SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
Abdul Qadir Memon
Is the Founder and Chief Advisor of the taxation and corporate law consultants, Qadir & Company. Throughout his career, Memon has served in influential positions, advising and directing the government in federal taxation.
Dr. Shamshad Akhtar
Is a postdoctoral Fulbright fellow, with a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University. Over a span of 37 years, she has developed her career through various positions in national and multilateral organizations.
Khalid Mahmood
A thirty-four year veteran of the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, Khalid Mahmood worked in influential positions in the US, South America, Far East, and Asia Pacific for fourteen years before returning to Pakistan in 1994.
He was part of the Advisory Committee for the Federal Tax Ombudsman, Tax/Revenue advisory council of the Ministry of Finance, and the Chairman of the Taxation Committee of the Pakistan Stock Exchange. Memon has also served on the international bodies of Asia-Oceania Tax Consultants’ Association as the Vice President, the JCI Asia Pacific Development Council as a Development Officer, and the Junior Chamber International Asia Pacific Senate as its Director.
Currently he stands a Patron of the Pakistan Tax Bar Association – previously serving as its President – Director of State Life Insurance Corporation, Director of the Institute of Financial Markets of Pakistan, and as a Member of the Federal Board of Revenue’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee. Additionally, he serves on the Advisory Taxation Committees of Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
He was named ‘Outstanding Member of the World,’ at the 52nd Junior Chamber International World Congress in 1997, and was nominated as the ‘Inspiring Jaycees of the World’ in 2006. Memon is a Fellow of the Institute of Taxation and Management of Pakistan (FITM) and a Certified Director under the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan ‘Code of Corporate Governance,’ from ICMA-Pakistan.
She has served as the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan from 2006 to 2009, and was the first female Central Bank Governor for Asia 2007.
Dr. Akhtar also served as the Under Secretary General of the Economic and Social Commission of the Asia and Pacific (UNESCAP), leading work on the 2030
Sustainable Development Agenda regarding climate change. Additionally she was the Senior Special Advisor on Economics and Finance and Assistant Secretary General UN and the UN Secretary General’s G20 Sherpa. More recently, she served as the interim Minister of Finance during the General Elections of 2018.
In addition to advising on macroeconomics issues, Dr. Shamshad Akhtar has advised various governments and the private sector in specific areas of governance, poverty, privatization, and public-private partnerships in sectors such as energy and agriculture. She has also advised a number of countries on financial sector policy, legal, and regulatory frameworks and assessed central banks.
Dr. Akhtar has been previously nominated as Asia’s Best Central Bank Governor by the Emerging Market Groups in 2006 and Bankers Trust in 2007, and was named amongst the top ten of Asia’s Women Leaders in 2008 by the Asian Wall Street Journal. Currently, she serves as a strategic advisor on various Pakistani Boards and Advisory Councils.
As CEO of Getz Pharma Pvt. Ltd. and Getz Pharma FZ-LLC, U.A.E., Khalid has led the company from its inception, in 1995, to become the largest pharmaceutical company in Pakistan by 2018.
Holding leading rankings in at least ten emerging pharma markets of the world, Getz Pharma is the only company in Pakistan whose manufacturing facility & Quality Control Laboratory has been Pre-qualified and approved by World Health Organization (WHO) Geneva, as well as from a member country of the Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-operation Scheme (PIC/S).
Khalid Mahmood has committed personal human and financial resources to campaigns and programs related to sports, education, health care and cultural and environmental preservation. Serving on the boards of Zindagi Trust, which manages two schools for 3,500 underprivileged girls, and Eqbal Ahmed Center for Education, while also holding the position of Chairman of the Board of Trustees of PeaceNiche/T2F.
Previously, he was the president of the Board of Directors of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), serving on its board for six years.
Prof. Shehnaz Ismail
Shehnaz Ismail is the Founder and Dean, Faculty of Design at The Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVS), holding the title of Professor Emeritus and serves as adjunct faculty in the department of Textile Design.
Syed Mohammad Irfan
Syed Mohammad Irfan graduated from the National College of Arts, Lahore in 1966 and has more than 50 years of specialist experience in the fields of architecture, conservation, housing and town planning.
Towfiq Chinoy
Towfiq Habib Chinoy is a philanthropist and business mogul with years of experience and significant executive leadership accomplishments. His illustrious career has applied qualities of integrity.
She has been instrumental in evolving the Transdisciplinary master’s program commencing in January 2020.
She is actively involved in craft revival, developing trainings and design intervention programs for non-profit organizations throughout the rural landscape of the country.
Through her textile and interior design consultancies, in conjunction with Aga Khan Trust for Culture, the interiors for the Shigar Fort Residence and the Khaplu Palace.
Residence in Baltistan have been conserved and restored. The Shigar Fort Residence was awarded the UNESCO Award for Excellence in Conservation and Restoration in 2009 and the Khaplu Palace Residence was awarded the UNESCO Heritage Distinction Award in 2012. In July 2012, Ismail was commissioned by Alchemy, Bradford Museums and Galleries for an exhibition entitled ‘Silk:
Bradford and the Subcontinent’ and has worked closely with Textile historian, Brenda King. Her most recent work, Pale Sentinels, was featured at Aicon Gallery, New York.
Ismail serves on various Boards including National College of Arts, Lahore, Aurat Foundation, MUET Jamshoro, the Academic committee of BNU Lahore, Textile Institute of Pakistan, AHAN (One Village One Craft) Ismail holds Undergraduate and Postgraduate degrees from the National College of Arts and Hornsey College, London in Textile Design and has been awarded the President’s Pride of Performance for her work in visual art and education in the year 2014
Through his presidential and chairmanship tenures at the IAP and the PCATP, he contributed greatly to the development of the architectural profession.
He oversaw several ‘Country Reports for Habitat’ for the Government of Pakistan, and was the Country Expert for UNESCAP authoring the ‘Country Monograph’, which he subsequently presented at the Regional Seminar in Bangkok. During his time as the CEO of Pakistan Environmental Planning and Architectural Consultants (PEPAC), he played a pivotal role in negotiations with international organizations such as the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, representing the interests of the Government of Pakistan.
This was key to the development of strategic policy and its implementation for the development sector. Supervising several town planning and urban development studies, particularly in the housing sector for the Government of Pakistan, Irfan held a pivotal role in the structuring and programming of the Pakistan Housing Authority where he held the Director General post for five years.
Of his numerous publications, the most notable is ‘The Walled City of Lahore,’ which was co-directed in 1991, this key conservation and documentation project was shortlisted for the Aga Khan Award. Currently Irfan is a consultant at an establishment handling large-scale projects funded by the UAE Government in the hospitality, health, education, and social welfare sectors.
credibility and a passion for progress to strategic governance efforts. Known as a pioneer in the steel industry, Chinoy founded International Steel Limited (ISL) in 2007, and currently serves as its non-executive Chairman, he also serves as an advisor to International Industries Limited (IIL), with which he has been associated with since 1964.
He retired from his thirty-seven year role as Managing Director of IIL in August 2011 and from ISL, also as the Managing Director, in 2015.
Chinoy serves as the non-executive Chairman of Jubilee General Insurance Company Ltd. and Packages Ltd., as well as a director of the National Foods Limited, Standard Chartered Bank of (Pakistan) Ltd., a Trustee of the Habib University Foundation and the Mohatta Palace Gallery Trust. He has previously served on the Advisory Boards of the Ministry of Communications,
Engineering Development Board and Port Qasim Authority. He has also been Chairman of Pakistan Cables Ltd and PICIC Commercial Bank Ltd., Vice Chairman of The Pakistan Business Council and a Director of National Refinery Ltd., Linde Pakistan Ltd, Jubilee Life Insurance Co. Ltd and The Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy.
