Meet the best of LUMS MBA Class of 2019

Fun Fact: People call him an ‘energiser’

After his undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Lahore School of Economics (LSE) Mohsin Obaid worked for 3 years in commercial roles, starting off with AkzoNobel Paints as a management trainee officer where he worked in supply chain for a year as a procurement manager for non-product related materials. It was there he developed a passion for sales and was moved to the commercial department where he worked as an Area Sales Manager for another year. Thereafter, he joined Nestle Pakistan as an Area Sales Manager for Lahore. After working for 1 year at Nestle, he joined the LUMS MBA programme. For Mohsin what attracted him to LUMS was its case study methodology and experiential learning component that he thinks makes the programme practical in approach and helps speed up learning.

During his stay at LUMS he also headed the LUMS sales club and was also a member of the cricket, basketball and squash teams.

Post MBA, he plans to work in commercial roles and eventually start his own business 10 or 12 years down the road. In the next 3 to 4 years he plans to be working as a trade category head or a regional sales head in a fast moving consumer goods industry.

Fun Fact: Salman has friends from more than 40 nationalities throughout the world.

Before joining the LUMS MBA programme Salman Rashid did his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering and worked as a maintenance engineer for Fauji Fertiliser Company where he topped the management trainee batch. In order to diversify his engineering and technical background with formal management education and expertise Salman chose to pursue an MBA from LUMS since it was situated in his hometown and according to him the best business school in the country. During his time at LUMS he was placed at the dean’s honour list, was a member of the LUMS MBA Sports Society and had the opportunity of studying abroad for an exchange semester in France.

Post MBA, Salman plans to work in an FMCG company for a period of five years, his dream job being to work in the management consultancy field or in the supply chain department of a global organization, after which he plans to launch his own startup in the education sector.

Fun Fact: Mujtaba can do free style and liquid dance

Mujtaba Safri did his BBA from the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) in Karachi. Post BBA, he worked for two years as a management trainee at Indus Motor Company (IMC) during which time he was promoted to the post of Assistant Manager. As a part of IMC’s Finance Treasury division he streamlined the process of Letter of Credit by digitization, bringing it down from four days to one day and managed a fund size of Rs40 billion.

Two years into his job, being in a position where he realised it was difficult to progress further in the department he opted to pursue an MBA from LUMS. During his time at the Suleman Dawood School of Business (SDSB) at LUMS he acted as the president of the Human Resource Executive Club and was a member of the LUMS Student Council. Mujtaba now plans to work in the corporate sector and eventually start his own business as he feels that is the area which will offer him greater freedom to apply his skills in a practical sense and through which he can create a larger impact on the society.

Fun Fact: Sheharyar has travelled to over 30 countries.

Sheharyar Ali did his undergraduate degree from LUMS during which time he started his own business. After completing his degree he worked for Telenor and Redbull. In the two years he spent at Telenor he was rated as high potential. After leaving Telenor he started another business. However, he still felt the need to expand his skill set and analytical abilities and decided to pursue and MBA. Being positive that he wanted to stay in Pakistan for the long run and given SDSB’s vast alumni network in the country opting to go for an MBA from LUMS became an easy choice for him.

Currently Sheharyar runs his own marketing consultancy company and has hush puppies on board as a client. In the future he plans to open up four magnum ice cream spot franchises in the country and start a healthy food delivery service.

Fun Fact: People mistake Jawad as a foreigner because of his hair color.

In 2013 Jawad Nasir was selected as the first Pakistani Georgia Rotary Student Program scholar in 21 years to study at the University of Georgia, USA, on full scholarship. By the end of the year he won the student of the year award.

After, completing his bachelors in Economics and Finance Jawad Nasir worked for a total of two years beginning with a six months stay at the Chemicals General Trading Division of Mitsubishi Corporation.

He then went on to work with Kansai Paint in their Engineering Coatings Division as an Assistant Manager-Business Development, primarily looking after assets, bringing in new business for the road safety and marine coatings division and managing relationships with foreign suppliers. At this point, in order to better develop his network and further determine the function which he might want to pursue in the future, Jawad decided to pursue an MBA. He applied to universities in the United States (US) and had offers from Brown, USC, and Rochester. However the high return on investment (ROI) offered by LUMS was what made him choose to pursue an MBA from the university.

During his stay at LUMS he was the President of the Global Management Club, Director of the Sports Society and also the captain of the MBA Football Team. In the future he plans to develop effective teams and mentor high potential talents. “I have always wanted to lead teams and I believe after the MBA that is next in my agenda,” he says.

Fun Fact: Zain got a distinction in a communication course at LUMS.

Before joining the LUMS MBA programme Zain Rahman was a Mechanical Engineer by profession. He worked for three years in Lotte Chemical Pakistan, spending one year as an Assistant Manager Market intelligence where he was involved in negotiations with the largest oil company in the world and worked closely with the CEO on trade studies with the government.

In the operations department he delivered cumulative savings of above $150,000, working with Fortune 100 company GE on latest turbine jet technology and led teams of more than 200 people.

Zain is also a car enthusiast and has previously built an electric car that was showcased in the Philippines in a project backed by Shell. He also built Pakistan’s first all terrain wheelchair as a social project for handicapped people in rural pakistan. His project was selected and presented by him in Dublin, Ireland in front of contenders from Harvard, Yale and other top universities.

In order to shift his career path from engineering to the commercial side, Zain decided to pursue and MBA from LUMS. During his time at the university he studied in Turkey for a semester as a part of a student exchange programme. He was also the president for the toastmasters club and was member of the football, cricket, basketball, futsal and squash teams at the university. In the future Zain plans to work in the corporate or the development sector and to eventually launch his own startup.

Fun Fact: Qasim has been a gold medalist swimmer at the national level.

While being a gold medalist swimmer at the national level, Muhammad Qasim Asad has also excelled in his academic and professional life. Before joining the LUMS MBA program he held a bachelor’s degree in Economics with a minor in Mathematics and Statistics. A paper authored by Qasim was also published in an international journal. Post undergraduate, he worked for Metro Cash & Carry Pakistan for three years holding different positions starting as a Business Intelligence Executive and working his way to becoming a Category Specialist for Detergents for stores across Pakistan.

However, Qasim wanted to join his family business and decided to leave his job at Metro Cash & Carry to pursue the LUMS MBA in order to better understand how business is done. “I wanted to join my family’s business and realised that the networking potential of graduating from an esteemed institution can help me stand out from the rest.
I also wanted a holistic understanding of the business context in multiple industries across the globe so that I may inculcate all those best practices within my business,” he says.

During his stay at LUMS he was also a member of the swimming and the football team. Post MBA Qasim wants to join his family business and help modernise it through the knowledge he has acquired during this program.

Fun Fact: Furqan’s first experience of driving on mountainous and snow covered roads was in Turkey.

Furqan Tariq holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, however he worked as a Senior Software Developer at Xavor Corporation where he was able to outperform colleagues who were technically more proficient. With Xavor, he developed a software solution that integrated Oracle’s Agile PLM with Microsoft Excel that was sold to four companies in a span of one year at $20,000 per copy. In 2017, he earned the rising star of the year award at the organisation.

Furqan, however, decided that this was the right time to go back to school. “As an engineer I was trained to do, to make but I felt I did not know the why behind those actions. The decision to pursue an MBA was the culmination of my family’s business background, my interaction with clients during my job and realization of what skills I lacked and needed to improve,” he says. Hence, Furqan joined the LUMS MBA programme.

Post MBA, he plans to pursue a career in Business Intelligence working for companies like Google, Amazon, AirBnB or any other company at the technology’s forefront. “My past of software development and my current love for business and strategy development are pushing me towards a career in business intelligence – at least that is what I feel drawn to. The future is data and more importantly how one can use that in the business world. I want to be a part of that future,” he says.

Fun Fact: During his undergraduate degree, Ahmad failed a finance course twice and had to beg his finance teacher to pass the course. Today he is a CFA Level 2 candidate.

During his undergraduate degree in public administration Ahmad Mukaram failed a finance course twice. Today he is a CFA Level 2 candidate and has been shortlisted for entry level positions at two investment management firms in New York. Before joining the LUMS MBA program Ahmad started two business ventures in Islamabad called Naan Stop and Little Athens and provided independent consultancy to various restaurants. “After the failure of one of our ventures, I was honest enough with myself to recognise that I do not know anything about how to properly do business and wanted to learn it,” Ahmad says explaining his reasons for joining the LUMS MBA program.

Being already married Ahmad had to juggle between family life, preparing for the CFA exams and a couple of side assignments while also being enrolled in the MBA program. His dream job is in the financial sector in the field of investment banking or portfolio management and he plans to move to New York to pursue his ambitions.

Fun Fact: Hamid’s stock valuations on the cement sector were spot on in 2017 but he went for the valuation of the financial analysts sitting in big brokerage houses and lost all his savings in the stock market.

Before joining the LUMS MBA program Hamid Shahid did his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering and worked for four years at ICI pakistan as a supply chain engineer. He also has experience in working in fashion retail, hydropower, water treatment and the automobile sector. While working at ICI Pakistan he reduced life threatening hazards at his workplace and won the ICI Pakistan chief executive safety award. During his time at LUMS Hamid was a part of the football team and the financial markets club and also captained the tennis team. His dream job is working in a reputed business magazine and writing about the manufacturing sector of Pakistan.

Fun Fact: Yusra used to be a huge Doctor Who fan; to the point that she saw the rebooted series about four times during her undergrad.

Yusra Rashid majored in Accounting and Finance during her undergraduate after which she worked as a management trainee at Bank Alfalah and a Project Associate at Nestlé Pakistan. Two years into the job market she decided to pursue an MBA. “It was mostly so I do not hit a glass ceiling due to the lack of a master’s degree. Two years into the job market seemed like an ideal time as my opportunity cost was still pretty low,” she says.

“I applied to some marketing analytics programs in the USA. However, since I was planning to stay in Pakistan for the long term, it made sense to try and get into the country’s best business school.”

Yusra’s dream job is working in the consulting industry. In the near future she plans to pursue management job roles and keep her knowledge base up to date.

Maham Hamid did her undergraduate in Accounting and Finance after which she took up a job at Nippon Paints as a Marketing Executive. In her role she ensured Nippon’s social media presence, managed the dealer campaign point system, was in charge of OOH and TV advertising and was responsible for conducting market research and sales analysis. During this time, she also managed four regional events single-handedly within a span of just one month.

Sensing that a masters degree was essential in order to further excel in her career Maham decided to apply to grad schools. “I didn’t apply for MBA degree elsewhere. Instead, I applied for Masters programs abroad. However, I opted for an MBA from LUMS since the degree has more value if one wants to stay and work in Pakistan,” she says. Maham was also a part of the LUMS HR Confluence Society.

In the future she plans to work in the field of marketing. “I don’t have a dream job as such. However what’s important for me is that the job is challenging enough that it keeps me motivated and provides an opportunity to learn new skills and develop myself,” she says.

Like a good number of his batchmates, Muhammad Zubair Basra also comes from an engineering background. During his bacheolars he majored in Mechanical Engineering. After his graduation, he worked for three and a half years as a Project Engineer at Fatima Fertilizer Company Limited. During this time he oversaw two projects related to the installation of a green field fertilizer plant in Indiana, USA and a feasibility study on entry into the African fertilizer market.

“While working on African fertilizer market entry problem in Fatima Group, I worked in a cross functional team. Here, for the very first time, I put on a business strategist hat rather than an engineers to solve the challenge at hand. I simply loved it. I was so fascinated by the market assessment and financial feasibility aspect of the project that within a few weeks I knew this was an area where I can excel. Hence, I decided to get an MBA from a reputed institute and work as a Business Analyst/Consultant in international companies,” he says.

Owing to financial constraints and knowing that he would not be able to secure a scholarship from a reputed university abroad and having heard good things about the LUMS MBA program Zubair decided to enroll at the Suleman Dawood School of Business.

During his MBA Zubair secured a Senior Business Analyst position at AT Kearney becoming the first LUMS MBA graduate to be hired directly in AT Kearney. Zubair’s dream job is to work as a consultant in business strategy consulting firms.