Management Team

Mr. Zafar Shaikh, CEO

Mr. Zafar Shaikh is seasoned techno commercial professional in the areas pertaining to telecom strategy, information technology, product development, project management, technology marketing and IT operations.

Previously Mr. Shaikh held senior level positions with the IT related business units in the Habib Group in Karachi and Dubai, with the overall responsibility of managing and marketing of hPLUS the high end banking solution deployed locally and internationally in Habib AG Zurich banks globally.

Mr. Shaikh held several key positions at Alcatel Telecom, the largest French telecom multinational in the world. In Alcatel Pakistan operations Mr. Shaikh held various top-level spots including Regional Head Punjab for Alcatel BSD Punjab, responsible for the company operations in the region. As Marketing Manager for Country wide commercial operations Mr. Shaikh was responsible for the launches of new technology based telecom switches and hard box solutions.

He worked at the Alcatel Telecom Head Quarters in Islamabad Pakistan, on Alcatel E10B exchange technology, in close liaison with Alcatel Paris and PTCL Islamabad. Mr. Shaikh holds a BSc-BA and MBA in Computer Science and Marketing from London, U.K. He can be reached at zafar.shaikh@appxs.net

 

Sohaib Umar, CFA, Director

Mr. Umar returned from Hong Kong in February 2002 to join TMT Ventures as Chief Executive. He brings with him global outlook and exposure gained as Regional Internet/e-commerce analyst for CLSA Emerging Markets based in Hong Kong. He has eight years of regional research experience in telecommunications, utilities and Internet sectors working for top tiered brokerage firms.

Prior to joining TMT Ventures Mr Umar was working as Assistant Strategist in CLSA's regional strategy team, where he advised fund manger clients on market strategy. Before that he headed a team of ten analysts across Asia as CLSA's regional Internet analyst. His team was ranked top three by the Greenwich survey in 2000.

Before his transfer to Hong Kong Mr Umar was heading CLSA Pakistan research. He was responsible for telecom, chemical and consumer sectors, and was ranked Pakistan's number one chemical sector analyst by Reuters. Mr Umar was instrumental in improving CLSA Pakistan's Asiamoney ranking from 3rd to 2nd in 1998. He also contributed actively to regional economics and telecoms research.

Mr. Umar is an MBA in finance from Institute of Business Administration, Karachi and obtained the CFA charter in 1999 from Association for Investment Management & Research, USA. He has won several academic awards.

 

Zulfiqar Alam, ACA, Company Secretary

Mr. Alam joined TMT Ventures in July 2002 as CFO. Before joining TMT Ventures, he was working as Manager with Husain Rahman, Chartered Accountants, an associate firm of Deloitte & Touche (D&T) in Pakistan. He has significant audit experience of a diversified client base spanning from banks, development financial institutions, leasing companies, modarabas, FMGCs, construction and aviation companies. Besides audit services, he was involved in management consultancy including evaluation, design and development of accounting and internal control systems, implementation of International Accounting Standards, financial due diligence, forecasting and budgeting, corporate services, review of bank policies and systems and equity valuation.

Mr. Alam was part of the global team of D&T for financial review of AEG Pakistan on behalf of the GEC Alstom group for acquisition. He supervised the compliance review of MashreqBankpsc with Basle Core Principles for banking supervision. He also advised various clients on accounting treatments of deferred tax, recognition and measurement of financial instruments, negative goodwill and employees benefit plans. Mr. Alam was seconded to Deloitte & Touche, Middle East where he was responsible for the audit of some of the leading multinational companies. He served Dammam and Riyadh offices.

Mr. Alam is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan.

 

Mr. Syed Raza Ali, CTO

Mr. S. Raza Ali has the versatile experience in Information Technology. He has done Research oriented projects in the field of Artificial Intelligence. He has experience of R & D on systems, design and architecture plus implementation of risk management approaches in financial products.

Before Joining AppXS, Mr. Raza Ali was responsible for various tasks as Project Manager in TechnoSys Pvt. Ltd. His main emphasis was on the projects that included development and implementation of financial and strategic analysis products.

Mr. Raza Ali holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from Karachi University. His major focus was in Baysian Networks (cause and effect model) and temporal databases. Currently he is working on Cause and Effect model for financial institutions. He can be reached at raza@appxs.net 

 

Mr. Imran Mirza, Software Architect

Mr. Imran Mirza joined ApplicationXS in February 2007 as a Software Architect. He brings with him over six years of experience in software engineering field. He has worked on software development, software integration, application performance evaluation and tuning, software quality assurance, and software processes.

Prior to joining AppXS, Mr. Imran has worked in Systems Limited (A ISO 9001-2000 & CMMI Level 3 Software House) as a Project Lead and implemented CMMI processes in his projects. His prominent work is web-based medical research site for Pfizer Pharmaceutical, USA, Registrar Services for Central Depository Company (CDC), Pakistan and web portal for Government of Pakistan. He has also worked for US software houses as a technical consultant. He has worked for wireless industry, biomaterial industry, financial sector, and government sector.

Mr. Imran Mirza holds a bachelor degree in Computer Science from Hamdard University. Currently, he is perusing his Master in Business Administration (MBA) from Hamdard University. He can be reached at imran.mirza@appxs.net 

 

Mr. Syed Tariq Hussain, Product Consultant

Mr. Syed Tariq started his career seven years ago from ApplicationXS as a software engineer and now he is working on portfolio of Product Consultant.

He holds B.S. degree in computer engineering from Sir Syed University and doing Masters in Software Engineering. He has more than 7 years working experience in Enterprise Development Environment on Microsoft Platform.

He has strong knowledge of Asset Management & Investment Banking Solutions and has done several successful implementations with major AMCs and NBFIs. He can be reached at syed.tariq@appxs.net