Our Board
Muhammad Arif –
Muhammad Arif is qualified as a Chartered Acctt from the UK and worked in 1965 with Price Waterhouse in London. He joined AF Fergusons and KSB Pumps in Pakistan, and remained in the industry with a 4 year stint as the Finance Director for Burewala Textile Mills (Dawood group). In 1976, as the Senior Partner, he joined Taseer Hadi (KPMG) and remained there till 1987 when he left to set up his own financial consultancy firm Fintech. From here he was recruited as the Technical Member for the Privatization Commission where he served from 1990-1994. During that period he was also a Director of the Punjab Cooperatives Society Liquidation Board. An additional post from 1993-2002 was that of Chairman of the First Professionals Modaraba. From 1996-2004 Arif served as the MD and Chairman of Gammons Pakistan Pvt Ltd and helped engineer a revival of the construction firm. Arif has since retired from any full time positions and now consults infrequently on projects of interest to him.
Jawad Aslam – Chairman
Jawad launched AMC in August 2008 with a vision to create a firm that would become the leader in provision of high-quality, affordable housing in Pakistan. The impetus for Jawad’s aspiration to launch AMC came through his experiences in high end real-estate development in the U.S., low income housing development with Saiban (a pioneer in low-income housing), a Fellowship position with Acumen Fund and a greater call to action regarding the desperate need of housing for the common man. He received an MBA and BSc from the University of Baltimore. Jawad lives in Lahore with his wife and daughter.
Saima Irtaza -
Saima joined the Acumen Fund, Pakistan office in April 2009 as Business Manager where her main responsibilities include the Portfolio, Finance & Operations and Talent areas. Prior to this, Saima worked as CEO and Managing Partner of The Review Private Limited, a company formed to acquire and run a test prep franchise, The Princeton Review and to operate as a licensee of the Swiss language school, inLingua International. Before making this entrepreneurial shift, Saima worked for six years in the financial sector; her last assignment was at Global Securities, a brokerage firm, where she worked as Senior Associate, Corporate Finance. Saima holds an MBA from Lahore University of Management Sciences.
David Kyle –
Mr. Kyle is the COO of the Calvert Foundation and has contributed to restructuring the organization from 65 to 42 staff and improving bottom line performance from a $700k loss to a $3.5mm profit year-on-year. Prior to that, Mr. Kyle was the Chief Operating Officer of the Acumen Fund, a venture philanthropy fund based in New York. David began his international development career in Washington, DC, first with the Inter-American Foundation and later at the World Bank. He then spent 20 years in international corporate banking, holding various positions within Citigroup - in Brazil, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Portugal, London and New York. David received an MA in International Affairs from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of The Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC and a BA in Intercultural Studies from Trinity College in Connecticut.
Aziz Rajkotwala –
Aziz Rajkotwala has worked as Chief Executive Officer and Non-Executive Independent Director of Atlas Bank Limited. He is a seasoned professional with 30 years of diverse banking experience primarily with Citi bank. He has worked in several countries within Middle East, Africa and Asia in functional (operations, treasury, training) business (corporate, commercial and consumer banking) and management roles. He is an expert in developing and executing focused business growth strategies, setting high performance standards and providing leadership to the subordinates.
