SPEAKERS

Faisal Kapadia is a well-known Pakistani singer, songwriter, and composer. He is best known as one half of the popular music duo, Strings, which he formed with Bilal Maqsood in 1988. Strings is one of the most successful bands in Pakistan and has released several albums and won numerous awards for their music, including multiple Lux Style Awards.

Apart from his work with Strings, Faisal Kapadia has also worked on several individual projects. He has composed music for films, television shows, and commercial ventures. Faisal has been a prominent figure in the Pakistani music industry for over two decades and continues to be a respected artist and musician.

Amtul Baweja is an actor, comedian, entrepreneur, host, and content creator. Her online content encompasses multiple aspects such as comedy videos, some having social messages pertaining especially to women, fashion and lifestyle. She also creates content with her husband on her second platform, Patangeer, where they cover various niches such as travel, storytelling, cinematography, and creativity. She is also the Co-Founder of Patangeer Productions, a boutique creative agency and production house, where she functions behind the camera as a director and producer making DVCs, documentaries, music videos, and other digital and branded content.

Most recently, Amtul starred in a short film ‘Murder Tongue’ that won more than 11 international awards at various global film festivals. Another short film of hers, ‘Solatia’ is currently touring around the world and is one of the 14 short films selected at the Red Sea Film festival. Amtul has also acted in Asim Abbasi’s feminist web series ‘Churails’, and is also a part of South-Asia’s first all-female comedy troupe, ‘Khawatoons’. Apart from this, Amtul also runs an e-commerce business for her own clothing line, ‘PRCH’.

Uzair Gadit is the Co-Founder of Gaditek, the Founding Partner of Disrupt.com, and the Co-Founder and CEO of PureSquare, a company that offers privacy and security to millions of users in 150+ countries across the globe.In the past 15 years, Uzair has successfully established several companies in the fields of cybersecurity, managed cloud services, and digital media, taking them from inception to thriving multi-million-dollar enterprises.

He was also the Co-Founder and Director of Cloudways, a managed cloud company that was acquired by DigitalOcean for $350M – making it the largest tech exit from a homegrown Pakistani company. Uzair has successfully positioned Gaditek as one of the fastest-growing tech VBaaS (Venture Builder as a Service) providers in the region. The group has found, funded, and spearheaded some of the most exciting and diverse tech ventures globally across 7 industries.

Shehzad Ghias Shaikh is a Fulbright Scholar and one of the foremost Stand-Up Comedians of Pakistan. He has been creating content online for the past few years and many of his videos have gone viral. Currently, Shehzad is the Creative Director at TVP. In his role, he has managed the social media campaigns and created content for some of the leading brands of Pakistan.

Shehzad uses Applied Improv to give workshops and corporate training to many companies in Pakistan. His writing has been published in Dawn, Express Tribune, The Nation, TFT, and the Herald. He has also worked extensively with schools to develop curriculum and plan cocurricular activities.

Atiya is the CEO and Chief Creative Officer of BDDO Pakistan. She has over 20 years of experience in the advertising industry working on an array of local and international brands. She is the first Pakistani to win the Glass Lion and the Cannes Lions 2023.

Atiya is also the first Pakistani woman to be selected for the Cannes Lions See it Be it program, D&AD’s Rare creative program, and also the Pitch Magazine’s 100 Superwomen list 2019. Her written work has also been featured in a film available on Netflix.

Amir Paracha is the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at Unilever Pakistan Limited. Currently, Amir spearheads the company’s “Unilever for Pakistan” vision, aimed at strengthening Unilever Pakistan’s impact on the lives of Pakistani citizens by providing equitable opportunities, fostering meaningful livelihoods, and ensuring living wages. He is also dedicated to promoting Unilever Pakistan’s climate action by emphasizing a clean energy transition, minimizing plastic waste, and accelerating the shift toward a circular economy in Pakistan.

Amir has been recognized by the Government as a “Corona War Hero” and was also conferred Shan-e-Pakistan Award by the President for Unilever Pakistan’s COVID relief drive in the country. He also holds the position of President at the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce & Industry (OICCI). He serves on the boards of Shell Pakistan Limited, Endeavor Pakistan, Karachi Vocational Training Centre, Habib University Foundation, and the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI). Additionally, Amir leads the Centre of Excellence for Responsible Business (CERB) under the Pakistan Business Council. He is also a Male Champion of Change under Australia (MCC)’s Pakistan Coalition.

Taha is a rising Pakistani Pop, Indie, hip-hop artist, who has released a number of top songs from “Mann Mein Tu” and “Dou Pal” to “Dil kay Isharay”, and his recent single “Naakay” most of them revolving around the theme of his “lover boy” persona.

Taha has over 145K spotify subscribers, and his song “Dou Pal” has over 3.6M+ spotify streams. He has appeared in New York at Times Square for his performances and was featured on the cover of Spotify Radar Pakistan. He has been featured by Lens, Express Tribune, and The News.

Misbah Naqvi is the General Partner and Co-Founder at i2i Ventures, an early stage
venture capital fund and the country’s first female-founded VC fund. i2i Ventures has invested in TelloTalk, Edkasa, Creditbook, Abhi, Oraan, Tazah, Truck it In, EZBike, Metric, Rider and more.

Misbah has over two decades of global experience in corporate finance, entrepreneurship, impact investing, fintech and development in both Pakistan and the US. She has worked with Boloro Global Limited, Acumen, and Citigroup. Misbah has been closely involved with Invest2Innovate (i2i) as an Advisory Board Member since its inception in 2011 and is currently on its Board of Directors. She is also a Board Member at U Microfinance Bank Ltd and a Trustee on the Board of AAS. She has also recently joined the Board of Advisors for NOWPDP, a leading disability inclusion organization in Pakistan.

Shehryar Hydri is the Managing Partner at Deosai Ventures, an early-stage fund investing primarily in Pakistan. He has over two decades of experience as a serial entrepreneur. He founded Trango Interactive, a pioneering game development and CGI studio that delivered projects for top brands such as Lucas Arts, SEGA, Discovery Channel, Lexus, Nike, and UPS.

He was also part of the founding team and a member of the board at Convo.com, where he headed their Pakistan operations. Convo was a ground-breaking enterprise social network that preceded Slack and raised $15 million from investors such Adobe and Morgenthaler Ventures.

Prior to Deosai, he was the Secretary General of P@SHA, the national trade association of Pakistan’s tech sector.

Aatif Awan is the founder and Managing Partner of Indus Valley Capital, a Pakistan-focused early stage VC fund. He has led the first investment rounds for many new startups in Pakistan, such as Atoms, Bazaar, and AimFit. He also serves as a Board Director for these companies at present. Aatif is also a member of First Round Capital’s Angel Track and OnDeck’s Angel Fellowship.

Previously, Aatif was VP Growth & International at LinkedIn and built the team that grew the network by half a billion members. He also led the product integrations between LinkedIn and Microsoft in an acquisition valued at USD 26 Billion.

Jehan personifies what Katalyst Labs is all about – energy, passion, talent and spirit. After a 20 year stint as President of P@SHA and 6 1/2 years as Founder & CEO of The Nest I/O, this is the culmination of a dream for Jehan. She is so passionate about the cause and idea behind Katalyst Labs that the energy immediately grips you the minute you walk in!

Having been an entrepreneur herself, with a strong belief in the need for growing the ecosystem and the number of Women Leaders, Jehan is forever ready to mentor and guide all those who step inside Katalyst Labs. Drop by anytime, and she will always greet you with a warm, huge smile from behind her MacBook! Jehan is also an Independent Director on the Board of the Central Depository Council, the Punjab IT Board, IDEAS, and the Boards of several Universities. She is also on the Gender Advisory Council of the World Bank and a Member of the Prime Minister’s Taskforce on IT & Telecom. More recently she has been appointed as a Member of the Tik Tok APAC Safety Advisory Council.

Faisal is a Pakistani-American entrepreneur and investor. He is the Founder & General Partner of Zayn Venture Capital (Formally Zayn Capital), a leading US & Cayman domiciled venture capital fund, investing in early-stage tech ventures in Pakistan. Faisal is one of the most prolific investors in Pakistan, with the most number of notable investment calls in Pakistan. His track record includes Haball, NayaPay, PostEX, Bookme.pk, Abhi Finance, AdalFi, Bazaar-tech, KTrade, SnappRetail, Laam.pk, and Krave Mart among others.

Faisal was also a founding partner of Lakson Venture Capital before creating Zayn VC. During his time as Managing Partner and Executive Director, the Lakson Fund attained one the highest TVPIs in just 3 years. Along with his early notable investments in Bitcoin and Ethereum, his substantial expertise in venture capital and private investing has given him a thorough grasp of blockchain technology and global macroeconomics, which he applies to his investment decisions. He has also been an investor in Hedge Funds, Venture Capital Funds and an active Angel Investor for over 15 years. Faisal is a limited partner of the Silicon Valley-based Venture Capital Fund 500 Startups.

Ehsan is the Managing Director of Daraz, Pakistan’s premier e-commerce platform. Under his leadership, Daraz was awarded the Gender Diversity Award by the Pakistan Business Council for spearheading efforts in diversity, inclusion, and equity. Ehsan also serves as Board Director for AshreiTech and as a Merchant Advisory Council Member for Visa.

Prior to joining Daraz, Ehsan was a successful entrepreneur in Canada with his logistics startup ‘JoeyCo’. He has over 13 years of experience in investment banking and logistics, and has successfully facilitated numerous high-profile mergers/acquisitions at BMO Capital Markets and Origin Merchant Partners. He has served as a member of the Advisory Committee for the Ministry of Planning, Development, & Special Initiatives, and currently plays an active role in the Champions of Change Coalition.

Maleeha is a full-time dermatologist and part-time influencer. She started her platform with the sole aim of creating an audience for herself, keeping in mind the saturated market for dermatology. She now focuses on content creation through her instagram, and has developed a concentrated niche market with consistently high engagement.

Jonas Diezun is CEO & Co-Founder of Beam.ai, a company building human-like autonomous AI agents for customer service and operations. He previously founded German unicorn Razor Group ($400m+ revenue). Before that, he was CMO at KONUX (AI solutions for rail companies) and worked at McKinsey.

Babar Ahmed is the Co-Founder and CEO of Mindstorm Studios, a pioneering gaming company in Pakistan’s rapidly growing video game sector, and has designed several multi-million dollar hit titles over his career. He is also the head of strategy and technology at Silicon Valley based Lion Studios, a top 5 global games publisher, & has Co-Founded & seeded M-Labs, a game development accelerator aiming to bring the game development industry in Pakistan to the $1B valuation.

Ramsha Jahangir is a journalist and policy expert specializing in technology and human rights. Ramsha has extensively reported on internet censorship, surveillance, digital politics, and disinformation in Pakistan. Currently, she leads policy and communications at the Global Network Initiative.

Her investigative work has been published in Coda Story, Herald Magazine, Dawn’s EOS Magazine, and Media Matters for Democracy’s SheConnect series. She has received four national journalism awards for her ‘in-depth and tenacious coverage of misinformation in Pakistan. Ramsha holds a Master’s in Journalism, Media, and Globalisation from the University of Amsterdam and received the Erasmus Mundus Journalism scholarship.

William is the Managing General Partner of Orbit Startups, an early stage VC running the first and longest running startup program in Asia with over US$150m in assets under management and a member of the SOSV Consortium. Orbit’s focus is investing in startups using technology to have an impact on economic independence, digitizing traditional industry and sustainability.

William’s work at Orbit has spanned a wide range of industries, including ecommerce, fintech, travel, media, health, education, and logistics across emerging and frontier markets including Southeast and South Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas. Orbit has over28 portfolio companies in the Middle East, Pakistan, and Africa and was named #3 most active VC in the region in 2022 according to Magnitt.

Yasser Bashir is the Founder and CEO of Arbisoft Ltd. As one of Pakistan’s fastest growing software development companies, Arbisoft has built technology for some of the leading tech businesses around the world including KAYAK, Amazon, edX, Indeed, Microsoft, MIT, Harvard, McKinsey and Travelport. He served as Director of Engineering at Orthoclear as the head of the offshore engineering team at Align Technology.

With his name on several US patents, Yasser has also served as a board member for the Power IT company, Cheetay.pk, and SastaTicket.pk. Yasser has been an active contributor to the start-up ecosystem and has served as a mentor and/or advisor at LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship, PlanX accelerator, Invest2Innovate and Telenor Velocity.

Rebecka Zavaleta is the Co-Founder of Paismo, a fintech startup with global ambitions of innovating HR processes. She started her career in Silicon Beach and has led fintech/adtech/AI-based data products globally. Rebecka’s focus on startups has always been through ‘product’ as the long-term investment to hitting hockey-stick growth. She has a background in building early-stage companies and products from the ground up. Rebecka has helped guide startups through growth, acquisitions, rebranding, and pivoting.

She leads SumaWealth as the Interim Head of Product, a US based fintech company aiming to improve the financial wellness of Latino communities. She has been featured in the Time Magazine, values knowledge sharing, and often gives talks with UPenn, Public, NextAdvisor, General Assembly, Lean In chapters such as USC, etc

Noman Azhar is the Chief Officer of Zindigi, a youth targeted fintech powered by JS Bank that enables Pakistani youth to reimagine the payment experience and gain financial independence. Mr. Azhar is also the Founder of Zindigi – The Digital Bank of JS. He is a dynamic fintech leader and entrepreneur with a diversified experience of 16 years in financial services, banking and technology.

His experience is enriched with three complete launches of branchless banking portfolios and a wide range of synergy management across the banking sector. As one of the youngest leaders, Mr. Azhar has spearheaded the efforts for empowerment of people of Pakistan through Financial Inclusion and Digitization. Mr. Azhar rounds out his impressive profile with a long list of Honors and Awards including “Excellence Award” by His Excellency Mr. Arif Alvi, President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, for his unparalleled contribution to Pakistan’s Digital Ecosystem at the CXO Global Digital Summit 2022. He is also a recipient of the CCPO Lahore Appreciation Award due to his notable contributions to the digitization of the Lahore Police. He has also represented Pakistan’s youth globally as a Mentor and Advisor for the Hult Prize Foundation.

Jawwad Farid is a serial founder with 4 ventures, 5 books and one cross border exit to his name. He is also a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, Columbia Business School and FAST NUCES alumni.

Within the startup community his interest lies at the intersection of education, financial services, impact investments and teaching. He ran the financial modeling boot camp at Nest I/O, Katalyst Labs and was APICTA pitch mentor for Team Pakistan for 13 years. His own ventures specialized in compliance risk tech engines for financial services and teaching rocket science to ordinary mortals.

Jawwad taught at the SP Jain Global School of Management in Dubai and Singapore, at IBA and Habib University in Karachi. He currently splits his time between risk and actuarial consulting for insurance clients at Alchemy Technologies, and as a Professor of Practice at IBA, Karachi. Jawwad is the author of Models at Work (Palgrave Macmillan), Option Greeks Primer (Palgrave Macmillan), Portfolio Optimization Models, Founder Puzzles and Reboot.

Kalsoom is the Co-founder & General Partner at i2i Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund for Pakistan, and the country’s first female-founded VC fund. i2i Ventures has invested in TelloTalk, Edkasa, Creditbook, Abhi, Oraan, Tazah, Truck it In, EZBike, Metric, Rider and more.

Kalsoom was also the founder of Invest2Innovate, which she founded in 2011 to support and unleash the potential of young entrepreneurs in growth markets like Pakistan. She has trained young entrepreneurs, changemakers, and civil society leaders in Kosovo, Nepal, Cambodia, Ireland, Bangladesh, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. She has also spoken at numerous venues, including the World Economic Forum, the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, and SXSW. Kalsoom is currently a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council and serves on the Board of the American Pakistan Foundation.

Raza is Founding CEO of Brandverse, and was previously the co-founder of PayPro – Pakistan’s leading bill aggregator. He is a consultant-at-large and a serial entrepreneur who has a strong track record of execution and success in emerging markets.

Raza brings to Chikoo his in-depth experience across verticals gained from long term consulting roles with Google, the UN Capital Development Fund, the World Bank amongst others. Raza’s expertise and capabilities cut across management, sales, marketing, design, strategy, product, and program management, in verticals as varied as retail, technology, education, digital marketing. He has been previously involved in startups in healthcare, retail and technology space.

Rabeel is the Founder and CEO of Sarmayacar, an early stage VC firm focused on Pakistan. He serves on the boards of a number of Sarmayacar investee companies including Bykea, OneLoad, Revolving Games amongst others.

He is also the first Pakistan focused Kauffman Fellow. After graduating from MIT, Rabeel gained his professional experience in London where he initially worked in Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley and then followed it up with Private Equity experience at GIC, Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Fund.

Rabia Aziz is the Founder of Special Needs Pakistan, an online awareness platform created in 2013. She is a motivational speaker, facilitator, social worker and professional that has spoken at many diverse platforms, from Facebook, TEDx, WOW (Women of the World), Ponds, Unilever, Shan Foods, Engro Corp, Beyond Beauty, Special Olympics Pakistan (SOP), and USAID among others. In 2019, she had the privilege of mentoring both at Facebook and as a Ponds Miracle Woman.

Rabia is also the force behind Aaliya’s Care Packages, a social care initiative to help sick children and struggling maternity wards. During the Covid-19 Pandemic, she initiated live sessions to raise awareness for mental health issues and to promote mindfulness in coping with challenges faced by her community. She also started a campaign called #ChooseKind, to inculcate awareness, tolerance and kindness into Pakistani global communities. Rabia is at the front of her field as an integrative therapist, a certified clinical trauma specialist and a certified life coach. She believes in the power of ‘Knowing your Now’ and pursues the ideology that hard work and hope combined can unlock all kinds of potentials.

Ahmed is a Partner and Chief Strategy Officer at Conrad Labs, a premium software services boutique. He has been a part of the Pakistani Technology arena for over 23 years and was one of the Co-founders at Airlift Technologies. The company went on to raise $100M+ in funding and opened the gates for the startup ecosystem in 2019. Before being at Conrad labs, Ahmed served in leadership teams at 10Pearls and Folio3 for over 10 years.

Ahmed has a passion for motivating people and promoting tech capabilities for Pakistani youth. He is extremely optimistic about the future of Pakistan, and believes that local manufacturing, promotion, and support are the answers to Pakistan’s economic and political woes.

Zeeshan Baig is the Country General Manager for Syngenta Pakistan, where he is driving transformative initiatives in agriculture. His leadership has garnered national recognition, including the Best Employer Award and acknowledgment from the President of Pakistan for Syngenta’s contribution to women in agriculture. His track record in leadership and management spans across Europe, Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. 

As Country General Manager for Careem (Uber subsidiary) Pakistan, Zeeshan played a pivotal role in building robust teams and scaling the business into a multi-million-dollar enterprise encompassing ride-hailing, food delivery, and payments. Zeeshan was acknowledged as one of the top-performing CEOs in Pakistan by the CEO100 Forum. Prior to his impactful tenure at Careem, Zeeshan served as a Strategy & Operations consultant with Deloitte in their Middle East office. Beyond his corporate roles, Zeeshan is a LUMS Alumni and an angel investor for leading startups in Pakistan, including Postex, Tazah, Dealcart, Snapretail, Zaraye, Truck it in, among others. His multifaceted experience reflects a commitment to driving growth, fostering innovation, and making a meaningful impact on businesses and communities.

Meenah Tariq is a VC investor turned entrepreneur, and currently serves as the CEO and Co-Founder at Metric, a VC funded fintech automating accounting for SMEs and startups in emerging markets. She is a Partner at Karavan, a Middle-east based fund focused on early stage startups in Pakistan. Meenah has supported thousands of entrepreneurs over the last decade, including directly training 700+ business owners, across a wide variety of industries and geographies, in Pakistan, Nepal, Iraq and Bangladesh.

She has also designed and implemented programs to practically support women entrepreneurs, encourage entrepreneurial mindsets in young people, and equip entrepreneurs with the business acumen required to scale high-impact businesses and SMEs, with organizations such as the World Bank, DFID, and the USAID, such as World Bank’s Women Entrepreneurs Financing Initiative. Previously, she was the Head of Strategy and Accelerator at Invest2Innovate Pakistan.

Taha has been a part of the region’s largest tech companies over the past 7+ years leading commercial teams.
He has launched new products and markets across multiple industries such as ride hailing, food delivery and B2B commerce

Omer is the Chief Operating Officer of SadaPay – a fintech company which is eliminating the complexity of banking and simplifying money through modern tech and delightful customer experiences. He has been in the financial services industry for the past 23 years and is passionate about solving real world problems for consumers. 

Khizra Munir is the Founder and CEO of brand management startup Brand Scheme of Things. She is also the host of Sister Plz, a podcast that aims to normalize the ‘woman experience’ and allow women the space to be vulnerable without judgment or social pressure.

Khizra is also a communication design consultant with almost two decades of experience in the Advertising and Marketing space. She also teaches Professional Practices to undergraduate students and is known for being proactive in laying down the foundations for Pakistan’s now booming coworking industry with her space CoPakistan in 2015.

Khan FM leads Spotify’s Artist & Label Partnerships across Pakistan, Sri Lanka & Bangladesh. He played a key role in the expansion of Spotify into these emerging markets, ensuring that stakeholders in the music communities were involved and could benefit from Spotify’s tools & future plans in these countries. In previous roles, Khan served as a Culture Marketing Manager at Red Bull FZE, where he was instrumental in introducing Red Bull’s music programs in the UAE. 

Other than holding key positions in the UAE events & media sector, Khan was a significant figure in promoting Pakistani arts & entertainment during 2003-09 whereby his role as a TV presenter/producer on ARY Musik provided a platform for several now-prominent Pakistani artists. Khan is an avid music producer & musician holding a certification from Berklee College of Music with various albums crediting his work.

Ali Gul Pir is a comedian, rapper and producer who started his career with a song mocking feudalism in Pakistan and their injustices. He now makes internet content and has produced music about issues like harassment, corruption, extremism and censorship. He’s performed at the University of Bern, University of Amsterdam, Dartmouth college and several other prestigious universities. He also won the Google innovation award in 2013.

Madiha Latif serves as the Director of Innovation for Pathfinder International. She has vast experience in gender justice issues, intersecting with climate change, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and gender based violence. With over 10 years of experience in the development sector, Madiha has led programs for diversifying growth, played a key role in business development and program management, and has supported organizational and change management processes.

Building from her experience working with grassroots communities, Madiha has contributed to women’s rights legislation, worked with the Sindh Commission on the Status of Women, and collaborated with Women’s Action Forum, Dastageer, and Aurat Foundation in assisting acid survivors to access justice. Starting off her career with Bolo Bhi as a legal researcher, Madiha has a deep understanding of how technology intersects with gender rights, and how issues of digital violations privacy, anonymity and confidentiality are weaponized against women and girls.

Noor⁩ is the Managing Partner of Lakson Venture Capital and has over 17 years of experience in Capital Markets, Venture Capital & Portfolio Management. Prior to LVC, he was the Investment Director at Arix Bioscience Plc, a $400mm listed VC firm. Noor began his career at JPMorgan, London in macro-sales and trading. He left after 11 years as a Director to join the buy side. Noor has been an early-stage investor for over 15 years in both developed and frontier markets and his investments include MedTech, Fintech, and Cloud services.

Roman Ermoshin is the Director of the Asia Pacific Region for inDrive. He is a businessman, public figure, and seasoned professional with over 20 years of experience in international business, with a sound track record in building and maintaining strong relationships with leading companies across the globe. He is responsible for the execution of inDrive’s overall business strategy in the region.

Previously, Roman took part in the development of Eurowag, the leading European fuel and technological company headquartered in the Czech Republic. Before that, he was based in Hong Kong for where he worked for InComm Payments, Inc. as a Director for Emerging
Markets, bringing innovative payment solutions for Apple, Google, Sony, Microsoft, and other global brands to the major retailers in the emerging economies. He was also a member of the team working on the Sochi Winter Olympic Games in 2014. Roman has worked with MoneyGram as a Director for their operations in Russia, CIS, and Eastern Europe. He also has experience working as a Marketing Lead at Western Union where he focused on brand development throughout his region.

Dania Mukhtar is the Meta Head of Public Policy for Pakistan. She focuses on emerging internet policy challenges related to freedom of expression, privacy, safety, social innovation and economic growth. She holds a B.A.-LL.B. degree from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). She was awarded the Fulbright Scholarship in 2016 and pursued an LL.M. degree from Columbia University.

During her legal career, she has appeared before the High Court, civil courts and various administrative agencies and tribunals. She has previously worked with the Chief Justice at the Supreme Court of Pakistan as a research associate/law clerk. Dania has also served as a Member of the ‘Gender Equality and Diversity Committee’ and Advisor to the ‘Legal Education & Professional Training Committee’ of the Lahore High Court Bar Association.

Mubariz is the Founder of Carbon Law and a seasoned legal expert specializing in tech startups and investors. As a prominent startup lawyer in Pakistan with vast experience, he has advised on over USD 250 million worth of startup deals, venture capital, and angel investments.

Mubariz collaborates with regulators to boost foreign investment and innovation in Pakistan. His work with the State Bank of Pakistan, which allows Pakistani founders to establish foreign holding companies, has been pivotal in driving startup investments in recent years. Mubariz also supports founder education on governance and fundraising through various initiatives.

Hassan Bhatti is the Product BD lead for Native Applications at Snowflake, and the lead partner at Community Fund ($5mm fund), which invests in early-stage companies and notably has backed a few Pakistani companies as well. He co-founded and is a board member of Semantic Health, a venture-backed AI healthcare start-up in the revenue cycle management space. Hassan is also a fellow at the Creative Destruction Lab in Canada, a senior advisor to a global law firm, an advisor to Flybridge (a global seed and Series A fund), and maintains an active presence as an angel investor worldwide with a portfolio of 20+ companies.

In the past, he co-founded CryptoNumerics, a venture-backed startup specializing in data privacy and machine learning, which was acquired by Snowflake in 2020 in a cash and stock transaction. Hassan began his professional journey in management consulting at KPMG, but after a few months, transitioned to lead product and business development at an early-stage, Y-Combinator-backed computer vision start-up in Silicon Valley, which he helped grow from pre-seed to Series.

Natasha Baig is a Pakistani singer known for her work in various genres of music. She most prominently dominates the Sufi rock genre. Natasha began her journey through community performances and started her career with a reality show ‘Cornetto Music Icons’ in 2013. She was one of the lead singers in the Sufi ensemble ‘Sounds of Kolachi’ and also served as one of the panelists in ‘The Karachi Music Festival’

Natasha is also the Co-Founder of the production company ‘Laal Series’. She has been nominated for the Best Emerging Talent Award at the Lux Style Awards and her music has been featured as the title track for several Pakistani feature films. She has also been featured in Coke Studio for her part in the song “Shikwa”. Most recently, Natasha received the LUX Style award for Best Live Performance 2022. She was also the brand ambassador for Spotify’s Equal Pakistan campaign for July 2022.

Arsalan is an Independent Design Consultant, and a problem solver at heart. In the past he has served as the Head of Design and as one of the founding members at Bazaar Technologies where he built the product and brand design teams from ground up.

Arsalan first started as a freelancer, before joining JWT’s digital wing, ‘Fusion’. He then joined VentureDive in 2015, after which he started working for Careem. He then spent 4 years working on key product revamps and was on the founding teams for multiple internal tools, catering to millions of customers across the region. Arsalan is a strong propagator of design for social change and is also a part of the adjunct faculty for IVSAA, where he teaches courses around interaction design and product management.

Asad Hashamali is the host of “Behind the Grind” a podcast which aims to highlight the stories and journeys of entrepreneurs, leaders, athletes and professionals challenging the status quo. Since 2018, Asad has used the podcast to highlight his own journey of growth and document his hustle towards becoming an entrepreneur and leader.

When he’s not in a deep dive with his podcast guests, Asad is running operations of his own venture as the Co-Founder of Alt Academy, an edtech company aiming to address the gap in high quality and affordable content for Advanced Level education. Alt Academy has served over 60,000 students all over the world and has successfully managed to establish a subscription model to serve its students better. Prior to founding Alt Academy, Asad also Co-Founded Backspace, a boutique media and design consultancy firm with a mission to help small businesses communicate better and stick with their audiences.

Wardah Zaman is the Programme Manager at the Pakistan Environment Trust, where she played an instrumental role in setting up the Net Zero Pakistan coalition and rallying 26 companies to commit to net zero emissions. Prior to this, Wardah worked for the World Bank’s climate change team, where she helped integrate climate considerations into global projects.

Wardah has furthered her impact at the World Resources Institute, working on a framework to enhance climate adaptation efforts worldwide. Her career reflects her unwavering commitment to environmental sustainability and her leadership in driving corporate climate action.

Rahim founded TEXT in 2011 after identifying the opportunity for institutions to connect with people using messaging and then applying data mining to these conversations to learn more. Through the use of intelligent chat for over a decade, TEXT has transformed leading Corporates across marketing, operations, & customer care, as well as the Government & Public Sector in education, health, security & power. TEXT has been backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, DFID, and the UK Government.

Rahim started his career at Credit Suisse in London and then became a member of the founding team of The Resource Group (TRG) in Washington DC. After portfolio restructuring and overseeing TRG’s investments he became responsible for TRG’s global technology and built & ran IBEX & Afiniti’s technology platforms.

Kazi Akber is a digital content creator and podcast host. He is the host of Kiya Kahe Ga Kazi, a podcast that hopes to interact with the various strands of Pakistani society. Kazi believes everyone has a story worth telling.

Sadaf Khan is the Co-Founder of Media Matters for Democracy Pakistan (MMFD), a non-profit organization focused on digital democracy and media. She works on policy advocacy, specifically on the intersections of gender and technology. Sadaf has two decades of experience in news media, media development, and the development sector. She has a special interest in policies that have an impact on women’s experience of information and communication technologies (ICTs).

Sadaf also consults extensively with local and global organizations on research and policy development. She is a passionate advocate for digital democracy and media. She has also worked to build capacity and raise awareness about digital rights and media issues among journalists, civil society organizations, and the general public.

Naiel is a Partner at Fatima Gobi Ventures where he oversees key relationships with Limited Partners. He has over ten years of experience in the financial industry. Before his work with Fatima Gobi Ventures, he was the Senior Vice President at BMA Capital Management Limited. In his role there he was responsible for developing and leading a unified sales strategy across the full range of financial products present in Pakistan’s financial markets including equities, debt instruments, mutual funds, Separately Managed Accounts (SMA) and Corporate Finance and Advisory.

Abbas Yousafzai is the Founder of Alif Care, which is Pakistan’s first fully managed chronic disease management platform, focused on type 2 diabetes reversal. He has been in technology for more than 20 years, and has spent the majority of his career in a leadership role. Abbas also has experience in scaling technology-backed businesses and for early and mid-stage startups.

Prior to that, he was the Co-Founder and CTO of Yotascale, a Silicon Valley based startup in Cloud Cost Management with several Fortune 1000 customers. Abbas was also the Co-Founder of Conrad Labs, a top-tier startup launchpad. He is an active angel investor in early-stage startups and has advised several technology companies across the globe.

Maria is a musician with a storied connection to her craft. She puts a part of herself into all of her work, which comes across as raw and honest. Her work has seen her featured on multiple platforms across the country. She has appeared on Nescafe Basement multiple times, and has released several well received singles.

Mystapaki aka Bilal Hassan is a content creator. Through his content he opens up a window for the outside world to come and have a look at what life is like in Pakistan one post at a time. In his spare time he enjoys traveling to obscure places that are off the beaten track. He’s also an avid writer and photojournalist. His work has been published in Al Jazeera, BBC, and The Guardian amongst others. He is also a regular contributor for Dawn.

Jahanzeb is the founder of Karachi Community Radio, a creative director, and technologist. Through his work he has produced, programmed, and premeditated many trends in hybrid audio-visual production. He has won the Mozilla Builders OpenLab Award for producing Boiler Room Pakistan, and has programmed the first fully 3D Meta Human music video using Unreal Engine in Pakistan. He has also archived and produced over 100+ contemporary and traditional artists across mediums, championing community and experimentation in a city lacking opportunity at the intersection of arts and technology.

Jahanzeb has previously represented KCR at the Victoria and Albert Museum as part of the “My East Is Your West” event. In 2017, he received Pakistan’s Creative Future award by UNESCO. His creative work has been displayed at Haus der Statistik (Germany), IVS Gallery (PK), VM Gallery (PK), and Karachi Biennale 2022 (PK). His contribution towards technology, music and culture has been covered by various international and local publications such as Redbull.com, Resident Advisor, Mixmag (UK and Asia), Wire (UK), DJmag International, Wild Mag, Arab News, Dawn.com, and others.

Rohma is the Country Director for Accelerate Prosperity Pakistan, a global initiative of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN). Her work at Accelerate Prosperity Pakistan includes establishing blended learning systems for cross-border learning, as well as strategizing data-driven programs and financing vehicles for high-growth potential business in Pakistan.

Through her previous work, she has had the opportunity to support over 300 businesses in their journey to contribute to the global entrepreneurship support space.

Hasan Rizvi, CEO of Bodybeat PR, is known for his ability to inspire and motivate. He leads with a clear vision, emphasizing the importance of fostering a collaborative and dynamic work environment, building strong relationships, and illuminating brands’ value. Hasan places a significant focus on employee growth and cultivating a positive, high-performing culture.

In addition to his role at Bodybeat PR, Hasan Rizvi is a working partner in multiple businesses, including Kohasaa and Dresscode. He is also the visionary behind C-Virus, which excels in captivating visuals, quirky designing, and high-quality content, enhancing a brand’s potential.

Salman Akhtar is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Techlogix. He has led the company’s growth as a methodology driven organization focused on delivering engineering excellence using an evolving mix of technologies. He is the primary contributor in the development of the BPX™, the industry leading BPM/SOA delivery methodology. He has been a frequent speaker at industry conferences and panels.

Salman’s current technical interests include SaaS models of solution delivery for enterprise systems, innovative technologies for solving large scale problems in the financial services and higher education verticals and the merging of BPM/SOA, operational Business Intelligence and event driven business systems.

Ayesha Saleem is a Principal at Lakson Venture Capital, one of the largest VC funds in Pakistan. She is also a special advisor to the ESG Foundation UK and on the board of the Pakistan LSE Alumni Association. She was previously associated with nexdegree.

Omair Zeeshan is the Head of Marketing at Onic Pakistan. As a seasoned marketing leader, Omair has over 13 years of experience in brand management, digital growth, and marketing transformation. Before his journey with Onic, Omair was the Manager of Marketing and Segments for Telenor and then the Head of Marketing and Brands for Telenors Microfinance Bank Ltd.

His experience spans industries including FMCG, Telecom, Fintech & Banking. He has played a key role in shaping businesses undergoing rebranding, relaunches & digital transformation, such as FINCA Microfinance Bank Ltd and Faysal Bank Ltd. His work has also gained him over 6 years of leadership experience in the banking sector.

Omer Zabit is the Head of Investments and Principal with Shorooq Partners, leading their initiatives across UAE, Pakistan, and other frontier markets like Turkey & Bangladesh. He is also actively involved in managing portfolio companies while driving the sourcing initiatives across the wider MENAP region.

Before joining Shorooq Partners, Omer worked at Careem, where he was the global Head of the Food Delivery Initiative. Omer’s expertise in strategy, operations, and market development is derived from directly contributing to Careem’s growth across various markets & business-lines. Prior to joining Careem, he led product & strategy functions at the prominent mobile money players, Jazzcash and Easypaisa. He began his career with IBM, consulting their clients on technical projects across banking, energy, and agricultural sectors.

Aleena Nadeem is the CEO and Founder of EDUFI, a Fintech startup launched in Nov 2021 in Pakistan. EduFi aims to provide student financing solutions to the masses. The vision of EduFi is to financially assist as many middle class citizens of Pakistan as possible, in gaining higher education.

Ghazi Taimoor is a corporate and educational trainer with a passion for transforming individuals and organizations through dynamic learning experiences. As a Chartered Accountant (ACA) from London, he has consulted extensively with a myriad of corporate, tech, FMCGs, and other clients across various sectors. During his tenure as a consultant and a Learning and Development lead at KPMG London, he honed his instructional design and coaching skills, crafting impactful training programs.

Ghazi currently serves as Adjunct Faculty at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and teaches courses on the themes of Entrepreneurship, Education, and Adult Learning. As the founding Head of Professional Education at LUMS School of Education, he has designed executive education initiatives, including the Executive MPhil in Education Leadership and Management degree program. Outside of academics, Ghazi has worked on enhancing strategy and development of a myriad of organizations including the Office of the Mayor of Indianapolis US, the Ministry of Education of Liberia, nonprofits in Tanzania, and a myriad of private and public sector bodies in the UK. He served as a Policy Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Centre for Governance, and has received the Education Entrepreneurship Award from the Harvard Innovation Lab.

Dr. Anzar Khaliq is a founding faculty member of Habib University and is currently serving there as the Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning. He is also the Founder and Director of “Centre for Transdisciplinarity, Design, and Innovation”, Habib’s flagship space for transdisciplinary design research.

Usama Naeem Nini is the Co-founder and Chief Business Officer at Qureos. With a vision for efficient products using data analytics, machine learning, and automation, he co-founded Qureos in 2021 with Alex Epure and Mehrad Yaghmi. Together, they aim to empower individuals in their careers through Iris, an AI Talent Scout that identifies your ideal candidate in just 24 seconds.

Previously, Usama played an instrumental role in Swvl’s expansion in UAE, Jordan, and KSA through his role as assistant general manager and then as an entrepreneur in residence. He has also served as an analyst for strategy, risk, and high yield at the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan and at Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc.