Abdul Razak Dawood, Chairman Descon.
Maheen Rahman, CEO Alfalah GHP Investment Management.
Naveed Khalid Latif, CEO of Converge Technologies.
Younus Sandeela, CEO of Farmwell.

By Umer Nangiana

The Pakistan Professionals Forum Qatar (PPFQ) is hosting a major conference on cross-border entrepreneurship titled ‘Pakistan Innovation Network in Qatar for Leaders and Entrepreneurs’ (PinnaQle).
To be held at Intercontinental Hotel, near Katara Cultural Village on October 31 from 3pm to 6pm, the conference will witness prominent business leaders and entrepreneurs from Pakistan sharing their views on cross-border entrepreneurship, expertise in turnkey service provision, competitive success in financial markets, leading edge digital marketing solutions, innovation in agribusiness management and the delivery of client focused solutions in the energy, infrastructure and processing industry.
PPFQ has invited the ambassador of Pakistan to Qatar, Shahzad Ahmed, as the chief guest along with high ranking dignitaries and prominent businessmen from Qatar. The notable speakers on the occasion will be Abdul Razak Dawood, Chairman of Descon; Maheen Rahman, CEO of Alfalah GHP Investment Management; Naveed K Latif, CEO of Converge Technologies; and Mohammad Younus Sandeela, CEO of Farmwell.
Abdul Razak Dawood is Chairman of Descon, which is involved in engineering and construction, chemicals and power. He graduated in Mining Engineering from Newcastle University UK and in 1968 obtained his Master’s degree in Business Administration from Columbia University, NYC, USA.
Descon Engineering bills itself as the first Pakistani multinational company that is operating in five countries, having four overseas manufacturing units and more than 30,000 employees. Descon’s employees include 20 nationalities working in Pakistan and the Middle East.
Dawood is also a former federal minister and held the portfolio of Commerce, Industries & Production from November 1999 till November 2002. He has also served as a former Director of the State Bank of Pakistan.
He has been deeply involved in education for many years. From visiting faculty at the newly established MBA Programme at the University of Punjab, Lahore, he has taught from 1975 till 1981. He was also one the founders of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and has been its rector. He is currently the chairman of the management committee of the university.
Maheen Rahman is the Chief Executive of Alfalah GHP Investment Management, and has over fifteen years of experience in investment banking, research and asset management. She started her career with Merrill Lynch in Investment Banking and was part of several high profile international transactions that spanned the Asia Pacific region and North America.
Post Merrill Lynch, she joined ABN Amro Bank in Corporate Finance and was involved in equity raising and IPO activity across south-east Asia. She has also served as Head of Research for BMA Capital Management where she spearheaded the research effort to provide sound and in depth investment advice across all capital markets to a wide range of corporate and institutional clients.
Rahman holds a BSc (Hons) in Economics from LUMS and an MSc Finance and Economics from Warwick Business School, UK. She also holds a Series 7 qualification from the NYSE.
Younus Sandeela, the CEO of Farmwell, is a seasoned executive with diversified experience in the fields of finance and agribusiness. During the earlier part of his career Younus spent around 13 years working in the financial sector of Pakistan. During this time he served at some of the best multinational institutions operating in Pakistan.
Some of the institutions he remained affiliated with include Standard Chartered Bank, ANZ Grindlays Bank and Indosuez WI Carr Securities. In 2006, he left the banking industry to follow his passion, agriculture. From the platform of his company Farmwell, Younus successfully pioneered the concept of Farm Management in Pakistan.
Naveed K Latif, CEO Converge Technologies, has been a textile and telecom expert for over 25 years. Naveed is adept at technology enablement and a pioneer in launching value added services for the telecom operators in Pakistan. Converge Technologies is one of the oldest and biggest digital agencies formed 8 years back, which is also a WPP affiliate company now.
It specialises in content aggregation, production and monetising content across different mobility and web platforms. This content is developed in seven languages spoken across Pakistan and with services being provided to all telecom operators on a daily basis. They also have more than a million customers in GCC. Naveed is an alumnus of Aitchison and Hailey’s colleges respectively.
The conference is open to the public and admission is complementary. The organisers however recommend pre-registration.