Past Events

Akif Tarique

Global Head of Insurance Practice, Visionet Systems Inc.

JAMIL WYNE

Founder, Climate Tech Bootcamp

JAMIL WYNE is the founder of the Climate Tech Bootcamp, Co-Founder of Riffle Ventures, and a Co-Founder of the Oxford Climate Tech Initiatives at Said Business School. He is also working on a handful of climate tech/finance projects in MENA. Jamil and his team will be running a few sessions at COP focusing on climate tech and entrepreneurship. He teaches Climate Change and Systems Thinking at George Washington University, and holds an MBA from INSEAD and an MA in Economics and International Development from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Rabeel Warraich

Founder & CEO, Sarmayacar

Rabeel is the Founder and CEO of Sarmayacar, an early-stage VC firm focused on Pakistan. After graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with majors in Economics and Management Science, Rabeel started his career as an investment banker with Morgan Stanley in 2008 and later worked for the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) as Vice President of Private Equity (Direct Investments). In 2016, Rabeel had started investing his own savings in venture deals in Pakistan as part of a syndicate. Sighting a plethora of opportunities and a lack of institutionalized investing in this asset class, Rabeel made the move to Pakistan and set up the first fund of its nature dedicated to the Pakistani opportunity. In 2019, Sarmayacar’s first fund closed at $25m and included participation from local and foreign HNWIs, diaspora Pakistanis and DFIs such as the IFC. He is also the first Pakistan-focused Kauffman Fellow and also serves on the boards of a number of Sarmayacar investee companies including Bykea, OneLoad, and Revolving Games amongst others.

Naeem Zafar

Managing Director, Concordia Ventures

Naeem Zafar is a serial entrepreneur. Naeem has been advisor to and invested in over 20 companies (Luminar IPO in 2020) Electriphi bought by Ford in 2021) After graduating from Brown University with a degree in EE, Naeem moved to SV to join Quickturn (world’s first emulation system for chip design verification), IPO in 1994 & acquired by Cadence. Spent 10 years in marketing roles before becoming CEO at Veridicom, a pioneer in silicon fingerprint sensors (acquired by Apple). Naeem co-founded Bitzer Mobile enterprise security company acquired by Oracle. Authored five books and teaches at UC Berkeley & Northeastern University.

Tariq Khan

Founder & CEO, Global Diversity Marketing

Tariq Khan is a global sought-after recognized business leader who brings the combination of corporate leadership experience, entrepreneurial expertise along with academic learning. He has had a distinguished twenty-year corporate career and has held senior leadership roles for major global Fortune companies. In 2010, Tariq founded his company, Global Diversity Marketing (GDM) in New York. Tariq serves on the board of directors/advisors for leading non-profit organizations in the U.S. Tariq has equally impressive contributions in the nonprofit organizations in the U.S. He serves on the board of directors/advisors for the APIA Scholars (funded by Bill Gates Foundation); the Asian Pacific Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS), supported by 70+ U.S. Congress and Senate members; and Ascend, which is the largest Asian American professional network in the world. He is also the chairman of the board of trustees at the Stratford University in Falls Church, Virginia. Tariq is also an adjunct professor of marketing and leadership at New York University’s SPS graduate school. Tariq has been a faculty member at NYU since 2005. Tariq earned a bachelor’s degree in international marketing and advertising from Baruch College, New York; an MBA in marketing and management from St. John’s University, New York; and an Executive Management Certification from Babson College, Massachusetts. Tariq has spoken at major events around the world and shared stage with global CEOs, critical thinkers, and U.S. Presidents. Tariq has recently written a book; Leadership in Changing Times published by a leading U.S. publisher and will be taught at leading universities in the U.S. and around the world.

Jabran Niaz

CEO at Utopia Deals & Utopia Industries

Jabran Niaz is CEO at Utopia Deals, an e-commerce business in USA; also CEO at Utopia Industries, a manufacturer and exporter in Pakistan, the combined revenue of both companies is 650 million USD for Year 2022 Utopia Deals founded in 2011, it is top 2 seller at Amazon.com (overall), it sells consumer goods, providing household items majorly in the North America, UK and Europe. Its products are best sellers in 50+ product categories, its products are featured on dozens of publications including NY Times, Forbes, People magazine, Yahoo and Vogue it has sold up to 100 million units so far; almost every household in the US, Canada, UK and Europe has a Utopia Brand product. It owns dozens of patents, trademarks and copyright for its products, it manages warehouses of 800,000 Square feet in USA east coast, west coast, Canada, UK and Spain, it was awarded shipper of the year last year by Amazon. Entire team running the business is based in Karachi, Pakistan Utopia Industries started operation in 2020, in just 3 years it built total 2.5 million square feet of manufacturing facilities at 6 different locations, it is top 25 exporter of Pakistan, 10,000 people are working in its facilities, it is one of the most diversified manufacturing facility in the world, it is manufacturing Bed Sheets, Pillows, Blankets, Comforters, Quilts, Towels, Knit Garments, Knit Bedding, Mattress Protectors, Plastic Products, Nonstick Cookware, Cast Iron Cookware, Metal Racks, Personal Care Products, poly staple fiber, corrugated boxes, Tape, Zip, elastic and poly bags

Naveed Sherwani

Chairman, President, & CEO Rapid Silicon

Dr. Naveed Sherwani is a well-known semiconductor industry veteran with over 30 years of entrepreneurial, engineering, and management experience. He is widely recognized as an innovator and leader in the field of design automation of ASICs and microprocessors and the main driver of the strategic evangelization of RISC-V International. Naveed has founded or co-founded over eleven silicon companies and raised over $850M in over 15 funding rounds from marquee venture capital firms during the course of his career. While serving as President, CEO, or Chairman, Naveed has been recognized as the leader of the “Most Respected Private Semiconductor Company” a record five times by the GSA (Global Semiconductor Alliance, the premier semiconductor industry membership body). He now serves as Chairman of GS Group, aiming to drive the next wave of silicon innovation by enabling growth strategies for semiconductor companies. Naveed also serves as the Chair the Open Source FPGA Foundation and is a Charter Member of notable Silicon Valley business forums such as TiE and OPEN. Dr. Naveed both a PhD and master’s degree in Computer Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and a BE degree at NED University in Karachi, Pakistan. Naveed has also authored several books and over 100 articles on various aspects of VLSI physical design automation and ASICs. To enable screen reader support, press Ctrl+Alt+Z To learn about keyboard shortcuts, press Ctrl+slash.

Ambereen Mirza

President, OPEN Global

Ambereen Mirza, an entrepreneur, educationist, and international development executive is the President and Chief Executive Officer of OPEN Global, a nonprofit founded 25 years ago as the Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs of North America with just 7 Charter Members. Today it has blossomed into OPEN Global, one of the most powerful Pakistani diaspora networks of entrepreneurs and professionals across a diverse range of sectors worldwide. Ambereen first volunteered at OPEN’s $50K Business Plan Competition held in Boston in 2001. At the time, OPEN had its presence only in Boston! Over the past two decades, she created virtual hybrid and in-person programming, developed partnerships, raised sponsorship, and recruited members and volunteers. Ambereen holds a Master of International Public Policy degree from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and a BA in International Relations and History from Tufts University. She has always been passionate about International Affairs and socio-economic development. After Tufts, Ambereen joined Morgan Stanley, where she acquired her Securities licenses and training in the financial services industry, along with client relationship skills that proved valuable to her consulting engagements and volunteer activities. She left Morgan Stanley to consult with entrepreneurs, investment publications, international development firms, and nonprofits. She has advised on business planning and fundraising strategies. Her clients have included J.E. Austen & Associates, who retained Ambereen to work with early-stage companies from the Information, Communications, and Technology (ICT) sector at the International Business Development Center, an incubator in Cairo. Her work for nonprofits includes writing strategic plans, creating partnership agreements with Fortune 500 companies, and drafting fundraising proposals. Ambereen has built relationships and partnerships across multiple ecosystems, and has written on a range of topics, such as private equity investment in Pakistan for the Economist Intelligence Unit. Having worked in a number of roles within the international development sector, Ambereen has long championed social entrepreneurship as a method to address systemic problems in society. Her projects have spanned the healthcare, education, and financial inclusion sectors across MENA, Southeastern Europe, South and Central Asia, and the Caribbean. Boston GreenFest awarded her the 2019 Green Initiative Leadership Award for her work supporting natural disaster programs from Texas to Haiti all the way to Pakistan. Ambereen loves to mentor and teach. She taught undergraduate, graduate, and executive level courses on entrepreneurship, corporate citizenship, civic engagement, and business ethics, including "Innovative Social Enterprises” for Tisch College of Civic Life and the Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts University. Students learned how to write a business plan, an elevator pitch, and develop a fundraising strategy. While mentoring student entrepreneurs at Tufts, she mentored entrepreneurs at Root Cause, a nonprofit accelerator in Boston. During her term as OPEN Global President and CEO, Ambereen has further strengthened the OPEN brand, expanded its leadership team and geographic footprint, revived the tradition of the exclusive OPEN Global Charter Member retreat after a 4 year pause, and launched programs and initiatives, including its first virtual mini-MBA and a monthly book club.

Aneela Haider

Regional Counsel, Sutherland Global Services

Aneela Haider is an experienced attorney, a business advisor, a mentor, and a mom of four. Aneela is certified in-house counsel by the Association of Corporate Counsels and is head of legal for the Middle East and North Africa region at Sutherland Global Services. She sits on the company’s board in Saudi Arabia. Aneela has 10+ years of onshore experiences in Saudi Arabia. She initiated a soft skills training program at Prince Sultan University School of Law (Riyadh) during her tenure at DLA Piper. She also lectured at the PSU School of Law on Women in Law. Other speaking engagements include digitizing legal departments and online cross-border team collaborations. She has contributed to Global Merger Control Handbook as an author on Saudi laws and is the country representative (Saudi Arabia) for the Association of Corporate Counsel - MENA Chapter. Aneela earned her BSc from Cornell University and her J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law. She is a winner of CALI and WIKINS awards. Aneela is admitted to Maryland State Bar.

Farah Ali

Vice President, Technology Growth Strategy, Electronic Arts

Farah Ali is Vice President Technology Growth Strategy at Electronic Arts. Prior to joining EA, she served as co-founder and CTO at FreightWeb, a venture capital-backed logistics tech startup working to optimize partial truckloads. With a sustained focus on deep technical roles, Farah began her technical career as an engineer at Microsoft after graduating with a degree in Computer Science. She has held senior engineering leadership roles at Microsoft, eBay, and Electronic Arts. Her engineering experience is both deep and diverse: she has worked on everything from shrink-wrap products to online services, large-scale distributed systems, and machine learning & AI. Her passion for innovation, entrepreneurship, and learning has led her to be involved in the startup community through investing, advising, and board service. She is a board advisor at the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Washington, a technical advisor at Madrona Venture Labs, a Strategic Venture Advisor at Embedded Ventures, and is on the boards of several private companies and startups (Sofy, Aboveboard, Dalix, MoveIt). It is also this passion for learning and making an impact that has her teaching as an Affiliate Instructor at the University of Washington. Farah believes strongly in paying it forward and in making an impact by championing causes close to her heart. She is the founder and president of the non-profit One Good Act, an organization focused on empowering those living below the poverty line, and a co-founder of Pakistani Women in Computing, where she works as an advocate for underrepresented populations in STEM fields.

Henna Inam

CEO, Transformational Leadership Inc, Author of Wired for Disruption

Henna Inam is an executive coach, global speaker and the author of the book Wired for Disruption. A 20-year veteran of Fortune 500 companies she has seen first-hand the pressures of leading in times of disruption. Her book details the five shifts in agility and 15 Agility Accelerators (tools and practices) to help activate our innate agility and be a force for good in times of disruption. Her neuroscience-based research shows that agility is already built into our DNA. In the book, she shares how these shifts are within our control and promote well-being to help us thrive in the future of work. Together, we can create workplaces and a world that work better for all.

Reshma Hyder

Chair of the board and interim CDO, ZenSpace

Reshma Hyder serves as Chair of the Board and interim CEO at www.zenspace.io , an on demand workspace solution in the hybrid work space. She completed her board term at Edvon Robotics recently which is an edtech startup in Pakistan. She has an extensive background in Finance with a former career in financial services industry as a licensed professional with New York Life. She is a Women & Youth initiative advisor and advocate for women in STEM. Reshma is a charter member at the OPENSV chapter and has been with Open since it’s inception. She confounded ocial enterprise NISA and several technology startups around lifestyle and edtech serving digital natives. Reshma has lived in the Bay Area for over 30 years and has lived through the semiconductor boom, the internet and real estate boom to being a part of several national community faith based organizations such as CAIR, ING, IMRC,etc. Reshma has been the longest serving executive board member at her local public school PTA spanning 23 years that has helped her serve in diverse board positions. She has also been the first female elected on the board of directors of a Bay Area masjid. She is a mother of 6 and mother in law of 3 and a proud grandma to two. She mentors Muslim youth on academic and career pathways as well as startup founders as strategic advisor and angel investor. As a technology advisor, Reshma continues executive educational programs and recently completed a data science and data visualization certificate from UC Berkeley. She holds a certificate in non profit and Govt accounting from USC, a BSC in Accounting and Finance from San Jose State and BSC I Biochemistry from Aligarh Muslim University, India.

Zahra Shah

Expert Member, Technology Advisory Panel (TAP)

Zahra Shah serves as an Expert Member of the Technology Advisory Panel (TAP) at the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) - U.K. privacy regulator. She is the Co-Founder, Non-Executive Director & Investor at Seers (privacy & consent management platform). She also serves as a Senior Board Advisor & Investment Committee at TeamUp Ventures (venture capital fund focused on tech ventures in the MENA region). She has a background in Management Consultancy with over a decade of experience at Accenture within the Financial Services – Capital Markets practice area. She helped global Investment Banking clients (e.g. Credit Suisse, UBS, HSBC, RBS, Lloyds Banking Group) on high-impact, strategic projects to achieve compliance with various regulatory requirements (e.g. KYC, AML, Basel 3, MiFID, Cross Border Sanctions etc.) through the application of innovative FinTech & RegTech solutions. She also serves as a Trustee of the British Pakistan Foundation, Board Advisor to TeamUp Angels, Co-Chair for TIE London Women and leads a Europe-wide female founders support group initiative as a Google female founder alumnus. She is a frequent speaker at global conferences on topics such as: child privacy, cybersecurity, privacy and compliance, technology, RegTech, FinTech, entrepreneurship, women in technology, women empowerment, rights of underrepresented communities etc. She has spoken at various global conferences including: FinCrime World Forum Global Conference, PrivSec Global Conference, London Tech Week, FinTech Week London, Google Women Techmakers European Conference, AMCOB Global Conference, Channel 5 Immigration Debate, Women Tech Quest Global Conference etc. She has served as a judge at the Entrepreneurs Collective London Pitch Competition and has also been featured in Sifted, eWEEK UK and Compliance Week for her contribution to the RegTech and FinTech sector as a female leader from an ethnic minority background. She has an MSc. Analysis, Design & Management of Information Systems and an MBA (Essentials Certification) both from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She recently completed the Financial Times Non- Executive Director Diploma.

Wasif Rizvi

President, Habib University

Wasif Rizvi is the founding president of Habib University - Pakistan's premier liberal arts and science institution. He is an ardent advocate of higher education that provides a student-centric, interdisciplinary, and contexually grounded, intellectual experience to the youth. Habib University, under his leadership, has become a globally recognized and appreciated university with established collaborations with leading institutions - including University of California Berkely, Texas A&M University, Stanford University and University of Michigan. With innovative curriculum, diverse student body, accomplished faculty, collaborations with leading global academic institutions, award-winning campus design, Habib University is also the first ever community owned institution in Pakistan, providing need-blind admission to high-merit students from disenfranchised backgrounds. He holds twin graduates degrees from Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard School of Education. Prior to founding Habib University, Wasif was associated with the Agha Khan Education Services in Pakistanand spearheaded many development projects across Asia and Africa.

Danish Munir

Founding Partner, GreyMatter Capital

Danish Munir is a healthcare entrepreneur and investor, and currently serves as Founding Partner at GreyMatter Capital, a VC firm dedicated to unlocking breakthrough progress in mental health and wellbeing. They believe we are in the early innings of a dramatic sea change, creating new opportunities and transforming a range of under-served $100B+ markets across behavioral healthcare, neurological disease, and broader consumer mental wellness. Danish also founded, and continues to serve on Investment Committee for Watershed Ventures, a VC firm that harnesses the power of entrepreneurs from non-traditional backgrounds to cause transformative change in industries that matter, including healthcare. Most recently, Danish served as CTO & Co-founder at Genoa Telepsychiatry and CIO at Optum. Danish and his partners founded 1DocWay in 2011 with a mission of increasing access to behavioral healthcare for the underserved. Over the course of 10 years, Danish and his partners led 1DocWay through incubation, venture financing, an exit /PE recap in 2015 and then another exit to Optum in 2018 as the largest provider of telepsychiatry services in the nation, currently serving over 250k+ Medicaid appointments per year. Previously Danish worked at Microsoft on improving online safety technologies (phishing, malware, spam and pornography content filtering) and Lehman Brothers (Algorithmic Equity Research and Valuation). He studied Computer Engineering and Finance at UPenn and Wharton respectively. Danish grew up in Karachi, and considers both Karachi and New York home. His interests include cutting edge developments in mental health and therapeutics, ultimate frisbee and live music. Danish serves on the board of Emgage, and previously on the board of Muppies.

Naeem Zafar

Managing Director, Concordia Ventures

Naeem Zafar is a serial entrepreneur. Naeem has been advisor to and invested in over 20 companies (Luminar IPO in 2020) Electriphi bought by Ford in 2021) After graduating from Brown University with a degree in EE, Naeem moved to SV to join Quickturn (world’s first emulation system for chip design verification), IPO in 1994 & acquired by Cadence. Spent 10 years in marketing roles before becoming CEO at Veridicom, a pioneer in silicon fingerprint sensors (acquired by Apple). Naeem co-founded Bitzer Mobile enterprise security company acquired by Oracle. Authored five books and teaches at UC Berkeley & Northeastern University.

Dr. Azam Arastu

President of Apex Consultants

Dr. Azam Arastu recently retired as a Senior Executive of The Boeing Company where he was a VP of one of the Boeing Space & Defense Systems divisions. Before that, he was Boeing’s chief engineer and program manager on several major space programs ofnational and international significance. He has over 35 years’ experience in Space & satellite systems, energy technologies and program management. His expertise is well recognized across the Aerospace industries in USA, Europe, Japan, Russia & Australia forwhich he received over 25 major awards from Boeing, NASA (including NASA’s highest award), Rockwell, AIAA, USAF, DARPA, Japanese space agency &European Space Agency. He is also Boeing Technical and AIAA Associate Fellow. Dr. Arastu had led several major, manned & un-manned, space programs related to human space exploration, interplanetary missions, satellite communications, earth observation, surveillance. Solar electric propulsion, space nuclear power, etc. He hand a pivotal role on International Space Station, Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter, James Webb Telescope, future manned missions to Mars, major satellite constellations and numerous other satelliteprograms. He obtained his B.Sc., M.Sc. D.I.C & Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Control Theory from Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, UK. He authored over 40 scientific and technical publications and co-authored two AIAA technical standards on spacecraft system design. Additionally, he is an Adjunct Professor at University of Southern California (USC) as well as UCLA teaching graduate level classes on Satellite Systems design and Space Power systems.

Dr. Salman Hameed

Founder and CEO of Kainaat Studios

Salman Hameed is the founder and CEO of the non-profit Kainaat Studios, that creates topical astronomy videos in Urdu for audiences in Pakistan (and broader South Asia). He is also Charles Taylor Chair and Professor of Integrated Science & Humanities at Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts. He holds a Ph.D. in astronomy and is a member of the Five College Astronomy Department (FCAD), but his research is inter-disciplinary and it focuses on analyzing how science interacts with society. Science communication is still his primary focus: Salman has a YouTube Channel (Kainaat Astronomy) for Urdu videos and a weekly astronomy segment in English for a radio station in Western Massachusetts. Through Kainaat Studios, he also produces astronomy content in Urdu specially aimed at kids in Pakistan. His writings have appeared in Dawn Magazine, Express Tribune, Science Magazine, and the Guardian.

MUHAMMAD SHAHZAD

Chief Financial Officer, Relativity Space

Muhammad Shahzad currently serves as the CFO of Relativity Space, a vertically integrated technology platform that fuses 3D printing, artificial intelligence, and autonomous robotics to design, print, and fly entirely 3D-printed rockets with 100x fewer parts in less than 60 days. Under Muhammad’s leadership, Relativity raised approximately $1.2 billion in funding and scaled up to be the second most valuable private space company in the industry, backed by leading investors including Baillie Gifford, Blackrock, BOND, Coatue, Fidelity, General Catalyst, ICONIQ, Playground Global, Social Capital, Tiger Global, Tribe Capital, and Y Combinator. Muhammad brings more than 15 years of finance and capital markets experience, an extensive background in financial planning, operations, management, and strategy, as well as a deep knowledge of the technology industry. Prior to Relativity, he served as CFO of The Honest Company, where he partnered with the CEO and founder on strategy and day-to-day operations, led nearly $500 million of financing rounds across a broad spectrum of investors, and scaled the business profitably. Prior to The Honest Company, Muhammad was a Vice President in the Technology, Media & Telecom Investment Banking Division at Goldman, Sachs & Co. where he covered a broad array of clients, advised on over $30 billion in financing and M&A transactions, and served as West Coast business unit manager, including responsibility for West Coast investment banking recruiting. Muhammad started his career at Accenture and Deutsche Bank and previously founded and exited his own startup. Muhammad is involved in various nonprofit boards, including the National Board of Trustees at March of Dimes, and serves as Chair of the Board at Developments in Literacy, among others. He is currently the President of OPEN SoCal. He holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management and a BSc in Economics cum laude from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

NARJIS ALI

President & CEO, Sure Secure Solutions

Narjis Ali is a broadly skilled, innovative, experienced, successful, IT executive and PMI certified project manager with over thirty years of progressive experience in IT research and development, strategy consulting and negotiations, managing startups, cross-functional team building, optimizing business processes, and Change Management. Narjis is currently the President and CEO of Sure Secure Solutions, a company providing IT solutions, including Portfolio Management, Cloud Services, Cyber Security, Data Analytics and Content Management. She has led her company to provide exceptional services to multiple federal agencies including NASA, DoD, USDA, FEMA, SBA, CBP, USCIS and to commercial customers. She is a highly skilled manager and professional leader with deep experience in Management Consulting and Emerging Information Technologies. Narjis brings an extensive knowledge in all aspects of IT security with superior problem solving, team building, and cross-functional coordination skills. She is highly experienced in developing and managing IT security solutions in large government organizations with a wide variety of security products and emerging technologies used in the development and deployment of large- scale implementations. As an entrepreneur, Narjis Ali has always been very motivated, energetic, committed, focus driven and active in social and welfare activities too. She is extremely passionate about her work and has the unique ability to take ownership and make things happen. She is extremely people driven and deeply believes in “taking people that matter to places that matter”