jury 2021

He aims to catalyze the next wave of tech-entrepreneurship in Pakistan, focusing on startups working on financial inclusion and solving large scale problems using technology. The group comprises more than 30 companies in its portfolio across e-commerce, fin-tech, edu-tech, insur-tech, health-tech, mobile television, retail, and renewable energy.

Before Planet N Venture, he had an illustrious banking career of 3 decades, working at management positions in major financial centers of the world including country head Citibank and founder/CEO of Tameer Bank. Furthermore, he sold Tameer Bank to Telenor which rebranded it to Easy Paisa which today has a customer base of tens of millions.

Additionally, Mr. Hussain has served on the advisory board of Institute of Business Administration (IBA) and Institute of Capital Markets (ICM). He is the chairperson of the Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN), mentor & advisor to Hult Prize Pakistan & TECH Pakistan, board member of PlanX, Trustee at Indus Foundation & Jinnah Institute, member of State Bank’s & SECP consultative groups. He is also leading the effort to implement Universal Standards of Social Performance Management (USSPM) across all PMN member banks and institutes.

He has been invited as speaker to various platforms including Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and Johns Hopkins University. He was awarded the Global Leader Award in 2011 by C5 in Geneva.

Salman Ali is a passionate advertising professional, a brand building enthusiast and an avid advocate for “consumer first” approach. Ali has more than 10 years of Brand Strategy experience with multiple networks, including Saatchi & Saatchi, Ogilvy, JWT, and has strategized for a wide array of brands and campaigns during the course of his career. He is currently leading Strategy & Planning at Mullen Lowe Group and is driven by his newfound cause of keeping the Science and Art of Brand Building alive in the digital age.

Marketer by passion and a food connoisseur outside work, Humayun Farooq is the Marketing Director for the Health portfolio at Reckitt Benckiser Pakistan Limited. Post his Masters degree from the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Farooq has had an extensive marketing experience spanning over 16 years and worked on various different brand portfolios. He has been the mastermind behind several breakthrough campaigns both locally and internationally in the beauty, healthcare, personal care and food industries. As a marketer, he believes in driving brands by finding their emotional connect in addition to their functional benefit. He is a strong propagator of leading brands with a purpose to ensure social impact over and above the commercial gains. Beyond work, Farooq is a food lover and is always up for experimenting food and sharing his experiences through his blog. He has a zeal for traveling and adventure. He likes to stay up-to-date with current digital marketing trends and loves to share his knowledge through articles. Work, eat, travel and repeat is his motto of life.

With 17 years of advertising experience, and a career encompassing local, regional and global roles, Sara leads the Grey Pakistan office serving clients across varied categories from FMCG, Telco, Pharma, Confectionary & Snacks, Banking & Finance and Foods to name a few. Sara is responsible for delivering work of the highest standard, driving integrated creative solutions that impact client businesses. Mother to a 10 year old boy, and 6 year old girl her life is a happy (didn’t say easy!) juggling act between football, excel sheets and unicorns!

Khalid has a proven track record of business turnarounds having spent 14 years across various P&G's core categories and markets. He grew up in the marketing function where he learnt old school marketing from some of the gurus at P&G. Additionally, Khalid holds an MBA from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). He is a true believer of the "consumer is boss" mantra.

Farheen joined Unilever as a Management Trainee in 1998 right out of college. She has worked in a number of categories across both Home & Personal Care category leading brands like Lux, Fair & Lovely & Lifebuoy. She then joined the Wall’s Ice Cream business as Head of Marketing & Sales. Farheen spent 2014-15 in Turkey as Brand Development Director Ice Cream North Africa, Middles East & Turkey. She worked with the global team and crafted an innovation & communication program for the portfolio that was instrumental in bringing the NAMET ice cream business back to sustained double-digit growth. She joined the Unilever Pakistan Board upon her return in 2016 as Foods & Refreshment lead and she is also a board member of the Unilever Pakistan Foods Limited. In contribution towards endearvours, Farheen has won for some interesting Effies; for purposeful work like Lipton Chotu in 2019 and Knorr Green Noodles in 2020. Additionally, Farheen is a mother to two boys and believes her life is extremely energetic due to having two pre-teens in her life! Farheen prides herself on her purpose of life which is “Unapologetic drive to create a “WOW” balance!”

An accomplished brand leader with over 17 years of experience working for top companies such as Procter & Gamble, ICI (Akzo Nobel), Tapal and has recently joined the Hilal Group. Salman has the experience of leading global multi-billion-dollar brands such as Pampers, Always, Gillette, Oral-B, Duracell and Braun. He has the experience of leading P&G brands within Pakistan and has also served as a Regional Head for Middle East Region based out of UAE. He is a growth hacker and has turned around multiple brands during his career through strong strategic thinking and sharp business acumen.

Atiya has a great sense of creativeness and is the one who loves to create. She has two decades of experience in the advertising industry, working on an array of local and international brands. She is the first Pakistani woman to be selected for Cannes Lions ‘See It Be It’ program, D&AD’s Rare creative program and also the Pitch magazines’ 100 Superwomen list (2019). Moreover, along with her full-time job, she wrote a feature film which is available on global Netflix as a side hustle.

Having over 20 years of work experience in marketing and advertising in various organizations, Syed Usman is currently in charge for developing and implementing optimal marketing and communication strategies for Jubilee Life. Prior to joining Jubilee Life, Mr. Qaiser had notably worked as Senior Manager Marketing at Bank Alfalah Limited for more than 9 years and as Manager Advertising at Standard Chartered Bank after gaining considerable marketing and brand experience at advertising agencies including Lowe and Rauf (formerly R- Lintas), Manhattan Pakistan and Evernew Concepts. He started his career from Commercial Union which is now Jubilee Life insurance in the Corporate Services Unit.

Imran Afzal, the CEO and co-founder of VOWEL, a full-service advertising and digital communication agency with emphasis on creative, content & production. Before this, Imran was the CEO of JWT Pakistan from 2015 till 2018. He has almost two decades of industry experience of working on brands like Coca-Cola, Unilever, Shell, Nestle, BAT, Pepsi, HBL, Ufone, Honda and many more. Imran is a specialist in the management of brand architecture and brand building, as well as a leading expert in Pakistani consumer psychology. Imran started his career at Publicis in 1999 with HP as his first client. There was no looking back since then and his career steered through McCann, Ogilvy, Evernew and landed him at JWT in 2009. In 2011 Imran was tasked to establish Walter Pakistan a division of WPP where he and his team won Pakistan’s first ever APAC Effie Award in 2013 for a Pepsi Pakistan campaign.

Mahrukh Shaikh is one of the co-founders at Wundernerf and head of content at Symmetry. More importantly, she is an aspiring pasta-maker and a firm believer that one can never have enough butter on their toast.

Raheel Yousuf has been part of the Marketing and Communication fraternity for over 18 years. Currently, working as the Head of Marketing and Brand Management at Bank Alfalah. Prior to joining Bank Alfalah, Raheel has worked as Head of Corporate Brand, Digital Marketing & Research at HBL and before that as Head of Strategy & Account Management at Group M. In addition, he has served as a part of the Jury for Effie Awards 2020. A storyteller by nature, Raheel has brought brands to life through brand innovation and creativity on multiple fronts through award winning campaigns. With an experienced flavor from both brand and advertising agency side in communication, strategy and digital architecture, he is a thorough Marketer who possesses the ability to convert marketing ideation into revenue generating results.

Being one of the pioneers of Digital Marketing in Pakistan, Adil is a seasoned digital entrepreneur playing a pivotal role in the growth and evolution of the industry. He has over 18 years of professional experience from companies including Symmetry Group, Yahoo, Maktoob & ESPN in South Asia, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) & other regions. He puts forth the expertise of diverse digital verticals and has a reputation of being a visionary with a constant quest of introducing trends and launching successful tech ventures.

He has a decade of experience in media and digital marketing; while working with leading FMCGs, media, digital and creative agencies in Pakistan. Currently, heading the media at P&G Pakistan.

Jerjees Seja is a media specialist focusing his energies on television in Pakistan for the over a decade. He has held key positions at both sides of the table; the advertising/media agency side and the television/production side. It is this exposure that makes Jerjees an all-round specialist on the Pakistani Television Media. Jerjees Seja, a.k.a. ‘JJ’ throughout the industry, started his in Research and Media at Interflow Communications (an Ogilvy and Mather affiliate) whereby he supervised research and media projects for important brands like Pepsi, Nestle and Habib Bank to name a few. A year after he switched to Orient Advertising (a McCann Erickson affiliate) in Media, here again he worked with world class brands like Coca-Cola, Gillette, and Suzuki etc. During this period JJ has been credited with some major country wide launches of different products and services offered by the above brands. In 1999, JJ switched to Evernew Concepts as the Head of Media and later on also assumed the responsibility of General Manager for Evernew Entertainment (a sister concern of the same group). At Evernew Media some major launches were planned and supervised by him for brands like Instaphone, Tapal, Royal Fan, Yummy and others. The turning point in JJ’s carrier however came when he started working on Evernew Entertainment as he looked after the marketing, sales and later on production. As drama serials has been the most preferred type of television entertainment for the local masses especially female, JJ made it as Evernew Entertainments prime focus and lead the company to produce/market some of most successful drama serials in the industry’s history including Kabhi Kabhi Pyar Mein, Chandni Raatein and Mehndi. All these drama serials broke records in sales and attained multiple awards given to television presentations in Pakistan by the most prestigious authorities including PTV and Lux Style Awards etc. Later, he joined as the Executive Director of ARY Digital Network Pakistan, overseeing the planning, operations, production and marketing of ARY Digital, The Musik, ARY Oneworld, QTV, Nick, FTV Pakistan, Shopping Channel (ARY ZAUQ), HBO and FM 106.2. Most recently, JJ was promoted to Chief Operating Officer for four of the most important channels of the ARY Digital Network in Pakistan; ARY Digital, QTV, FTV Pakistan and recently launched VH1 which is an international music and lifestyle channel.

Ammar Hassan has been working in the field of marketing for a decade, spending initial years in media broadcasting and sales, PR and brand activations, media investment planning and building creative communications. He ventured in the field of Technology joining and establishing OLX as the No.1 marketplace of Pakistan. Post 5 years, Ammar is now the Chief Marketing Officer at Daraz (Alibaba Group) which is the No.1 E-Commerce platform of South Asia.

Khurram is a passionate marketing professional with over a decade of sound experience across MNCs and local conglomerates in handling marketing functions, consumer marketing strategies, in-depth 360-degree marketing plans, product development & consumer insights. Proceeding strategic thinking to innovation, he has driven exponential growth in businesses ranging from personal care, food and nutrition. He has a strong business acumen to optimize business performance delivering top-line and bottom-line growth creating profitable brands. He started his career with Abbott in the Consumer Healthcare segment looking after brands like Mospel and has since worked at various positions in the marketing functions of Abbott Nutrition (METAP region) and Al Shaheer Foods. Currently, he is the Head of Marketing & Strategy at ICI Pakistan and Morinaga Japan Nutrition JV; NutriCo, which operates in the business of manufacturing and marketing of the international nutrition brand MORINAGA. Beyond work, Khurram is a food lover and has a zeal for travelling. He is passionate about improving the nutrition needs of underprivileged children. By education, Khurram attained a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Institute of Business Administration (IBA) in 2008.

He is a dreamer! He started 18 years ago with a passion for advertising, becoming the youngest Chief Operating Officer, but with the same dream… to be an adman! For him, a dreamer is one who “finds way by moonlight”. He is still that dreamer and Golden Circle is his dream come true! Today Golden Circle is among the fastest growing agencies in Pakistan, working with leading global & local brands.

Having spent beyond 17 years in the FMCG business with P&G, and Henkel, Adil has gained all round experience in both brand building and business management in Pakistan, the GCC, MENA and the Global markets. As a FMCG marketer, Adil has worked on multiple categories including foods, baby care, laundry and home care along with having first-hand experience of implementing Blue Ocean strategy. Staying true to his passion, he also gained a diploma in Sports Business Management from the Johan Cruyff Institute in 2019. Adil also serves as an Independent Director on multiple boards and devotes significant time to leading a not-for-profit organization devoted to spread of hygiene and woman empowerment across the rural areas of Pakistan.

Mr. Agha Alijan is a Marketing thought leader from Pakistan and is the current Marketing Director for the Diamond Group of Industries, supporting the marketing and commercial functions for Diamond Supreme Foam, Diamond Tyres, Diamond Jumbolon and DVH – Dolce Vita Home. He has been associated with some of the leading brands in Pakistan in various capacities over the last two decades including Tapal Tea, Tectonic, (formally known as Sakonent) in Pakistan, and the YBG (Yunus Brothers Group) companies, while holding portfolios in the Marketing, Brand Management, Product Management, Corporate Communications, and Sales functions. Born and bred in Karachi, he is an avid beach lover and a Sport fishing enthusiast, having won numerous local awards and recognitions for his hunts in the Indian Ocean.

Ehmer Kirmani is a filmmaker, storyteller & tabletop director who loves directing & producing inspiring brand imagery with captivating stories through the magic of film. His journey into filmmaking started with his foray in advertising, has worked on major advertising campaigns with global advertising & marketing leaders. However, passion drew him into filmmaking, and with his prior experience with the best brands in the world, he tapped into a need in our market – the need to tell great brand stories through the magic of film balanced with the artful eye and strategic thinking he developed through years of filmmaking since. He had served the leading brands like Nestle, LU, IFFCO, Jazz, Toyota, Emirate, BAT, Phillips & Morris, Al Futtaim, New Holland Tractor, General Tyre, Tapal, National, Hilal, Mayfair, Capri, Golden Pearl, HOM, Dulux, TCS, Roche, Novartis, GSK, 3M, Meezan Bank, Bank Alfalah, etc. Besides film direction, being a storyteller he also worked on ideation independently or by partnering with global creative resources/advertising agencies and had delivered successful 360º Advertising Campaigns & Branded Entertainment Content for leading international & regional brands.

Ms. Raeda Latif has experience spanning over two decades across organizations in the Financial, Information Technology and Retail segments ranging from both B2B and B2C organizations and hence understands the mechanics and requirements of both organization types in the areas of Strategic Marketing, Brand Building, Corporate Communications and Digital Strategy. She is currently working with Pakistan Stock Exchange as General Manager Marketing and Business Development since 2018. She has held senior positions at various corporates including Faysal Bank, UBL Fund Managers, PMEX, IGI Financial Services, Union Bank – Standard Chartered, Cyber Internet Services and Habib Oil Mills. Raeda Latif holds a Masters’ degree in Linguistics along with an MBA with double majors in Marketing and IT. She is a Certified Director from PICG and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (MCIM), UK. Aside from her career pursuit she has been a visiting faculty member for MBA courses like Brand Management, Advertising and Marketing Management at various Institutes including Greenwich University, Szabist, IBA and Karachi University Business School.

Graduated with an MBA degree from CBM, Urooj has almost a decade of experience in Digital Marketing, working on leading portfolios like Unilever, Nestle, Mobilink, FrieslandCampina and P&G. She has a diverse background of working in different functions of digital, mainly creative strategies, mobile marketing, media buying, PR and web technologies. Over the years, Urooj has evolved as a seasoned Touchpoint Strategist, who brings to the table the capability to spearhead an IMC approach ensuring that all forms of communications on different mediums, including both offline and online, work together in harmony.

A communication planning and strategic management professional with over 16 years of experience, Saeed is the Chief Operating Officer at Blitz, a top tier full-service advertising agency group in Pakistan. He has worked with an array of multinational and local clients for creative, conventional and digital media, content, activations and public relations. As a firm believer in knowledge sharing, he mentors future leaders at business schools and professional training and development programs; serving on the board of advisors for School of Leadership, board of faculty for management sciences at SZABIST, trainer and mentor at British Council’s DICE (Developing Inclusive and Creative Economies) initiative, and with IoBM as an adjunct faculty for Marketing, Advertising & Media Science programs. Saeed has always been associated with communication planning and strategic marketing, and has previously worked with Hip Media, Leo Burnett, and DDB in Pakistan.

Zeeshan leads an agency with the team at the forefront of applying data, creativity, media and technology to deliver the deepest of brand and consumer connections. He has over a decade and half of experience across every sector, led world class brands from both; a strategic and implementation perspective. Single-minded obsession, delivering on the “speed of need”. He also helps brands to deliver what, when and where people want. He is expertised in creating and managing high-performance teams to deliver business building communication in Pakistan.

Sharjeel Ahmad has been associated with the world of graphic design and advertising since 2004. After graduating from the department of Visual Studies at the University of Karachi with a degree in design, he has worked with Adcom, Spectrum Y&R, IAL Saatchi & Saatchi, and JWT. At present, he is Creative Director at Manhattan Communications. Some of his major contributions (beside teaching graphic design to university students) would be world renowned 'witty resignation of a graphic designer', Djuice - 'Khamoshi Ka Boycott' campaign, redesign of the logo of Jazz, launch of I M- KHI, TB eradication campaign and the 'meaning behind Pakistan's National Anthem' campaign for Bisconni Kids.

Fizza has 12 years of experience across markets including London, Sub-Saharan Africa, MENA, North America and Pakistan leading results driven brand building across categories ranging from Food, Beverages, Personal Care and Hygiene. Her recent professional passion projects in the local industry include Nescafe Basement Season 5 and name change of Fair and Lovely to Glow and Lovely.

The “Brand Man” of the telecom industry of Pakistan. Over 15 years of experience, Saif Khan has been a part of the top telecom companies like Telenor, Mobilink and currently at Zong as Head of Marketing & Communication for the past 3 years. A Middlesex University London, marketing graduate, specializes in brand positioning & Media strategies has launched brands and repositioned many, like Mobilink, Telenor, Telenor Talkshawk, Jazz, Djuice, Jazba and Jazz Cash. His recent campaigns for Zong have raised the bar in the advertising space and firmly positioned Zong as a formidable brand in the eyes of Pakistani consumers considering its build upon meaningful insights, actionable big ideas and a patriotic advertising platform.

Sobia is a marketing and branding professional with more than 17 years of experience in Banking, Technology, and Telecom industries. She’s passionate about brands and believes that good advertising can change the world. She is currently Head of Brands at Jazz. Previously she has been Marketing Director at Teradata and Senior Brand Manager at Ufone. She also mentors women professionals and entrepreneurs.

Adnan Shekhani is a senior industry executive in the marketing communications industry. A career spanning over 15 years, Adnan has seen many fields of the marketing world, from creative agency to activation & events to digital. After being in leading roles, Adnan setup his shop, The Blue Dot, Pakistan’s first hybrid agency with the objective to take on challenges based on ideas and regardless of medium. The Blue Dot does beautiful design, grand events, engaging content and high scale activations. It has also branched into a gaming studio by the name of Blame Game Production.

Ali has over 20 years of experience in management, marketing communications and advertising with leading advertising agencies and is credited for turning around 2 agencies from years of operating losses to positive earnings within the first year of taking over operational reigns. Ali focuses on building communication strategies that lead to work that is effective because it is fresh, entertaining and intelligent. He has extensive experience at senior management level working in top agencies on clients both multinational and local conglomerates. He has worked closely in sectors ranging from airlines, beverages, confectionary, dairy, energy drinks, pharmaceuticals, FMCG, telecom, tobacco and others. He has spent almost 2 years working on public relations for global brands such as P&G, Toyota Indus, Emirates Airlines & TCS. Ali has extensive experience of telecommunications industry and led the creative and media team that relaunched telecom leaders Mobilink, Telenor & Ufone in Pakistan and Banglalink in Bangladesh along with launching iconic brands like Indigo, Jazz, Talkshawk, Djuice & Easypaisa. In 2006 Aurora Awards his agency team won 9 awards for Telenor’s ad campaigns and PAS award for Ufone communications in 2012 & 2015. He is a prominent writer in leading marketing magazines and has been part of the jury for PAS Awards for 3 years and Effies for the past 2 years.

Hamza stands at the forefront of the fastest moving technology industry trend: Data and all things digital. He has spent the past 10 years evangelizing the industry-wide shift within the Telecoms to an integrated marketing model where an idea remains central to storytelling irrespective of the medium that brings it to life. As a millennial, still stuck in the 90s, Hamza believes the best way to see the future is to create it so he aims to continue narrating compelling stories. Hamza is also a certified corporate trainer, online citizen journalist, pop culture enthusiast & a proud patriot.

Qashif Effendi has over 25 years’ international experience of working at CEO, Director and General Management positions in multinationals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and South Asian regions. He has worked with Chevron, Philips, Unilever, Tetley, Abu Dhabi National Industrial Projects Co., UAE and currently as CEO at Reem Rice Mills (Pvt.) Ltd, a 100% multinational JV of Al Ghurair UAE and Al Mohaidib KSA. Brands like Philips Whirlpool, Dalda Cooking Oil, Brooke Bond Supreme, Tetley and Reem achieved tremendous growth during his stewardship. He is an alumnus of IBA with a passion for learning. He has been a visiting faculty at IBA, Szabist IOBM, KSBL and BNU for over 15 years teaching Brand Management, Marketing, Advertising and Technopreneur-ship. Voted as one of 100 top performing company CEO’s by CEO Club Pakistan. He is also an advisor to the Board of Pakistan Women Entrepreneurs Network for Trade (WE-NET).

Umer has about 15 years of diverse experience including top FMCGs like Unilever, Nestle, British American Tobacco (BAT), Reckitt Benckiser (RB) and Philips Morris International (PMI). He is an all-round marketeer backed up with experiences from across the commercial spectrum, including Brands, Sales, Trade Marketing and Commercial Digital Transformation. At Mehran, he has gone back to his first and true calling: Brands. He is also responsible for Digitization of MIS and Trade Marketing.

He has over two decades of work experience with strong work ethics in leadership, team building, strategic planning, marketing, branding, sales, advertising and digital marketing. He has worked on both ends of the branding world, client as well as the agency side and has got over 150+ ATL/BTL/Digital integrated, multi-channel campaigns under his belt. He started his career from Paktel Ltd (now Zong, CMPak), worked on the ATL of the FMCG giant Colgate-Palmolive during his tenure at Spectrum DYR (now Spectrum VMLY&R). He managed ATL for HBL, Bank Alfalah and Warid during his working with Synergy Advertising, headed marketing at Shield, headed Synite Digital with clients including Engro Foods, J., Almirah, Faysal Bank, Colgate-Palmolive & Standard Chartered, and is currently heading Marketing at Shangrila Foods.

Nauman Sikander Mirza is the CEO of Foodpanda Pakistan. Started off with an online food review platform called FCPakistan (Food Connection) in 2011 from his father’s living room. Within one year, FC managed to list 3,000 vendors, attracting 200,000 visitors per month. In 2013, Nauman rebranded FCPakistan to EatOye - an online food ordering platform, which in 2015 was acquired by Foodpanda. Since then, Nauman has been heading foodpanda's business in Pakistan, thereby becoming the head of one of the largest global e-commerce companies in the country.

Imtiaz is a marketer with over 15 years of experience in advertising, financial services and technology driven marketing including e commerce and digital analytics. He currently runs OrangeFox, Pakistan's only Mar-tech company where he helps many digital businesses. Prior to this, he was heading the digital products division at MCB Investments where he was responsible for digitizing end to end customer onboarding which is a first in Pakistan. Prior to MCB Investments, he was serving as Head of Marketing at Kaymu for the Asia region, which comprised a 7-country portfolio. He was also the Country Manager for Pakistan at Effective Measure, which is a digital audience measurement company headquartered in Australia. Imtiaz has a passion for understanding challenges to businesses and societies and loves to play a role in solving problems.

Awais Dhakan is the Executive Creative Director at Adcom Leo Burnett, and heads the nationwide creative footprint for the agency in Pakistan. He is also currently championing the integrated communication space for Adcom Leo Burnett, leading a team of digital and content specialists across a number of P&G brands and other client portfolios. He began his career in advertising as a copywriter at Spectrum Y&R while still at college. He then moved to Adcom Leo Burnett where he led the Telenor business as a Creative Director, creating some of the most iconic and trend-setting campaigns in Pakistan. During his 17+ years in the industry, Awais has worked on a diverse set of top global brands including Telenor, Samsung, Ariel, Pampers, Always, Gillette, Safeguard, Honda Motorcycles, FrieslandCampina Engro and Colgate-Palmolive. In the last ten years of his tenure, Adcom Leo Burnett has become one of the most awarded agencies in the country, with his work consecutively winning at the Effie Awards and previously, the Pakistan Advertisers’ Society Awards (PAS).

Umair Anwar, living and working in Lahore, is a creative and design lead with more than 12-years’ worth of advertising experience. He has worked with international brands such as Coke, Sprite, Fanta, Dasani, Cappy, Schweppes and Velo. He recently launched his own company by the name of “We Are Transmedia” which is an independent multidisciplinary creative studio that aims to tell stories and create experiences through cutting-edge design. Additionally, he is also the first award-winning GIF-artist of Pakistan with his work displayed in international venues across the Middle East, Brazil and U.S.A.

Syed Omar has held senior position in leading organizations including Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company, British American Tobacco and Toyota Indus Motor Company. He has done his MBA from LUMS, as well as executive course from London Business School. His interest is to develop the human resource capital of Pakistan for which he has in collaboration with global Toyota educational program provided Auto Mechanical and Technical training thereby enabling the youth to generate employment and become self-sufficient. Omar’s hobbies include playing golf and hiking for which he has been a member of Margalla hill society which promotes conservatism of the Margalla hill forest.

Faisal got his degree in Marketing from South Eastern University. He started his career with Emirates International Bank where he was working in the Private Banking Unit. During his 2 year stay he was awarded employee of the year. Faisal then moved to the world of advertising and had been associated with the field for almost two decades. He worked with prestigious names such as Orient McCann, Circuit FCB, Fourays Advertising, JWT, Publicis, Ogilvy & Mather and BBDO. He has the privilege of heading one of the most growing and young agencies in the world of WPP as he started off with heading the Client Service department and then got promoted to head of office in Lahore, where he headed a team of 50 people and handled clients like Coca Cola, Nestle, Warid, British American Tobacco, British Petroleum, Unilever, IBM and many others. Faisal then moved to Lahore and headed BBDO Pakistan and was handling business for PepsiCo products. He then launched Proximity in Pakistan which is a Digital Agency of BBDO group. His biggest achievement while at BBDO was leading a team of creatives and winning international awards like Cannes Lions, LIA, Clio, D&AD, Lynx and many more. Faisal is currently running Digital Invasion Films, a digital production house based in Karachi.

Born October 1984, Fahad Bombaywala is a film writer and a seasoned creative consultant based in Pakistan. He has a Bachelor's degree in Visual Arts, started his advertising career in 2008 with Adcom. By 2010 he completed his Master’s degree in Philosophy. Before M&C Saatchi he has worked with Grey Pakistan, Sandpaper, Leo Burnett, J. Walter Thompson, Ogilvy, IAL Saatchi & Saatchi, Catwalk Productions and Circuit | DraftFCB. Fahad’s portfolio boasts a wide range of local and international brands ranging from telecom, food, confectionery, beverages, dairy, personal care, financial industry, tobacco to pharmaceuticals, technology and development sector.

Mrs. Saima Qamar did Masters in Psychology (University of Karachi 1989; Advanced Diploma in Clinical Psychology post magisterial University of Punjab in 1992). She has almost three decades of experience in marketing & market research coupled with local & International exposure and known as ‘GURU’ in Qualitative research of Pakistan. She has trained and groomed most of the lead moderators today operating in Pakistan, as well as played a pivotal role in establishing Qualitative research in Pakistan as a serious research tool. Her multifaceted experience strategy and planning, team building, product / service development, and essential integrated communication has given her a unique 360-degree perspective required for any business. Her Marketing Research experience comprises of corporate communications, strategic client consulting, business management and development, systems / protocols and knowledge development / management, and developing, managing, and training teams. During this tenure, she has headed business units in leading agencies like Aftab associates, Nielsen and Oasis, eventually becoming CEO of KMRB and Chairperson of Kantar Pakistan Post retirement from Kantar as chairperson Pakistan, she has started her own consultancy; Tender Dragon Consulting company, providing clients research, training and capacity building services in the field of marketing and communication. She has also started practicing as clinical psychologist reverting to her academic qualification.

Shayan has a decade of specialized experience in managing Media on conventional and digital platforms. At present, he is Media & Digital Manager for RB Pakistan and is responsible for developing media communication strategy and digital transformation. Previously, he contributed his efforts and dedications as Media Manager for Pepsi Pakistan & Category Manager in Mindshare Pakistan.

Saad has spent the better part of his decade-and-a-half career crafting stories for many of the leading brands in Pakistan. He shepherded media and connection assignments on leading advertiser accounts for a decade at Starcom. Saad then moved to Coca-Cola as Media Manager for Pakistan & Afghanistan. There, he expanded his forte to include scaling massive on-ground events – overseeing the expansion of Coke-Fest. He also dabbled in leading marketing for Zameen.com for a quick second. Within 2 years, he was back at what he loved doing most: shaping strategy for integrated campaigns. For the most recent couple of years, Saad has been doing just that, both independently and with symmetry Group as Director Strategy. His portfolio includes work on P&G, Coca-Cola, Telenor, Samsung, Zong and Jazz among others.

A dynamic and highly adaptable Senior Executive with global and local brands background. In these two and a half years at Bisconni - Ismail Industries, he has developed innovative brands and making success stories out of struggling ones. The list would be too long to recount here, but one of his recent achievements include the successful conceptualization and launch of Bisconni Kids and Bisconni Music, two new asset development for the organization.

Hasan understands the emerging markets and has a background in working with policymakers, large corporations and commercial stakeholders. At HBL, Hasan leads the digital marketing team, tasked to inculcate a culture of data-driven decision making and enhancing the digital profile of the bank. Prior to HBL, he was at Telenor and has been instrumental in establishing gaming business for the Emerging Asia Cluster (Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar). Additionally, Hasan has been in the developing markets (Middle East, Africa, South Asia) for a decade-and-a-half working on business growth and category development at blue-chip companies such as Standard Chartered, Ernst & Young, International Data Corporation, and Telenor. He has done his Masters in International Business from CERAM Business School in France, an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from LUMS and a number of executive courses from LBS, INSEAD, LSE and IMD. Moreover, Hasan is a water sports enthusiast and has been part of various swimming, water polo and sailing teams as an amateur.

Saher with almost a decade and a half of sharing insight-based brand stories, brought her a wealth of experience in both national and multinational brands, in ATL as well as Digital domain. She has creatively led some of the most iconic brands of Pakistan such as Knorr, Surf excel, EFU, Dalda, Kolson and Nesvita, to name a few. Her ability to tap into the true Pakistani culture that sets her apart in creating insightful advertising that sells. Saher has spent most of her time with MullenLowe Rauf, in 2020. She became independent and is now working as a Creative Consultant at different agencies.

Nofil Naqvi has been working in the media in Pakistan and the UK since 1997. He helped launch Pepsi Battle of the Bands, Coke Studio, and the video service on bbcurdu.com. He has produced, directed and shot innumerable documentaries, commercials and TV Shows. At present, he’s working as Head of Content at Z2C, Brainchild, Starcom Pakistan, where his unit specialises in digital videos and branded documentaries. Recently, he has been working on a series of videos for Google Pakistan, which can be seen on the Google South Asia YouTube channel.

Owais has been working for advertising for over a decade now. He started as a copywriter with Manhattan Pakistan (Leo Burnett back in 2007). Then, he served as Creative Director for Blitz till 2014. He has also been a part of the creative teams at Spectrum and Manhattan International. He started his own company, the-AJENCY, in 2014. Primarily, a conventional advertising agency, where we now serve clients for both conventional and digital mediums. Some of our current clients include J., NDMA, Amreli Steels, Kia Motors Macca, Young’s and the Unique Group of Companies.

Kamil Yousuf has over a decade and a half of experience in the world of consumer sciences. He is expert in diving into and uncovering the consumer truth to keep pace with the ever-evolving market landscape.

Rabiya is a marketing enthusiast with over a decade of experience & has a sustained track record in brand building, turnaround of many brands and businesses with diverse set of categories ranging from Biscuits, Beverages, Confectionary, Recipe Mixes, Instant Noodles, Fats & Spreads with multinational and local organizations.

Rabia has almost a decade of research and insights experience, truly believes that great business results can only be achieved by keeping consumers at the center of every decision. She has been heading Analytics & Insights function for P&G for the past 4 years, exhibiting great passion for consumer values to be at the heart of all brands. Rabia is also actively involved in developing communications that bring about meaningful business results.

Agha, the seasoned marketing communication and media professional encompassing over 17 years of experience in brand building, with a proven record of managing projects across multiple touchpoints and geographies, from concept to completion, designing innovative & winning communications and coaching individuals to success, in various settings including in-house, broadcast media, consultancy and agency. In his current role as Director GroupM ESP, Agha leads seamless integration with agency teams across GroupM Pakistan to create and present integrated marketing communication strategies, creative-content solutions, influencer marketing programs, innovations, partnerships, corporate- branded events, actionable thought leadership and engendering relationships with a diverse client portfolio and strategic partners. Springboard for ESP’s strategic vision, bottom-line, day-to-day operations, re-engineering structures, acquiring new business, setting-up new revenue streams and a team of creative / content strategy, client service and operational resources. Furthermore, Agha is also a GroupM APAC Coach, trained in Corporate Coaching by Angela Ryan through an International Coach Federation (ICF) certified program.

Fahad Ahmed, a dynamic and highly skilled Digital Marketer, currently working as Unit Head-Digital Marketing at HBL, who thrives on professionalism and detail orientation. He has over 17 years of experience in FMCG companies and gained an expertise in MarCom, Digital Marketing, Offline and Online Media and Brand Activation. Fahad’s motive is to inspire, motivate and educate on how to leverage emerging technologies and digital marketing to bring about the much-needed digital transformation in order to stand out from the noise.

Seema has a background in Socio-economic development with an expertise in Communications. She has served as member of the organizing committee for Adasia 2019 & as a board member of the Pakistan Advertising Association. She is also a Trustee for the Karachi Biennale Trust & on the governing Board for APWA RLCC & Circle Pakistan. Additionally, Seema is a key expert on Human Rights & Communications for Huqooq-e-Pakistan, a joint initiative between the European Union & the Ministry of Human Rights. She has also served on various juries including the Pakistan Advertisers Society, the IVSAA Communication Design Jury, SZABIST Media Studies Jury, Habib University Communication Design Jury, She Loves Tech, the NEST Jury for Women's Startup Weekend among others. Seema is strongly committed to women empowerment and is involved in pro bono communication work for a number of organisations including TCF, Special Olympics, APWA RLCC & Karawan-e-Hayat.

Anjum has a career spanning over 25 years in advertising, journalism, development, government and the corporate sector. She is a strategic communication expert and sustainability champion with unique insights into campaign design, execution and stakeholder engagement. Her selected experiences are Telebiz (CNBC-Asia), Lowe, CNN, Express News, the Canadian High Commission, Telenor, the World bank, Jazz and Khaadi.

Noor has more than two decades of Marketing and General Management experience in retail and FMCG. Starting off with Pepsi as a management trainee, he then served as Marketing Manager for Igloo ice-cream. Followed by IBL as Group Brand Manager - consumer division, getting promoted to Director & General Manager for Habitt Home Stores, Dunkin Donuts, and National Paints. As Chief Marketing Officer, KFC Pakistan for the last 7 years, Noor has been pivotal in the areas of marketing, team building, customer loyalty, and business development, turning it around to the best QSR chain of Pakistan.

Sajid possesses more than 2 decades of experience in research industry. Spent major part of career with Unilever, held various positions in Pakistan, UAE and Saudi Arabia. As lead contact for Consumer & Market Insights, Sajid contributed in Annual Strategic Planning for different product categories through Brand Audits and other important Analyses. In 2013, Sajid started own Research & Activations Agency, Prism Consulting Pvt Ltd, providing services to various local and international companies – across Pakistan. He has keen interest in developing talent in respective fields. For this, he played active role in reviving Market Research Society of Pakistan. Also, from time to time, he delivers lectures at leading educational institutions as visiting faculty & guest speaker. Sajid enjoys traveling and is always interested in getting to know different cultures, people and geographies.

Syed Salman Ali, the Country Manager LAMIPAK, part of the APP group Indonesia, world’s first in Pulp and Paper business with a USD $ 30 billion Revenue in 2019. Syed Salman Ali, is also the founder of BrandKey Communications. Brandkey Communications work with their partner agency in KSA where they provide complete creative services to brands like HYUNDAI KSA, GEELY KSA and CARRIER KSA. In Pakistan, BrandKey has worked as consultants to various brands as part of their Relaunch and Launch program such as NOKIA, HOBNOB BAKERIES, KELLOGG’S PAKISTAN, TRIFIT LIMITED, DAIRYLAND, ENGRO FERTILIZERS and RIGHT CHOICE and some key projects in the social sector like FESF DEAF REACH SCHOOLS, KARWAN E HAYAT, Patients Aid Foundation. He is also a trustee to an England based charity organization, CHARITY RIGHT. Salman Ali, is also Marketing Lead for NOKIA Mobiles Pakistan. He was GM Marketing and GM Content Management at Friesland Campina Engro Pakistan Limited, (Formerly Engro Foods Limited) till 2017 before launching Brandkey Communications

Kiran is an eternal optimist who refuses to get jaded even after two decades in the advertising industry. She has come a long way from her days at JWT, which she joined fresh out of the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in 1999. She then took a break and went for her Masters to Academy of Art University, San Francisco. Upon her return she joined Mullen Lowe and Rauf and swiftly climbed the ladder to Executive Creative Director. Her stellar career has seen her market everything from cars to tea, detergent to instant noodles, cooking oil to dairy. Currently, Kiran is working as a Consultant and enjoying playing with the kids in the house, both of the four and two-legged kind.

Fatima has over 17 years of hybrid planning and strategy experience across UAE and Canada, working with leading CPGs, Banking, and Tech clients. She joined Brainchild as Planning Director for Starcom and Mediavest and has since been a critical team member in winning and retaining key businesses such as NFL, Telenor, Coca -Cola to name a few. Recently promoted to Chief Strategy Officer for Z2C group, a role in which she is responsible for steering new group projects ranging from ecommerce to sports entertainment to data and measurement from conception to execution. Stress testing them for viability with a team of project leads and financial analysts. Her ability to think linearly makes her best suited to the role. Additionally, Fatima is passionate about great stories – listening to, reading them and crafting them and will be looking at cases from the same perspective.

Somair has been part of the advertising industry in Pakistan for the last 14 years. He started his career with GroupM mindshare in 2007, planning media for brands like HBL, Shell, Pepsi & later moved to MEC where he launched Engro Foods portfolio on media before joining Adcom in 2012. As General Manager at Adcom Zenith, he is leading the social, digital & traditional media divisions, working with 40+ leading brands of the country like K&Ns, OLX, L’Oreal, Emaar, RB, GSK & Daraz. Along with his team of over 60 specialized resources working across functions, Somair has been providing integrated marketing solutions for clients across categories delivering business results.

István was working at Ammirati Puris Lintas, Saatchi & Saatchi, DDB & was ECD at JWT. After this, he set up the independent ad agency White Rabbit Budapest where he has been working for more than ten years. White Rabbit Budapest is one of the Founding Members of the global network for independent agencies, called by The Network. Additionally, his work has been awarded at D&AD, Cannes Lions, One Show, Clio, LIA, ADC, Immortal Awards, New York Festivals, Webby Awards, Epica and he won a dozen Effies, including a Grand Prix. He was jury member at Clio, LIA, One Show, New York Festivals, Webby Awards, Cannes Young Lions, AdStars, Mobius Awards, Cresta. He is also member of D&AD, The One Club and The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.

Faisal Sheikh is the Founder & CEO of Jack of Digital, the exclusive resellers for TikTok and ESKIMI in Pakistan. Before establishing the digital ads resale business, Faisal spent almost a decade, with one of the largest media buying houses in Pakistan, developing and leading the digital advertising practice. Generally, prefers anonymity because of rare genetic mutation, resulting in strong propensity to be opinionated about changes in consumer behavior and media landscape. When clearer thoughts prevail, tries to evangelize the Digital & Data usage for brands and believes that Digital Transformation is needed to avoid the next zombie apocalypse. He has 2 post-graduate degrees from SZABIST, an MBA with a concentration in Marketing & MIS and an MS in Management Sciences with a specialization in eCRM. Additionally, Faisal has professional qualifications from Digital Marketing Institute, Dublin, Ireland and Management & Leadership certification from MIT Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, USA.

Kaleem-Uz-Zaman is an insight inspired business professional who has been humbled in the learning journey by setting up companies, teams, functions and launching & re-launching brands within the research & FMCG industry across major markets like Middle East, Africa, & Asia (a mix of developed & developing markets). The last 5 years within “The Coca-Cola Company” while working in the Strategy & Insights work stream for ‘MENA & PAR’ markets has helped him to reconnect with Pakistani consumers and market more intimately.

Saad Khan is an optimist at heart and an entrepreneur by choice. After graduating from LUMS with an MBA, Saad spent most of his career working with large multinational corporations namely ICI Pakistan, Shell Pakistan, Telenor and Mobilink before jumping onto the entrepreneurship band wagon. He founded Activemedia in 2010. The company experienced exponential growth since its inception and is now perceived by many to be the leading activation and events agency in Pakistan. In his personal life, he loves to play with his two kids and rides a motorcycle with friends on the weekends.

Zehra Zaidi has been leading the Coca-Cola portfolio for Pakistan, along with Velo, British American Tobacco and recently Shan Foods personally. She has more than fifteen years of experience in the field of advertising and has also been able to win global pitches and successfully placing Pakistan on the map. Although a design graduate, Zehra has been leading the creative idea and ensuring its liquidity across the Creative Strategy, Integrated Marketing, Creative Direction & Content, Design and Digital Communication for most of the brands that she’s working on. Additionally, she has been recognized globally as well as locally with awards and has been nominated for 30for30 Women in Leadership by Ogilvy ASEAN May 2019 and selected as Ponds Miracle Woman 2016. In 2019, she attended Berlin School of Creative Leadership for a diploma in Creative Leadership. At present, Zehra is working as a Group Executive Creative Director at Ogilvy Pakistan and has been actively teaching advertising at institutes and mentors’ women in communication when time allows her to.

Mohtashim has over 16 years of experience in the market research field in the MENAP region, at both client and agency. He started his career with Nielsen, worked for the Publicis group and Kantar in KSA and UAE & before joining Unilever heading their insights team for Pakistan where he led the CMI team, providing market insight as part of strategic planning exercises for the overall business and all of its categories/brands. He is currently associated with Ipsos Pakistan as the lead for their Marketing Strategy & Understanding service line. Additionally, Mohtashim has wide exposure to various research tools and methodologies such as Household Panels, Brand Tracking, Shopper and Media

Ahmer is an Entrepreneur, a seasoned Market Researcher and Market Strategist and has over 25 years of experience. He is founder and CEO of Markematics, a renowned local market research agency and Markematics Digital, an IT startup focusing Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Survey & Analytics Tools, BPO. Before Markematics, Ahmer was instrumental in establishing two major research MNCs in Pakistan, Nielsen and MEMRB. He has also worked with GlaxosmithKline and Eli Lilly Pakistan where he was responsible for research and NPD. Ahmer was former President of Market Research Society of Pakistan. He has significant contribution in developing the Pakistani research industry and have several credits including Launch of National Readership Survey in 2006 which becomes the Print media currency in Pakistan, Launch of Pakistan’s first ever Single Source Study Consumer Multimedia Index (CMI) in 2008, Launch of first ever BTL evaluation tool “InterACT” and Published a research paper that was accepted by ESOMAR and printed in the ESOMAR Journal. He has also pioneered Advance Analytics expertise in Pakistan including Consumer Segmentation, Perceptual Mapping, Jaccard Analysis, Conjoint Models etc. Furthermore, Ahmer has vast working experience of almost all major FMCG sectors and clients including but not limited to Unilever, P&G, RB, CP, Pepsi, Coke, Engro, NFL, Shan, Tapal, PTC, PMI as well as other non-FMCG sectors including Telecom, Banking, Cement, Paints, Social to name a few.

Jawwad is one of the pioneers in digital advertising industry in Pakistan with over 12 years of experience in leading digital and mobile advertising teams for some of the top digital agencies in Pakistan including Converge, DHQ, The Brand Crew and PHD before embarking on his entrepreneurial journey. For the last half-a-decade, Jawwad has been focused on the possibilities of the mobile world, starting off with launching a missed call based mobile startup Flashcall which for the first-time allowed bottom of the pyramid customers to engage with brand digitally. Currently, Jawwad is working as the Country Representative for World’s largest mobile ad network Inmobi in Pakistan and helping the leading agencies in developing cutting edge mobile solutions. In addition, as Founder of JVENTURES, Jawwad is working on Augmented reality solutions for brands on Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram platforms.

Junaid is the youngest Country Managing Director in the L’Oréal world. He has an accelerated professional career in sales and marketing spanning over 13 years between Unilever and L’Oréal. He is an avid marketer with strong experience of brand communication & strategy, digital marketing, product development and business modelling and has won Marketing campaign accolades locally and internationally. Additionally, he has worked in Pakistan and the global headquarters of L’Oréal in Paris France, heading brand development for 24+ countries. Apart from his day job, Junaid is a filmmaking and photography enthusiast and believes in the power of brands and businesses with purpose. His obsession is to bring Pakistan and its people to the global stage with their immense potential.

Irteza has 17 years of professional experience including Sales & Brand management, Trade marketing, Consumer & Shopper Insights and Corporate Planning & Strategy with exposure of 2 regions (Middle East & Pakistan and North Africa) and 3 countries (Pakistan, UAE and Morocco). He started his career in 2003 as a Brand Officer in KOLSON Foods and later also served as Area Sales Manager in Karachi. He managed brands of Snacks, Pasta, Vermicelli and Cereals categories during the tenure and was also leading some key initiatives like “KOLSON Kids Club” and “Ap ka Khadim” which was a pilot project of company operated retail outlet with home delivery services. He then joined Nielsen Pakistan in 2006 and worked on several consumer research and Shopper projects. Based on his performance in Nielsen Pakistan, he was the first to be deployed outside the Middle East & Pakistan region (in Morocco) for a period of 3 months and later after a year of his return he was transferred to UAE office where he served for almost 4 years and was managing the business of some key & selected clients of UAE and later was assigned additional responsibility of BOQK (Bahrain, Oman, Qatar & Kuwait) region. In 2016, he returned to Pakistan and joined Pakistan State Oil, to develop a Market Research function that to provide insights to the business lines for effective strategy development. Since March 2020, he has been assigned the Brand Management department along with Market Research function. Additionally, he is extremely a persistent, focused, self-motivated and a self-challenged & a people’s person and strongly believe in collective success, develop the talent and motivate the team to achieve excellence.

Sadia Dada has over 15 years of experience in Communications and Media. She has worked on the corporate image of some of the biggest brands in the country – Mobilink, Nestle, K-Electric, Unilever and is currently working at Philip Morris as Director Communications. In addition to being a crisis management specialist, during her versatile and multi-sectoral career Sadia has launched and driven various award-winning Sustainable Community Development Projects that contribute to the organizational bottom line while building brand love. Moreover, Sadia is also the Founder of Women in Numbers, an exclusive online networking community for working women, and also runs a neighborhood support initiative in Shirin Jinnah (Maid to Shop) that engages and supports domestic maids on sending their daughters to school. She is truly a fan of travelling solo & recommends it at least once a year.

An entrepreneur driven by his passion to give back to society, Aleem is among distinguished personalities of Pakistan’s marketing, advertising, media, and public relations sectors. During his professional career spanning over two decades, he excelled in brand marketing introducing new brands that to this day rule Pakistani households. He also founded Media Pulse and Media Matters – Pakistan’s leading media planning and public relations firms respectively – providing expert consulting to a diverse range of top-notch multinational and blue-chip organizations. In addition to, Aleem has served on the executive council of the Marketing Association of Pakistan (MAP) and the media technical committee of Pakistan Advertisers Society (PAS), a Member of Electronic Media Council of Pakistan Advertising Association (PAA) besides being associated with business schools as a visiting faculty member. He actively participates in social development programs and strives to nurture the most talented winning teams in advertising, media planning, and communication sectors. Aleem holds a Master’s degree in Marketing, in addition to several leadership courses under his belt.

Shehryar Ahmad is the Marketing Director for PepsiCo Middle East, Africa & South Asia Sector. He is a seasoned yet current marketer with 15+ years in the industry having worked with various global companies including PepsiCo, Nestle & TOTAL across multiple geographies in Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and Pakistan. Shehryar is passionate about building & growing brands through consumer obsession, disruption & Marketing tech. He believes in marketing as the perfect convergence of Art & Science that has helped him lead some of the most successful marketing teams, innovations & campaigns in the businesses he has had the pleasure of working with.

Shahbaz is a Global citizen, Creative junkie, Technology geek, Art Lover, Floyd worshipper, Cricket buff & a Proud dad. He is award-winning creative soul, with over 23 years of through-the-line experience in a wide range of sectors, across Asia-Pacific, U.S.A and Middle East. He worked for agencies such as Asiatic JWT, JWT Bangkok, Interflow, Ogilvy, Fallon, Carmichael Lynch, ICLP, Promoseven 360, MullenLowe Mena & Momentum. He combines innovative thinking with a commercial eye to ensure creativity that gets results. During his career, he has worked on brands like American Express, Shell Oil, Lipton, Close-up, Hyundai, Polaris, Coleman, Timex Watches, BMW, Gibson Guitars, Qualcomm, Skywards, DHL, Porsche, Pepsi, McDonalds, GNB, GM, Opel, Emaar, The Dubai Mall, Subway, Canon and many others. Additionally, his work has been recognized at various international creative awards shows, including Cannes, Clio’s, New York Festivals, Spikes Asia, Summit International Awards, Golden Montreux, One Show, Epica, The Webby to name a few.

Hassan Imtiazi is a Digital Marketing veteran who helped grow & professional brands & Non-Profits across UK, USA & Canada. After spending 11 years working in digital for multimillion dollar brands, Hassan knows what truly drives conversions & activate brands. He helped many faith-based charities raised more than $70 million in the last 10 years. Hassan is one of the few British Pakistani’s who has been Interviewed by Google for his exceptional campaigns in 2012 & 2015. Hassan holds a MA in International Business from the University of Northumbria at Newcastle. He completed Certificate & Postgrad diploma in Digital from IDM-UK and Certificate in Brand Building from Judge Business School at Cambridge University. Additionally, Hassan has also trained digital staff in numerous companies. He has a passion to travel across the Globe, travelled more than 15 countries and still counting. He likes watching movies, listening music and a food lover.

Faiza is an Avid Storyteller, Ideas ATM & Strategy Advocate, jumped deep into the bad, bad world of advertising more than 17 years ago and never looked back. With award-winning work under her belt, Faiza remains a woman on a mission to create and curate great advertising. Additionally, she is always in a state of evolution, combines ingenuity and innovation, fostering a deeper resonance on all platforms.

Sunil Gupta has spent over four decades in the marketing communication industry. He is a man of many parts. He commenced his advertising career in 1978, after completing his MBA. Till 2002 he was with JWT India in senior positions and worked with the largest MNCs and Indian Business Groups. Since 2002, he represents two global advisory firms in South Asia; Results International Group LLP and Aprais Worldwide Ltd, both headquartered in London. Sunil is also a Consultant and Trainer in Brand Communication and has visited Pakistan often on such assignments. He has been a guest lecturer in prestigious business schools in India, including IIM-Lucknow. His first book on his experiences in the Indian advertising industry (Living on the ‘Adge’ in JhandeWalan Thompson) was published in 2009. He has also contributed to an anthology by eminent authors and personalities on the COVID-19 pandemic titled, The Phoenix Rises – Lockdown Chronicles in 2020. His third book, Final Innings, a psychological drama set in the world of cricket was published in November 2020. Additionally, Sunil is also an accomplished theatre actor & has performed in over 50 plays in India, Moscow, St Petersburg, as well as in Lahore in the Rafi Peer International Theatre Festival. He has acted in the movies Talvar, Mom, and Vijaynagar. He has recently performed in The Family Man and Breathe-Into the Shadows (Prime Video). Furthermore, he is an established cricket commentator on AIR, a panelist for the BBC podcast Stumped, and has done TV commentary for the Star Sports Pro-Kabaddi League. Sunil lives in Gurgaon, India, with his wife Sunita, their two daughters and three temperamental canines.

Amna Khatib Paracha is a veteran of the media industry and has been part of the communication world since the last two decades. She started her career with Interflow moving to Joining Mindshare in 2001, where she joined as a Media planner and then climbed the ranks to Head of Corporate Planning Business & in 2008, from Mindshare, Amna moved to Pak Mediacom (now Starcom). In 2009, she joined Universal McCann - the media arm of Orient McCann in the capacity of COO and started and led the media business. After a couple of years, Amna shifted career from Traditional communication planning to Digital planning when she joined Converge Technology and led the digital business in the capacity of Vice President of the company. Under her leadership, the company rose to one of the top Digital agencies of Pakistan working on Unilever, Nestle and Mobilink digital businesses. Later on, Amna re-Joined GroupM in 2014 and established the Digital arm for GroupM which works across all the group agencies in Pakistan, and is now the leading Digital agency in Pakistan. For their achievements in 2016 & 17, they also won Campaign Asia "GOLD" Digital agency of Pakistan along with outshining the SAF GroupM agencies by being crowned the New ME award winner. In addition, Amna's expertise is spread across Brand and Communication Strategic planning, Innovation and Ideation in Traditional & Digital media. Also setting up successful business operations & Trainings and business development.

Omer’s expertise spans 21 years, across both B2C and B2b strategic marketing, sales, product management and marketing communications. He has a solid advertising background, having worked as a group account manager with Prestige Communications, early in his career. His diverse professional journey includes experience in key leadership roles across global organizations. Omer has previously worked with Samsung Consumer Electronics, British American Tobacco, Tetra Pak as a Global Marketing Manager on a long-term international assignment based in Modena, Italy which he also considers as the highlight of his career. During his global assignment, Omer has launched the world’s first beverage carton package made entirely from renewable, plant-based materials. Additionally, his academic qualification includes a Master’s in Business Administration from IoBM, Karachi and professional level certification in Product Management from Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK. He is also a fellow of the Leadership Trust UK and has done multiple leadership courses internationally. At present, Omer is working as a Commercial Leader for global lighting leader Signify (formerly Philips lighting), based in Karachi.

Farhan joined Starcom Pakistan in March 2017. He was with Starcom MENA for a decade and worked on industries like Automotive, FMCG, Telecom Technology, Healthcare & Fashion. He is a dynamic & performance driven professional with 19 years of media and research experience across different geographies at both multinational and local conglomerates. He has an entrepreneurial leadership style with the passion, tenacity and vision in directing core management activities to drive business growth with key focus on Digital media. Farhan is a “disruptor” who has the innovative strategic planning skills to create “Meaningful Human Experiences” that lasts long term brand & consumer relationship. Additionally, he believes focusing & investing in Data & Technology to become future ready agency & also believes that nothing is impossible if you have the will.

EBM’s DGM Marketing, Aaminah Saeed leads a team of 18 marketers managing a portfolio of 17 brands. As a part of the executive leadership team, she is also involved in critical decision-making processes, business growth strategy, innovation, planning and implementation. She has over 15 years of expertise in core marketing functions at companies like Nestle, Coke & Loreal.

Umer is currently working at Packages as Head of Tissue Business managing Rose Petal and Tulip brands. After doing MBA from LUMS in 2009, he joined Nestlé Pakistan and worked in trade marketing. In December 2013, he joined Packages and worked in various roles including marketing, sales and at present, at general management role.

Raheel Pasha Khan has an 18-year experience of leading brands across some of the top MNCs in Pakistan, such as Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser & Unilever. He has worked on a variety of categories, ranging from Home Care to Packaged Foods to Personal Care. His last stint before entering the world of entrepreneurship, was heading the Personal Care business of Unilever, as Marketing Director. In 2018, Raheel started his marketing services & consultancy firm, Woot and since then, Woot has grown to handle & launch numerous local & international brands, while operating from Pakistan & Middle East.

Asif is Chief Commercial Officer of Jazz, Pakistan’s leading telecom operator with over 65 million subscribers. Asif led the rebrand of Mobilink to JAZZ, which was a more customer focused brand. He was then instrumental in the merger of Jazz and Warid, having successfully transferred the brand equity of Warid to build a new, reinvigorated Jazz brand. He has over 27 years of experience in telecom organisations across Europe, Africa and Middle East. He is a specialist in launching services in technologically challenged & emerging markets. Asif is a British national, with master’s degree in business Administration from Ashridge Management School, UK. Additionally, Asif is a Chartered Marketer having gained his certification in 1997. Moreover, he is a global citizen having lived in multiple countries. He is fluent in English, Urdu and has a basic proficiency of Arabic and French.

Naveed is an energetic, action-oriented business leader with almost three-decades of rich experience with some of the leading blue-chip companies (includes; Unilever, Coco-Cola, Pepsi-Lipton International, Fonterra, HBL) across different geographies like South Asia, Middle East, Africa & CIS. He takes pride in building some of the most high voltage brands and teams. Naveed is considered to be a dynamic communicator; a strategic thinker, possessing strong interpersonal skills. At present, he is the Chief Executive Officer at GroupM.

Narmeen Khan joined Mondelez in Pakistan in 2005 from Unilever where she successfully developed and grew the chocolate business by 25% CAGR, 2005-2013 and led Cadbury Dairy Milk to its current market leader status of one of the most loved brands within the country. In 2014 Narmeen moved to Dubai in a regional role looking after Cadbury Chocolate portfolio for the MEA region. Her notable contributions include development and introduction of chocolate innovations namely Bubbly, Marvelous Creations, CDM Oreo, Share bags and 5Star in the MEA region. She progressed through a number of senior category positions before taking on her last assignment as Meals Equity and Innovation lead for Middle East & Africa region. Narmeen moved back to Pakistan in Oct 2018 as Managing Director for Mondelez Pakistan business and orchestrated a business turnaround which has seen the business grow over 20% year on year since the start of 2019. Additionally, she is happily married with 2 daughters, 18 and 13 years old.

Shariq is a career marketing professional with proven record of achievements in business development and brand management across industries. He has a diverse sales & marketing experience having worked in both Telecom as well as FMCG sectors locally and internationally. At present, he is working as Vice President Commercial North for Telenor Pakistan & he prides himself as a consumer champion.

Azam Jalal Khan is the CEO and Co-founder of Digitz with over 18 years of global experience in the digital media and technology industry. He completed his Bachelors in Canada with a double major in Computer Science and Internet Marketing. Azam’s first job in university was to pick tomatoes for $4.5/- hour cash at the Tomato farms in Leamington, Ontario in -15 Degrees Celsius, where he got fired for taking a nap in the watering-aisles In addition to starting out as software developer, Azam worked with global organizations, such as AON, Travelex and GM. After few years of 25 hours days, he realized that he was meant to be out there, rather than the 'coding' chair. The next decade followed working with Digital Media and Technology companies in North America, developing cool technologies and new media for multiple platforms and brands. Azam decided to move back to Pakistan in 2011 to spend time with his parents and fell in love with Karachi again. He proceeded to co-found and head Digitz, which has now become Pakistan’s largest Digital Marketing Communications company. Additionally, he is an avid reader, a gadget-head and a certified solo skydiver.

Abbas is a global Marketing and Insights leader. He is currently leading Human Insights for Coca-Cola globally, spanning 200+ countries. He is one of the most awarded marketers at Coca-Cola Company having won 3 Global Innovation Awards from the Board of Directors over last two years, as well as being awarded Pakistan Marketer of the year by Effies in 2019. Previously, Abbas led marketing for Coca-Cola Pakistan leading Coke to become the biggest food & beverage brand in Pakistan. He also led Sound of the Nation, Coke Studio for which is also the largest digital asset of the Coca-Cola Company globally with 10B+ minutes of watch time. He also designed Coke Fest, which is the largest experiential marketing platform in Asia.

Amena Khan is an established tier-1 commercial Film Director and a leading brand name in Pakistan’s media. She has been actively working in various fields of media professionally since 1992, in varying roles including director, actor, editor, anchor, voice-actor, producer & colorist. Additionally, she has deftly handled varying film genres, formats and treatment styles over the years with a unique flair, continues to build image and create communications for leading corporate brands and has launched successful careers of well-known music stars, both within Pakistan & internationally. She has extensive shooting experience with large and small crew strengths in Pakistan, Thailand, Dubai, London, Paris, Melbourne, Singapore, KL. Amena constantly takes on challenges, loves to experiment and keeps setting new industry standards.

Adnan is a former Chief Innovation Officer at Adcom Leo Burnett (Zenith), spanning over two-and-a-half decades of experience of delivering award-winning communication solutions for top tier local and multi-national brands. Under his leadership as Creative Director, and then Chief Creative Officer, Adcom built a formidable reputation as a creative powerhouse, winning the highest number of local awards in the past two decades. Additionally, he has been an active proponent of bridging the academic and professional design fields, teaching communication and architectural design, authoring articles for trade publications, as well as jurying at academic and industry awards. Design craft has been a life-long fascination and as an avid watercolourist, he believes nothing can soothe and inspire the mind better than laying-down the perfect wash.

At present, Naved is managing the business portfolio for Ogilvy in Karachi and Islamabad. It was 14 years ago when he began his adventures in Advertising. The journey started with an internship at Contract Advertising (a WPP Company) and quickly realized that he had stumbled upon what he was destined to pursue. The big bad world of advertising is where he belonged. Completing over a decade in this industry, working for agencies such as Mullen Lowe and Adcom Leo Burnett, on Multinational and local brands such as Unilever, Engro Foods, EBM, Mondelez, Bank Al Falah, Shan Foods, Telenor, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and many more, his passion for building brands, nourishing teams, seeing campaigns roll out and helping brands grow is just as strong.

Mustafa Moosajee is serving as Director, Consumer Business, at The Searle Company Limited, since 2016. Prior to this, he was the Managing Director, at Nielsen Pakistan. In addition to these two organizations, Mustafa has held positions in insights, customer marketing, client servicing, and general management; with Unilever, Lowe, and P&G. His career spans over two decades, delivering insights, identifying opportunities, integrating teams, and leading them to achieve consistent growth. Mustafa holds an MBA from the University of Santo Tomas, Manila. He has served as visiting faculty member at various business schools, in Karachi. He is one of the founding members of the Market Research Society of Pakistan.

Farah with a major in Philosophy, started her career as a banker but when she moved to Chicago in the 90s, the dot com boom was in full swing. She switched industries and hasn’t looked back. The Passion and Innovation are the driving factors that all Farah does to look at brands and see potential where none existed, or to make them the best that they can be. Be it rebranding exercises, traditional marketing campaigns, app creation, social media strategy or simply trend-spotting, these are the drivers of a perfect daily diet for her. At present, obsessing over ‘disruptive innovation’, Farah lives in Karachi where she is the CMO at TPL Corp.

Shoaib is currently working as Head of Brands & Communication at Jazz, with experience spanning over 22 years and is a true Young at heart professional. He believes ‘living in the moment’ as that ensures a good and positive future & also believes in experiences and doesn’t shy away in imparting the knowledge. After spending a significant tenure in the Telco industry, Shoaib likes to portray himself as a true telco ambassador. He has successes of major projects to himself including the opportunity to launch the first and top two MFS brands in Pakistan. Additionally, as a person he who constantly challenges the status quo, believes that there is still much to do within the marketing sphere of Pakistan.

Fouad Husain is a seasoned business growth, management, and leadership professional having 21+ years of experience in developing new markets, increasing share within the existing regions, guaranteeing Y-o-Y sales growth through innovative and strategic media partnerships. He provides a holistic visionary approach to the overall management of the organization and comes with a wealth of experience in the media industry. He began his career in 1999 when there was only Mindshare in Pakistan and left early in 2020 as the CEO of GroupM looking after all their divisions, i.e., Mindshare, Maxus, MEC, ESP, to name a few. Since then, he has been working as the CEO of Omnicom Media Group Pakistan (OMD & PHD) since 2020. Additionally, Fouad is known to be a mentor, someone who focuses on bringing efficiencies and increased productivity and technological innovation that change customer preferences of media consumption.

A working creative with a career expanding 17+ years, Yawar had the privilege to be associated with the leading agencies in the country, reshaping and reimagining some great global and local brands. Yawar has won several local and international awards and had the pleasure to judge the Lisbon Ad Fest. Additionally, with a degree in communication design and an illustrious portfolio that comprises of brands like Mobilink, Ufone, Coke, Engro Foods, Lux, Sunsilk, LU biscuits, Shell, Khaadi and many more, Yawar had the opportunity to give these brands a unique visual point of view that not only resulted in business growth but also in the emotional growth of the brands. This transformation of brands let him experience amazing human narratives that played a key role in his work. At present, he is working as Executive Creative Director at JWT-Grey.

Maryam Wazirzada is a prominent, sought after entrepreneur, consultant trainer, marketing researcher, and is dedicated towards helping organizations unleash the untapped potential of their teams since the past 22 years. Her current strategic focus is on her marketing research business and along with that Maryam and her business partner, also happen to be the only women in Pakistan who also own a brand activation firm. Besides being a marketing consultant, Maryam has been passionate about corporate training for the past 20 years. She is also one of the Managing Partners for FranklinCovey Pakistan, which is a franchise for the largest brand in the world of human and organizational development. She is also a senior consultant for FranklinCovey Pakistan where her expertise allows her to make a difference in the training and HR world.

Ahsan Shamim is Head of Digital & Business Operations at MSD Norway, referred as Merck in the United States and Canada & is one the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. He is part of the leadership team at MSD Norway and is responsible for the digital transformation agenda at the company. Additionally, Ahsan is an enthusiastic global digital practitioner, with strong marketing and digital expertise from different industries. He started his career in the FMCG industry before moving to Telenor Pakistan where he worked for 5 years in both of its GSM & financial services businesses. Later he moved to its headquarters in Norway to work for Telenor Digital as Global Brand Manager. His last stint before moving to MSD was at Ekornes ASA, one of the largest home product companies in the world, as Head of Digital Marketing & e-commerce.

Kiran Sardar Kohati is a well-respected and seasoned professional with almost 22 years of diverse experience in marketing, advertising, media, brand & commercial proficiency, with a diversified portfolio of brands. She is also the project lead for HBL Pakistan Super league; one of the largest platforms in Pakistan. Additionally, she possesses strong commercial acumen & analytical skills and her key strengths include branding and communication planning, relationship management, negotiations and reorganizing & turnaround management.

Ranked amongst the Top 20 ECDs in the world & the No.1 ECD in MENA/APAC on the 2020 World Creative Rankings, while being named as the South Asia Creative Person of the Year 2020 by Campaign magazine, Ali Rez is one of the most successful award-winning creative leaders in the world. He has won more than 500 international accolades in his career spanning USA, APAC and MENA, at everything from Cannes Lions, Clios, D&AD, Effie, One Show, and many more. In 2020, Rez’s work has led BBDO Pakistan to being ranked amongst the Top 20 most creative agencies in the world (and No.1 in South Asia), and has brought tremendous business success to the global and regional brands he looks after. Additionally, he has been on the jury at every major global award show including Cannes Lions and Clios, and is a member of the prestigious D&AD Impact Council, which supports purposeful creativity that impacts humanity positively.

Naveed is an energetic, action-oriented business leader with almost three-decades of rich experience with some of the leading blue-chip companies (includes; Unilever, Coco-Cola, Pepsi-Lipton International, Fonterra, HBL) across different geographies like South Asia, Middle East, Africa & CIS. He takes pride in building some of the most high voltage brands and teams. Naveed is considered to be a dynamic communicator; a strategic thinker, possessing strong interpersonal skills. At present, he is the Chief Executive Officer at GroupM.

Farzana has been part of the digital media industry for almost 12 years. During this time, she has had the privilege of building and leading award-winning teams and has worked with market leaders across various verticals, predominantly Telcom and Beauty. She has also served as the Digital Lead for beauty and personal care for Unilever, and practiced as an independent consultant spearheading Emaar Pakistan’s marketing effort and supporting multiple local advertising agencies with a focus on training and upskilling.

Ayaz is a Marketeer at heart with a passion for strategy and flair for creativity. He is someone who has his thinking hat-on at all times and usually puts it to best use to build brands and businesses. His natural inquisitiveness to understand human behavior coupled with business understanding accumulated over a decade of experience enables him to unlock the most powerful insights and translate them into inspiring and profitable work. Additionally, his craft has earned him several global and local awards for clients like P&G, National Foods, Dawlance, PepsiCo and Tapal, to name few.

Ejaz Wasay has over 37 years of industry experience in the fields of Marketing, Corporate Communications and Advertising. He has worked with several leading local companies and MNCs including Awami Autos, Orient McCann-Erickson, Unilever (formerly Lever Bothers), UBL, Glaxo, Philips and Gillette. In his ten-year stint with Gillette, from 1984 to 1994, he worked in Pakistan, Brazil and the Middle-East. He was last based in Dubai as Marketing Manager Middle East. Ejaz has been Council Member of the Marketing Association of Pakistan (MAP) for many years and was its President in 2005. He was a regular contributor to publications such as Aurora and Marketing Review. Prior taking up his current position at IoBM in 2011, he has been teaching as Visiting Faculty Marketing since 2005, at IoBM, HIMS and IBA. Ejaz has been on the Jury Panel of PAS and Effie Pakistan Awards since their inception.

Khurram has an extensive marketing and sales experience in diverse industries ranging from FMCG, luxury retail, fashion retail and crop protection. He has served as the Chairman of PAS and was part of the original team that set up the advertising awards in Pakistan. Therefore, he has a special affection for the Effie awards and gladly contributes his time as Juror whenever possible.

For over couple of decades, Saher Ahmed Khan has spearheaded several conventional campaigns that rocked the market and delivered results. She switched to the digital realm some 5 years back, with proper trainings and certifications from Facebook and other leading platforms. Saher is currently working as the Chief Creative Officer at Dial Zero, the Facebook Authorized Sales Partner for Pakistan. Additionally, Saher has always been committed to create ideas that make customers say “Yes!” and she is now connecting brands with Facebook creative best practices to help Dial Zero clients make their communication more efficient and effective on Facebook family of apps.

Alam is an engineer turned marketer with a thing for digital. He is currently heading Media and Digital for Pakistan’s biggest telecom company, Jazz. He has a decade long professional experience in the field of marketing and Brand Communication & Management and has spearheaded several brand-launches over the course of the last decade. Additionally, with his focus on craft and creativity, Alam has been able to create brands that connect with human beings and differ within the competitive communication landscape.

Ateeq Ur Rehman has been associated with the media industry for the past decade-and-a-half. Prior moving to the investment role in 2014, he has worked on strategy and client management for client’s like Unilever, PepsiCo, Colgate Palmolive, Telenor, to name a few. Additionally, he has also launched and the content unit (Motion Content Group) in 2016 & the programmatic arm of Groupm (Xaxis) in 2017, in Pakistan in 2017. At present, Ateeq is working as Chief Investment officer for Groupm.

Asima has two decades of FMCG experience across local and international markets. Currently she is looking after the Beauty & Personal Care division for Unilever Pakistan and is part of the local Management Committee. She has been with Unilever since 2001 and has worked across various categories including cleansing, hair care, skin care, foods and beverages. In 2015, she got expatriated to PT Unilever Indonesia and was responsible for their hair business till she moved back to Pakistan last year.

Subhan is a marketeer with a career spanning over a decade in various brand management and digital marketing roles across Telenor Group markets. Currently he is working as the head of marketing and digital growth for Easypaisa at Telenor Bank.

Aly Mustansir began his professional life with Unilever. He spent a significant part of his career with the company in Pakistan and abroad, and was responsible for major assignments including launch of Wall’s Ice Cream in Pakistan, turnaround of the Sri Lankan ice cream business, and relaunch of the 50-year-old Lifebuoy brand. In 2006, Aly joined HBL (Habib Bank Limited) as Head of Marketing & Brand Management where he relaunched the brand with a new positioning and corporate identity, and centralized Marketing for all businesses of the bank across the globe. During his tenure, HBL was awarded the “Buzziest Brand” in the financial industry. In June 2013, Aly joined the Abu Dhabi Group in Pakistan as the Chief Marketing Officer of Bank Alfalah. He relaunched the Alfalah brand and restructured the marketing process and organization. In 2017, Bank Alfalah received a Super-brand nomination as well as other marketing awards including a PAS Award for Best Financial Services Campaign. At present, Aly is also Director and CEO, Medialogic, Pakistan’s leading TAM company. As a Brand Consultant & Trainer, Aly advises and guides companies on building brands for business growth, optimizing marketing infrastructure and budgets, and using media effectively and efficiently. He also trains marketing teams on developing strong and insightful communication, and furthermore, he has served two terms as Chairman of the Pakistan Advertisers Society. The PAS Awards, now the Effie Awards, were launched during his first tenure. In addition, Aly serves on the jury of international marketing awards. He delivers lectures on Marketing and Branding to a variety of audiences within and outside Pakistan including countries in South and Far East Asia, Middle East, Africa and Europe. Additionally, Aly has received various prestigious awards including the MAP Excellence Award for ‘Contribution to the field of Marketing Management’ in 2011, and ‘Asia’s Most Influential CMO’ by the World Brand Congress in 2015.

In under a decade, Mr. Kidwai has successfully spearheaded roles at P&G across Central Europe, Middle East & Africa regions, most recently working for the company in Geneva, Switzerland before his return to Pakistan. He is currently Senior Marketing Director & Commercial Leader at Proctor & Gamble Pakistan. Additionally, Mr. Kidwai is also passionate about philanthropy, serving as full time member of the Rotary Club of Karachi.

Unaizah is a seasoned professional with a proven success in communication and sales and marketing with superior communication and management skills along with the experience in interacting and managing clients from various industries across the country. She is technically proficient in research (qualitative and quantitative), digital and traditional media. A results-oriented professional with experience across various industries; like Foods and beverage, FMCG, Pharmaceutical, Social sector, Tobacco and B2B businesses

Rashna believes that creativity is based on empathy and perspective; actively seeking out creative energy, be it in people, experiences or places. She has led the creative direction on some of the most memorable, business building and high-scoring campaigns both in Pakistan as well as the Middle East and Africa, for some of the biggest national and international brands. Rashna practices her craft in every way from concept and copy writing to overseeing productions, styling shoots and creating brand books, continuing to believe her best work is yet to come. In between all of this she learnt French, discovered yoga, co-wrote a hit film, developed a love-hate relationship with golf and became a lifelong environmental advocate. She is currently engaged in a dalliance with geometric art, but is truly committed to getting young entrants to the industry to fall in love with advertising the way she did two decades ago.

Saadi is a graduate from the country’s top business schools; LUMS and IBA, where he obtained his Bachelor’s in Economics and his MBA in Marketing, respectively. He is an Effie Award winning marketer with expertise in long term brand strategy, disruptive brand launches and turning around ailing brands. Career spanning over 15 years of Marketing, Trade Marketing and Sales experience with Global Blue Chip companies including Nestlé and Philip Morris International, as well as Pakistan’s largest FMCG company EBM, Saadi specializes in IMC management to launch, relaunch and upscale brands, some examples of his work include relaunching Nestlé Fruita Vitals (now Pakistan #1 Juices and Nectars brand) and Nestlé Milkpak (regaining top spot today as Pakistan’s #1 Full Cream Milk brand) and as Category Head at EBM he successfully repositioned the heritage brand Sooper to deliver growth on the ailing brand after 24 months, as well as launched the cakes category with Cake Up for which he was awarded and Effie Gold in 2019 and an Asian Digi-Award for the Best Digital Campaign of 2018 (the brand now enjoys the #2 spot in the category within 2 years of launch). Additionally, he also specializes in marketing to the Millennial and Gen-Z consumers and also works pro bono on various projects including Tourism Marketing to upscale Brand Pakistan’s image through engaging digital and PR content. Saadi’s last consultancy assignment with the Tourism Department contributed to international recognition for Pakistan as the #1 tourist destination worldwide for 2020. Furthermore, Muhammad Saadi Mansuri founded his technology start up in 2019, a future tech firm working on AI and Analytics solutions and at present, he serves as Marketing Director at Phillip Morris International.

Ali joined HBL in November 2018, and was appointed as the Chief Marketing & Communications Officer for HBL in May 2020, leads the Bank’s Marketing and Corporate Affairs functions. He brings a rich experience of having worked in similar roles not only in other leading banks but also outside the financial industry. Ali’s career spans three decades in Pakistan, Egypt & Yemen of working in blue chip organizations like Procter & Gamble (P&G), Reckitt Benckiser, Standard Chartered, NIB Bank, United Bank Ltd. (UBL) and Habib Bank (HBL). Additionally, he is an accomplished leader with the ability to initiate success in Product Management, Communications, Marketing and Consumer Banking contexts. Ali is an alumnus of IBA, Karachi and Aitchison College, Lahore.

Mahrukh has a profound professional career spreading almost two decades. Started from academia, customer services and then the passion for marketing could not hold herself back for long. She joined Telenor in 2004 and for last 16 years part of Telenor. Mahrukh expanded herself in marketing variations from digital marketing to marketing operations and later leading the Telenor Brand. Currently, she is heading the entire Media wing of the Telenor Marketing, where her unit is responsible for traditional media, out of home and activation. For last 16 years now, and counting, Mahrukh is enjoying her experience in marketing. She was the founding member of the Telenor Launch team that brought new variant of Telecom Advertising and Brand Communication, from TalkShawk, Telenor Mother Brand Launch, and later to the iconic anthem of Telenor in the form of Rawan, which has touched the heart of millions.

Fawaz is the Chief Operating Officer for the Snackcity Division at Ismail Industries Limited, one of the largest FMCG companies of Pakistan. Previously he was Head of Marketing for all the food divisions in the company, i.e., Candyland, Bisconni and Snackcity where he was responsible for the strategy development and execution of the company’s 45 brands spreading over 4 food categories. Under his leadership the company developed communications that were more creative, consistent and impactful resulting in a marked improvement in brand perception and growth. Fawaz has around 20 years’ experience developing brands in the FMCG and Consumer Durables sectors. He has actively worked in promoting and building brands in a variety of cultures and has traveled to over 30 countries as part of his brand assignments. He has a proven track record of effectively developing and executing strategy that deliver business results.

Adeeba Khan has studied advertising & marketing management at the Institute of Business Management and is qualified in film-making from New York Film Academy. After graduating in science, she did a five-year stint at Abbott as in-charge of in-house advertising and sales promotion development unit. In contribution to work experience includes Manhattan Gulf, Abu Dhabi as General Manager for eight years and subsequently as Creative Director & Chief Creative Officer at Manhattan Pakistan, during 20 years affiliation with Leo Burnett. Additionally, she also has rich experience of working on numerous brands and with various multinational and local clients across a number of categories from FMCGs to packaged food products, Insurance and Banking, Automobiles, Consumer Electronics, Pharmaceuticals, Agricultural & Domestic Pesticides, Telecommunications, Nutraceuticals and Herbal products, to name a few.

Farooq Shaikh is passionate well rounded overall business management and marketing professional with more than 25 years of diversified international and local experience in marketing, sales and general management with proven track record of best practices of creative leadership, strategic planning, project management and brand management with key interest in innovations and renovations. He is a strategic thinker with proven results in planning and implementing business initiatives to drive results in a cost-effective manner with strong leadership and interpersonal skill which has been key to his success while working with leading brands like Merck, Danone Group, Hershey Canada, Rogers Telecom, Omstead Foods Canada, Tapal and Service Sales Corporation. At present, Farooq is heading Babelfish Consultants and helping his clients in different industries & sectors and also guiding them to ensure long term sustainable profitable growth. Beyond work, Farooq loves to travel and enjoy reading autobiographies. He strongly believes in contributing back to the society through teaching and his passion for philanthropic work. Additionally, he is Visiting Faculty member at IOBM & SZABIST. Furthermore, Farooq is a Trustee & General Secretary of GEAR Trust which helps people in generating employment to the bottom of the pyramids of the society.

Aejaz Basrai is a seasoned executive with over 26 years of professional experience in the FMCG industry including the last 18 years in senior marketing, General Management & CEO roles. He has worked with some of the leading global multinational companies such as P&G, Henkel and Colgate Palmolive across various geographies such as Pakistan, Middle East, North Africa and United States. Recently relocating to Pakistan after twenty years, he has joined National Foods as the COO of their International Business and Director of National Foods Strategy & Marketing. Additionally, Aejaz holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Olin School of Business, Washington University.