As a young engineer, working for Oil and Gas exploration companies, I had the opportunity to work in remote areas of Pakistan – areas that could be considered some of the most impoverished in the world with no access to basic human necessities like water, electricity, communication and health care. There were scarce employment opportunities for livelihoods in these communities.

Later on in my career, working as the Director IT Strategy with Mobilink, Pakistan’s largest cellular service provider, I witnessed the success of a single mobile phone turning into a business model. Mobilink started the ‘PCO Self Employment Package’, which included a wireless pay phone to be used as a Public Call Office. This one phone scheme provided employment opportunities to the less privileged households- becoming a financial earning source for the otherwise unemployed. This first-hand experience helped me develop a business idea and professional goal in life: to set-up a mobile technologies incubation center for low-income countries. The goal is to increase the commercialization of communication technologies and incentivize entrepreneurs and innovators.

I have over 12 years of technical and management experience in the field of Information Technology including Enterprise IT Management, Strategy, Governance and Information Security in different industry verticals. I also worked as an ‘IT Specialist’ on World Bank poverty alleviation projects in Pakistan.

My wife, Zeasth, who is an engineer with specialization in robotics and image processing, and I have two kids. Our son is teaching us the challenges of parenting a toddler, while our daughter is a newborn. I love traveling and have been to 85 cities in 20 countries. Like any other Pakistani, I am a die-hard cricket fan!