entrepreneur, Management Executive, Academician, Product Development Specialist, HR Consultant and Trainer. His expertise lies in Organizational Development and Change Management with a focus on creating effective corporate cultures and streamlining processes to develop customer-centric organizations. Among his various training and consultancy assignments internationally, include securing a patent in the United States for pharmaceutical giant, DuPont for a new water purification technology.

He is currently working as Head of Organizational Development at Ufone and is responsible for ensuring strategic alignment of all business functions, deployment of talent effectively across the organization and development of a cohesive leadership pipeline to ensure sustainable organizational success. In Pakistan, Suleman has previously worked in senior roles at Mobilink and Engro Foods where he was responsible for both Organizational Development and Talent Management.

Raised and educated in Thailand and the United States, Mr. Khan holds dual Masters Degrees in Business Administration and Information Technology Management from the United States and speaks four languages.

Suleman is an active corporate mentor and was also a key mentor as is actively engaged with corporate executives nationwide.

CEO, Roots International Schools Pvt Ltd

Walid is the CEO of Pakistan’s Leading schools Roots International Schools – Pvt Ltd now the third largest education system - a model private sector educational institution styled on the modern educational system of international standards promoting 21st century education achieving standards in quality all-round education. Established since April 1988, Under his leadership Roots has innovated modern education standards, with universally acclaimed academic excellence and all-round development of students with nearly 15,000 students and branch network of 65 Campuses and a presence in more than10 cities across Pakistan. Walid has been the master mind behind providing the infrastructure for the expansion of the school system. He contributed extensively to the enrichment of financial processes and business process reengineering. His vision and business process mapping has yielded results in the form of rapid growth and expansion with the proper support systems to sustain it. He has also played a pivotal role in the Roots Education System and community empowerment initiatives providing educational incentives to underprivileged students by delivering text books, notebooks and essentials in order to attract them to school. He has also worked closely to empower women who constitute 51% of our population by providing them training in computer skills and vocational training so as to raise their self esteem and dignity. He has also played a pivotal role in establishing partnerships and collaborations with international education bodies such as Intel, I net, Microsoft, TiE, Confucius Centre, Goethe Institute, University of London, Cambridge, WWF and Ministry of Environment and provided global exposure to his students by sending them to international competitions such as Mondialago, IGGY Summer U, IGGY Winter U, ISFIT Norway, NUS Computing Camp Singapore, Tianjin Festival China, International Children Festival Xian Jiang, International Children Culture and Games festival Antalya etc.

He holds a BSc International Business & Finance from the Richmond American International University in London UK ( 2003) His Final Year Project was “The Effect of Increased Government Legislation on Advertising in the Tobacco Industry”. He also holds an HND ( Edexcel Board) from University of Nottingham UK.