P@SHA Chairman, Office Bearers and CEC Members Elected for 2016-2017

The new Chairman and Central Executive Committee (CEC) of Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT & ITES (P@SHA) has been elected for the year 2016-2017. This announcement was made at P@SHA’s Annual General Meeting held in Karachi on September 27th, 2016.

In this meeting, one of the most successful outgoing Chairman of P@SHA Syed Ahmed thanked all members for their support and continued cooperation. He talked about the activities and initiatives he undertook in his tenure with other key members of P@SHA to influence FBR and the Government and successfully got the export income tax exemption extended to 30 June 2019.

Mr. Ahmed also advised the members that P@SHA would be hiring a Secretary General in Islamabad to maintain and increase engagement with policymakers and government officials. The General Body was informed of the CEC’s decision to turn The Nest i/o – P@SHA’s Technology Incubator – into a separate legal entity.

The new Chairman P@SHA Mr. Naseer A Akhtar who is the President of Infotech Group thanked the members for reposing their trust in him to represent the Association & industry at the highest level. He pledged to ensure continued efforts in areas of better policies and government linkages.

Speaking at the ceremony, Jehan Ara welcomed the newly elected Chairman, CEC members, and Office Bearers and introduced them to the General Body who attended the meeting. She assured them of the full support of the P@SHA Secretariat team.

The new CEC members are:

Chairman

Naseer A. Akhtar, CEO, InfoTech (Pvt.) Ltd.

Email: naseer.akhtar@infotechgroup.com

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

Senior Vice Chairman

Shahzad Shahid, CEO, TPS Pakistan Pvt. Ltd.

Email: shahzad.shahid@tpsonline.com

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

Vice Chairman

Ahmed Ayub, Country Manager, TenPearls (Pvt.) Limited

Email: ahmed.ayub@10pearls.com

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

Treasurer

Muhammad Yusaf Raza, Company Secretary, Ovex Technologies (Pvt.) Ltd.

Email: yraza@ovex.com.pk

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

Other members of the CEC include:

Farzal Dojki, CEO Next Generation Innovations

Email: farzal@nextgeni.com

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

Muhammad Zohaib Khan, CEO A2Z Creatorz

Email: zohaib@a2zcreatorz.com

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

Talha Munir Khan, Country Manager Knowledge Platform (Pvt) Ltd

Email: tkhan@knowledgeplatform.com

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

Syed Ahmed, CEO DPL Pvt. Ltd

Email: syed@dplit.com

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

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

Amin Uddin Ansari, CEO, CTO 24/7 (Pvt) Ltd

Email: aansari@cto247.com

Amin is the President of CTO 24/7 Lahore, Pakistan. He has over 35 years of experience in the field of IT. Amin is a graduate of the University of Memphis in Electrical Engineering. After 23 years in the US and a well-established career as Product Manager of SISCO’s title office production solution called AIM and later, as Vice President of Landata., Amin came back to Pakistan for putting the stepping stone for Descon’s IT company, Descon Information Services (DIS), in 1997. In 2007, Amin ventured alongside 4 other partners and founded CTO 24/7 Private Limited.

Ali Syed, CEO, 7Vals

Email: syed.ali@7vals.com

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