VC Awards | LUMS Alumni

VICE CHANCELLOR'S

Alumni Achievement Awards

LUMS is pleased to announce the Vice Chancellor's Alumni Achievement Awards (VC-AAA) which will recognize outstanding alumni for their exemplary accomplishments across sectors, including contributions made and services rendered in communities locally and around the world, with a commitment that reflects the LUMS spirit. Awardees will be selected through a comprehensive nomination and evaluation process by the Awards Committee and up to 10 alumni will be awarded in a given year.

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VC AAA Winners

From scoring big in academia and leading global organisations, to spearheading social change in Pakistan, our cohort of VC AAA Winners continues to make LUMS proud on an international scale. Learn about all the impactful work they are doing and explore their brilliant journeys.

Muhammad Younas

BSc 2005

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Muhammad Younas

BSc 2005

CEO, vFairs

Younas is the founder of vFairs, a leading global virtual, hybrid and in-person events platform. vFairs helps organisations of all sizes, industries and regions conduct memorable online events to achieve real business results. The virtual platform and mobile app offers versatile features and customisation options. vFairs exceptional customer support is consistently rated #1 on third-party sites like G2 and Capterra. This is why top organisations around the world such as Nestle, Microsoft, Amazon and more have chosen vFairs to host Virtual Conferences, Online Trade Shows, Job Fairs, Virtual Training & more. vFairs has employees across 10+ countries including USA, Canada, UAE, Australia, UK, Pakistan etc. In 2017, Younas also established the Lahore engineering and project management campus for vFairs. In over 5 years, he created job opportunities for the local market and employed 200+ Pakistanis with his staunch belief on the quality of talent. A sizable portion of that employee base hails from LUMS. Younas holds a Master’s in Computer Engineering from University of Texas at Austin. He is a recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship and David Bruton Jr. Fellowship. He lives in Toronto with his wife Mariam (BSc 2007) and daughters, Zoya and Mishaal.
Altamush Saeed

BA-LL.B 2020

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Altamush Saeed

BA-LL.B 2020

Lawyer & Animal Rights Activist

Saeed is Co-Founder of Charity Doings Foundation (CDF), a non-profit established in 2016, and an Animal Welfare Ambassador to Comprehensive Disaster Response Services (CDRS), both incorporated in Pakistan and USA. CDF is actively investing itself in social responsibility efforts and has successfully executed multiple projects across Pakistan. These projects include over 800 solar water projects, environmental sustainability programs, sustainable electricity projects, daily food distribution to over 12,000 individuals in a month, economic sustainability programs, a stray animal feeding program, supporting a school for special children, and an orphanage project. To date, CDF has nationally helped over 10 million humans, and 0.25 million animals, and has deployed over $300,000 in infrastructure development. Saeed is currently pursuing an LLM in Animal Law at the Center for Animal Law Studies, Lewis and Clark Law School as the first Pakistani recipient of the Brooks Institute Animal Rights Law and Policy International Scholarship. He holds an LLM from the University of Michigan Law School, and is a member of the American Bar Association Animal Law, International Animal Law and the Climate Change & Human Rights Subcommittees, a member of the newly formed Animal Law Working Commission for The Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA). At the University of Michigan, Saeed was the first-ever dual recipient of the Myint Zan LLM Prize and the Outstanding LLM student for excellence in pro-bono service award, the LLM Student Council representative for his class and the DEI Chair for the entire law school.
Saim Sadiq

BS 2014

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Saim Sadiq

BS 2014

Filmmaker

Sadiq holds a graduate degree in Film Directing from Columbia University. His first feature, Joyland, won the Jury Award in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022 and became Pakistan's official submission to the 95th Academy Awards. His short film Darling, which was based on Joyland, won the Best Short Film award at the 76th Venice Film Festival and was an official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival. His short film Nice Talking to You was an official selection at South by Southwest (SXSW) 2019, Palm Springs International Shortsfest 2019, and won Vimeo's Best Director award at Columbia University Film Festival 2018. The film also made the BAFTA Shortlist for Best Student Film.
Yaruq Nadeem

BS 2014

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Yaruq Nadeem

BS 2014

Innovation & Partnerships, National Science & Technology Park (NSTP)

Nadeem is a global expert on innovation, entrepreneurship, business models and product development. He actively mentors founders, aspiring entrepreneurs and students, and consistently strives to inspire, educate and empower the youth towards entrepreneurship. Having played a pivotal role in the launch of Pakistan’s first STP, National Science & Technology Park (NSTP), Nadeem is currently spearheading the Innovation & Partnerships at NSTP. He has designed the award-winning academia-industry linkage platform “The Bridge”, internationally renowned start-up incubation programmes TechOne, Cube 8 and Hatch 8, as well as performance evaluation frameworks for the Science Park. In the last few years, his contributions have led to PKR 2.8+ billion revenue generation, PKR 2.7+ billion start-up funding and 2,800+ jobs created. Previously, Nadeem designed the entrepreneurship curriculum for all Schools at the National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST). He is a recipient of the prestigious Commonwealth Scholarship and completed his Masters from Imperial College London. He loves adventure, travel and sports.
Dr. Omar Mubin

BS 2004

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Dr. Omar Mubin

BS 2004

Associate Professor, School of Computer, Data and Mathematical Sciences, Western Sydney University

Dr. Mubin is a senior academic and currently acting Associate Dean High Degree Research at his Faculty at the Western Sydney University. His primary research interests are human robot interaction and human computer interaction. Specifically, he studies social robotics and their interaction with humans in education, public spaces and information dissemination scenarios. In the area of health informatics, he has worked on technological interventions for COVID-19, autism, stroke and substance abuse. Dr. Mubin has authored 31 journal publications in the last five years, 14 in Q1 and 15 in Q2 ranked journals. He is involved in teaching and supervising (undergraduate and postgraduate) students in the broader area of Human Computer Interaction, Mobile Computing and Health Informatics. He has already supervised five high-degree research students to completion; four as a principal supervisor and one as co-supervisor. He is currently principal supervisor to a further four research students. In recognition of his expertise in robotics, he also serves as an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Social Robotics.
Muhammad Faisal Laghari

BS 2007

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Muhammad Faisal Laghari

BS 2007

Senior Managing Director, Guggenheim Partners

Laghari works in Guggenheim’s Energy Investment Banking group and helps lead the firm’s energy and energy transition investment banking business. He has over 14 years of investment banking experience and primarily focuses on strategic advisory assignments and financing for companies in the energy industry. Previously, Laghari worked at Citigroup where he led the firm’s North American Upstream Investment Banking business, representing one of its largest investment banking teams within the Global Energy Group. His experience includes a broad range of strategic advisory and capital markets engagements. He has led several transactions totaling over $140 billion in value and spanning North America, South America, Africa, Asia and Europe. After graduating with Honors from LUMS, Laghari earned an M.A. in Financial Risk Management from the Segal Graduate School of Business at Simon Fraser University. He and his wife Nadia, reside in Houston with their daughters Lyla and Leah.
Saroop Ijaz

BA-LL.B 2008

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Saroop Ijaz

BA-LL.B 2008

Lawyer & Human Rights Professional

Ijaz is currently Senior Counsel Asia at Human Rights Watch (HRW), the largest human rights organisation in the world. He joined HRW in January 2014 as their Pakistan representative, the youngest country representative for the organisation in almost 90 countries. Ijaz has worked on a diverse range of issues including rights of religious minorities in South Asia, Afghan refugees, Pakistanis in Saudi Arabian prisons, criminal justice reform in Japan, amongst many others. He does regular international advocacy for human rights at the United Nations, European Union and in key forums and capitals around the globe. Ijaz writes for domestic and international publications including Express Tribune, Dawn, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, The Diplomat, Al Jazeera, Jurist, Open Democracy, and others. He has been appointed as an Amicus Curaie (Friend of the Court) in several important constitutional cases. In his law practice, he has pro-bono represented prisoners from the most marginalised sections of society and has had many prisoners released from death row. In 2014, Ijaz was appointed as the only non-governmental member of the expert group constituted by the Prime Minister on the direction of the Supreme Court to give recommendations on police reforms in Pakistan. He is a member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and serves on the board of several human rights organisations including the Asma Jahangir Foundation, Digital Rights Foundation, and Center for Social Justice.
Dr. Muhammad Qamar Farooq

BS 2017

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Dr. Muhammad Qamar Farooq

BS 2017

Senior Scientist, PPD, Thermo Fisher Scientific

Dr. Farooq’s work focuses on the development of analytical methods for analysis of various pharmaceutical drugs. He received his PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Iowa State University in 2022. As a researcher who has made remarkable advancements in the field of separation science, Dr. Farooq played an instrumental role in securing preliminary data needed for the U.S. Department of Energy to award a $2.45 million grant on separation science (funded through Ames National Laboratory) to the Department of Chemistry team at Iowa State University. During the course of his PhD, Dr. Farooq published 16 research papers with seven first-author manuscripts in high impact journals. He has received several awards for excellence in research including the David N. and Minnie I. Wall Graduate Fellowship, Mary and Velmer Fassel Travel Award, and Professional Advancement Grant at Iowa State University. Currently, he also serves as a reviewer for the Journal of Chromatography A and Royal Society of Chemistry. Dr. Farooq actively guides and mentors LUMS students who aspire to pursue graduate studies in the US. He loves boxing, a sport he took on while at LUMS, and has competed in several US collegiate boxing nationals. Dr. Farooq is a proud National Outreach Programme (NOP) alumnus of LUMS and dedicates his success to both the LUMS NOP and his parents.
Natasha J. Malik

MBA 1996

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Natasha J. Malik

MBA 1996

Head Corporate North, Corporate Banking Group, MCB Bank Limited

Ahmed is an example of professionalism, hard work and consistent delivery against her personal and professional goals over the last two and half decades. Since graduating in 1996, she has worked for several internationally renowned institutions including WI Carr Securities, World Bank, Faysal Bank Limited and MCB Bank Ltd. She has held senior management positions in the corporate banking coverage space. She started as a coverage banker in Islamabad and has successfully risen through the ranks to her current position as an Executive Vice President heading Corporate Banking for the Central and Northern regions for Pakistan at MCB Bank. Ahmed has consistently taken very active roles with each of her teams in managing a very large and complex portfolio through the challenging macro-economic environment in Pakistan in recent years. She has been an inspiring mentor for many who have been lucky to work with her, especially young women taking on the challenges in a majority male working environment. She has also volunteered as a mentor for the National Incubation Center (NICL) at LUMS and was nominated to participate in the Stanford Seed Program. At the beginning of her career, she contributed to a few case studies that became a part of the MBA programme at LUMS.

Fiza Farhan

BSc 2007

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Fiza Farhan

BSc 2007

CEO, ORA Global Development Advisors

Farhan is a global expert on issues pertaining to inclusive economic growth, climate change, sustainable development, financial inclusion, access to energy and multi-sectorial partnerships. Previously, Farhan was the CEO & Co-founder of two social enterprises, Buksh Foundation & Buksh Energy Pvt. Ltd., whereby she launched multiple global innovations creating development solutions addressing multiple challenges the rural communities face. She was featured in the Forbes '30 Under 30 List of Social Entrepreneurs' twice, in addition to being the youngest member of the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Women Economic Empowerment, Future Energy Leader at the World Energy Council, and Chairperson to Chief Minister Punjab’s Task Force on Women Empowerment. Currently, Farhan is an advisor to multiple stakeholders including UNICEF Pakistan, Ministry of Education Punjab, UN Women Asia Pacific, Ministry of Climate Change, and the Australian Government amongst others.
Marium Rasheed

BS 2017

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Marium Rasheed

BS 2017

PhD Candidate in Electrical Engineering, Utah State University

Rasheed is an electrical engineering PhD candidate at Utah State University (USU). Her research focuses on modelling, design, and control of high efficiency and high-power density DC-DC power converters for electrified vehicles, roadway infrastructure, and energy storage systems. Her work emphasises the development of sustainable technology to ensure energy access, security, and justice. Her contributions significantly impact the community and Pakistan by making low-carbon modes of transportation more affordable for the public. She has received several international awards, including the Best Oral Presentation Award at the IEEE APEC 2021 conference, the 2021 Outstanding Doctoral Student Researcher of the Year in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at USU, and the 2022 Outstanding Engineering PhD Scholar of the Year, among others. She is the first woman from Pakistan to have been awarded the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center's Women Leaders in Energy and Climate Change Fellowship in 2021.
Saima Rana

MBA 1996

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Saima Rana

MBA 1996

Adjunct Faculty, LUMS and Head of Operations, NICL

Rana wears many hats within the LUMS system, working as both, a faculty member and as the Head of Operations at the National Incubation Centre Lahore (NICL). At NICL, she has paved her way to a primary leadership role in just a year and a half, having started initially as the Director for Learning and Development. In this portfolio, she steered the curation of the NICL Foundry Programme i.e., a boot-camp style mini-MBA training for entrepreneurs to develop their ideas into investor-ready business plans. She has also directed an academic collaboration with the University of Saarland, for the development of a pre-incubation course, Entrepreneurship 101. Under her leadership, NICL launched the first Pakistani cohort in the Stanford Seed Spark Programme, with an NICL-backed start-up winning in South Asia. Rana has been a post-secondary Business Management instructor for over 14 years with a focus on entrepreneurship, marketing, merchandising, and consumer behaviour.
Raqib Omer

BSc 2007

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Raqib Omer

BSc 2007

Founder and CEO, Viaesys

Omer pursued graduate studies in sustainable technologies, and extensively researched the area of salt usage for maintenance of roadways during winter time. He founded Viaesys, a technology company that develops sustainable solutions, while he was a student at the University of Waterloo, and has since launched multiple solutions in this domain that have become a noteworthy commodity for both local municipalities and environmentalists in general. The technology directly contributes towards saving hundreds of thousands of tons of salt from being over-applied and contaminating groundwater forever. Viaesys technology is currently being used at Walmart, Amazon, and several government facilities across Canada and the USA. In 2019, he was invited for an exclusive meeting with the Pentagon officials, regarding the implementation of his technology in different states of USA. Omer continues to serve his home country by working in collaboration with his team of developers in Pakistan.
Aamer Manzoor

MBA 1997

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Aamer Manzoor

MBA 1997

Managing Director, PTV

Manzoor has 25 years of experience managing and building high growth companies in the internet, ICT and telecom domains. He is one of the pioneers in bringing broadband internet into Pakistan. He founded an extremely successful Internet Service Provider, WOL in Pakistan that was acquired by Orascom Telecom//VEON Group, the largest integrated telecom group in the region. He helped Jazz launch its 3G/4G services in Pakistan. Manzoor was also the co-founder of RISEPAK, which in 2006 won the Stockholm Challenge Award, also known as the Nobel Prize of IT, in Public Administration. Three years ago, Manzoor joined PTV as its Managing Director and successfully turned a bankrupt PTV into a profitable State Owned Entity with its sports channel becoming the No. 1 channel and its entertainment channel being in the top 5 entertainment channels. Manzoor also holds a Master’s degree in IT from Harvard University.
Saba Karim Khan

BSc 2006

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Saba Karim Khan

BSc 2006

Author, Filmmaker and Educator

Khan is an author, award-winning filmmaker and educator, whose writing has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, DAWN, Wasafiri, Huff Post, Verso, Think Progress, etc. Her debut novel, Skyfall, was published by Bloomsbury and her documentary film, Concrete Dreams: Some Roads Lead Home, produced by the Doha Film Institute (DFI), has been officially selected and won awards at global film festivals in NYC, Paris, Berlin, Toronto, USA, Sweden and India. She has read Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford and works at NYU Abu Dhabi. Before joining the Academy, she worked as Country Marketing and Public Affairs Head at Citigroup. Born in Karachi, she now lives in Abu Dhabi with her husband and two daughters.
Fatima Asad Khan

MBA 1997

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Fatima Asad Khan

MBA 1997

Chief Executive Officer, Abacus Consulting

Asad-Said is an integral member of the top leadership at Abacus Consulting, a leading international professional services firm. Her experience of over 24 years embodies thought leadership and delivering progressive solutions in corporate governance, digital transformation, strategic change, and project leadership across multiple sectors and industries. She started her career with Coopers & Lybrand International and then PricewaterhouseCoopers. Her leadership journey includes serving on various Boards as an independent director such as Faysal Bank, Kashf Foundation, Bata Pakistan and Kaarvan Crafts Foundation. She is also on the Board of Trustees at LUMS. She is a member of the Harvard Corporate Directors, Diversity and Inclusion Hub Leadership Council, and Women Executives on Boards forums.
Maheen Hassan

BSc 2011

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Maheen Hassan

BSc 2011

Civil Servant, Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS)

Hassan completed her undergraduate in Politics and Economics from LUMS in 2011 and an MPhil in Political Science from Government College University Lahore in 2015, and worked as a Research Assistant at her alma mater and the Urban Unit (Govt. of Punjab) before passing the CSS exam and joining the civil service in the Inland Revenue Service stream in 2013. Hassan has experience of 8 years in tax administration and policy. She topped the Central Superior Services (CSS) exam of 2020 and joined Pakistan Administrative Service in November 2021. Hassan is a mother of one, and lives with her family in Lahore. Her hometown is Bhakkar, and she is currently undergoing training at the Civil Services Academy, Lahore.
Naveed Asghar

MBA 1993

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Naveed Asghar

MBA 1993

CEO, GroupM

Asghar is a business leader with 28 years of experience with some of the leading blue chip multi-national companies (the likes of Unilever, Coke etc.), across Pakistan, Middle East, Africa, and CIS markets. He is a strategic thinker and takes pride in building some of the highest voltage brands and teams. He is currently the CEO at GroupM, the leading media investment house in the country and prior to this, he played an instrumental role as the Chief Marketing Officer at HBL to reinvigorate the brand and is the architect behind the roaring success of HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL), which has become the pride of Pakistan. This platform unites the nation - no matter which franchise wins, Pakistan as a nation is a winner. Asghar has also shown exemplary leadership as he has turned around GroupM over the last two years. He has been a strong advocate for LUMS and is also a part of the current Alumni board.
Muhammad Saad Arshad

BSc 2013

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Muhammad Saad Arshad

BSc 2013

Senior Analyst, McKinsey & Company

With a passion for solving global problems and creating impact, Arshad has worked in multiple areas, including public education, refugees, skills and employment, and economic development. He is currently working at McKinsey & Company and was recently helping operationalise an agriculture reform initiative that improves Pakistani farmers’ livelihoods through innovative digital and financial solutions. Arshad is an Acumen Fellow, an Unusual Pioneers Fellow, and holds an MPA from Syracuse University through the Fulbright Scholarship. Arshad loves to travel, is a long-suffering supporter of the Arsenal Football Club, and claims to make the best omelettes ever.

Sabeen Bilal

BSc 2005

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Sabeen Bilal

BSc 2005

Sabeen is the Owner and Founder of Kreative Kinder Haus, an inclusive set-up which believes that all children should be allowed to enjoy their childhood and should not be burdened with books and unrealistic expectations or be compartmentalized. Sabeen is a passionate, generous and kind hearted person who has always wanted to give back to society in any way possible. Upon having her first child and spending time helping him learn and grow Sabeen discovered a new passion. This passion led her to follow her dreams and set up Kreative Kinder Haus.

Sabeen believes children are unique and are meant to play, explore, have adventures, dream and make magic. Kreative Kinder Haus helps all children learn and grow in a magical way. Kreative Kinder Haus was opened four years ago with the sole purpose to provide a safe haven for children with different abilities and has recently expanded with the opening of a second branch in DHA, Islamabad to be able to reach and help more children.

Sabeen’s sole focus is to be able to help those in need and she will find any means necessary to do so. She is a behavior therapist providing therapy to kids and counselling to their parents. Her work has been recognized at multiple levels by both, our federal government and global professionals who have visited her institution. She has also begun trainings and schools are approaching her to help them design their curriculums for Special Needs children. Her mission is to create acceptance and awareness to make Pakistan an inclusive society for all future generations.
Tauseef H. Farooqi

MBA 1996

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Tauseef H. Farooqi

MBA 1996

Mr. Tauseef H. Farooqi joined NEPRA as Chairman on 5 August 2019. He was chosen from the pool of finest Pakistani local and overseas power sector experts to lead the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) of Pakistan. As Chairman NEPRA, Tauseef aims to regulate the Generation, Transmission and Distribution ends of the power sector in a way that creates room for innovation and modernization to fix the power industry. He is taking real actions on ground to change NEPRA from passive to active and proactive regulator.

Mr. Farooqi has over 28 Years of TechnoCommercial experience with specialization of managing the Commercial/Business side of IPP/IWPP Projects. He started his career with WAPDA in 1991 and has the distinguished honor of working on both Technical and Finance sides. He then worked with global Companies in Power, Water, and Energy Sectors on Multi-billion Dollars Projects like International Power of UK from 1997 to 2000 on Pakistan's largest Kot Addu Power Plant.

Since 2000, he has developed top three (3) IWPP Projects in Abu Dhabi, first with CMS Energy of USA on Taweelah A2 (710 MW and 50 MIGD, a 750 Million USD Project) and Shuweihat S1 (1500 MW and 100 MIGD, a 1.5 Billion USD Project). In 2005 he joined Marubeni of Japan on their largest investment outside Japan in Taweelah B, Abu Dhabi's largest Power Plant, (2000 MW and 160 MIGD, a 3 Billion USD Project).

Mr. Farooqi is an Electrical Engineer from University of Engineering & Technology Lahore, MBA from Lahore University of Management Sciences and a graduate in Executive Program in Management from world's renowned Columbia Business School of USA.
Yousaf Hussain

MBA 1994

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Yousaf Hussain

MBA 1994

Mr. Yousaf Hussain, President & CEO Faysal Bank, has around 25 years of diverse professional experience. His previous assignments have primarily been with ABN AMRO Bank, where he held multiple senior managerial positions, mainly within Wholesale / Corporate Banking.

He led a number of landmark international Investment Banking & Structured Finance transactions across multiple industries. Yousaf has also been at the forefront of two bank acquisition and integration transactions. His experience also includes senior management positions with Samba Bank and earlier roles with Mashreq Bank, UAE and Mobilink.

He has been with Faysal Bank since August 2008. He has contributed significantly to the growth of the franchise while holding senior management positions within Corporate, Special Assets and Risk Management Group. He was elevated, in early 2017, to become the President & CEO of Faysal Bank Ltd.

Under his leadership, the Bank has embarked upon a well-structured plan to convert into a full-fledged Islamic Bank from a conventional bank. Simultaneously, the Bank has also adopted a growth strategy through major network expansion, new product offerings and enhanced distribution efficiency coupled with customer centric approach and increased focus on technology.

Yousaf is an Electrical engineer with an MBA from Lahore University of Management Sciences. He is a member of the Executive Committee of Pakistan Banking Association, a Council Member of the Institute of Bankers-Pakistan, Director at Pakistan Business Council and Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance. He is also a member of the Management Committee of IBA- CEIF (Centre for Excellence in Islamic Finance).
Muneeb Ali

BSc 2003

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Muneeb Ali

BSc 2003

Muneeb is a computer scientist and internet entrepreneur. He is among a handful of Pakistani entrepreneurs who have not only made a mark on the world’s biggest stages, but he is doing so with respect to one of the most exciting and impactful technologies.

He is best known for the regulatory framework that resulted in the first SEC-qualified offering for a crypto asset. Considering that blockchains and bitcoin are viewed as the most exciting technologies that will shape the internet and future economies, Ali makes Pakistan proud by being at the forefront of these developments.
Fahad Dogar

BSc 2005

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Fahad Dogar

BSc 2005

Fahad is currently an Associate Professor of Computer Science and a Senior Fellow of Civic Technology at Tufts University. After LUMS, he went to Carnegie Mellon University for his PhD and then spent a few years at Microsoft Research, Cambridge (UK). His current research is broadly in the area of networking -- making today's Internet faster, cheaper, more reliable, and easier to use.

Fahad has had close ties with LUMS since his graduation -- he has been a visiting faculty in the CS department, and has regularly given research talks and collaborated with students and faculty. Several students from LUMS have also gone on to join his research group at Tufts -- three of his current PhD students are LUMS graduates.

Fahad lives near Boston (USA) with his wife and son. His family -- parents, siblings, nieces, and nephews -- live in Lahore, close to LUMS. He misses them! He misses LUMS!
Aysha Baqir

MBA 1998

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Aysha Baqir

MBA 1998

Aysha grew up in Pakistan. She won a scholarship to Mount Holyoke College, where she studied International Relations. Her time in college sparked a passion for economic development, and upon her return to Pakistan, she saw that the poor needed access to economic resources and networks before they could voice their demands for social justice. In 1998, after an MBA from Lahore University of Management Sciences, she founded a not for profit organization, Kaarvan Crafts Foundation, that builds and strengthens skills & business capacities of women entrepreneurs in low income communities so that they are able to successfully pursue entrepreneurial opportunities, participate effectively in the markets and improve their economic realities.

In 2013, Aysha relocated to Singapore. Her novel Beyond the Fields, a novel about social justice, was published in January 2019 and shortlisted for best-Debut English at the 9th UBL Literary Awards.. Set in early 1980s against the backdrop of martial law and social turmoil, Beyond the Fields is a riveting, timely look at the profound inequality traditions that disempower women in our world, and survival as a dance to the beat of a different future. Aysha was invited to launch her book at the Lahore and Karachi Literary Festivals. Her interviews, book reviews, articles and short stories have appeared in Countercurrents, Borderless, The Herald, Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly, the Kitaab, and The Tempest. She is on the Board of Kaarvan Crafts Foundation and an Ashoka Fellow.

Website: www.ayshabaqir.com
Angbeen Mirza

BA-LLB 2008

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Angbeen Mirza

BA-LLB 2008

Angbeen Atif Mirza is an Assistant Professor at the Shaikh Ahmad Hassan School of Law, LUMS. She holds a BA-LL.B from LUMS (2008), and an LL.M from the University of Michigan Law School (2010). She is the Faculty Director for the LUMS Office of Accessibility and Inclusion.

Angbeen’s primary area of interest lies in clinical legal education, specifically street law, live client clinics, and access to justice work. She supervises a street law programme at SAHSOL where students are responsible for weekly legal awareness sessions with secondary school students.

Angbeen serves on the board of Digital Rights Foundation, a non-governmental organization working on rights in cyber space with a focus on issues relating to gender.

She has been involved in human rights work in various capacities including public interest litigation, research, advocacy, as well as trainings for judges and police staff, awareness sessions for students and preparation of community outreach material.
Ammara Maqsood

BSc 2005

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Ammara Maqsood

BSc 2005

Ammara Maqsood is Associate Professor in Social Anthropology at University College London. Her research coalesces around questions of middle-class religiosity, aspirations and intimate subjectivities and urban politics in Pakistan. Her first book, The New Pakistani Middle Class (Harvard University Press, 2017) was awarded the 2019 AIPS Book Prize. Her research has been funded by the European Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council and the British Academy Global Challenges Research Fund and appeared in top-ranked journals, including American Ethnologist, Social Anthropology and Comparative Studies in South Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Previously, she was Lecturer in Social Anthropology at Manchester and, prior to that, ESRC Future Research Leaders Fellow at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology and Junior Research Fellow at St Catherine’s College, Oxford. Ammara holds a DPhil (PhD) and MPhil in Social Anthropology from the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at University of Oxford and BSc. (Hon) in Social Sciences from the Lahore University of Management Sciences.

Shayan Haider

(BS 2014)

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Shayan Haider

(BS 2014)

Shayan Haider is an active social innovator, who is working tirelessly to fulfil his mission to improve the living standards of impoverished communities in Asia and Africa. As part of the global leadership team, and Head of Research and Development and Operations of Bondh e Shams Charity – The Solar Water Project (BES), his efforts focus on providing access to potable water to water deprived communities across the globe. BES has since expanded its operations globally and become a registered charity in the United Kingdom, United States and Pakistan. To date, Shayan has lead over 13 solar water projects across Pakistan, providing clean drinking water to over 50,000 people in Thar Desert, Baluchistan and Chakwal, Punjab. His recent endeavour involved successful installation of solar powered water extraction and filtration technologies in Yei South Sudan, Africa.

As Chief Technical Officer at Hydrosun Engineering, technical wing of BES, Shayan has also lead the development of a US Patent Pending technology, Off Grid Aqua Solar Integrated Solution ‘O.A.S.I.S’ box, which is an innovative and mobile solution to combat water scarcity in under resourced and off grid communities, resulting in the bestowment of prestigious accolades like the Diana Roll of Honor Award, 2019 and recognition and acknowledgement by Forbes magazine.
Besides his community role and responsibilities, Shayan is currently leading a cross functional team of data scientists and engineers as Technical Project Manager at Inbox Business Technologies, after completing his graduate trainee programme at Engro Fertilizers.
Khadija Bakhtiar

(BSc 2007)

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Khadija Bakhtiar

(BSc 2007)

Khadija is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Teach For Pakistan, a national, non-profit company that is building a movement to end educational inequity. Teach For Pakistan provides inspired university graduates the opportunity and support to teach for two years in low-income communities. It also gives them a chance to develop the leadership skills and convictions to champion system-wide reform for excellence and equity in educational opportunity through a structured fellowship. 34 of the organisation's 150+ Fellows have come from LUMS.

Khadija credits her drive to nurture a movement against inequity in part to the socio-political awakening she experienced at LUMS. She first had the idea to launch Teach For Pakistan while she was a Fulbright Scholar, pursuing a graduate degree at the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, in 2010. There, she met alumni from Teach For America - the programme that pioneered a model that has since been adapted in 50+ countries, including Pakistan. Inspired by the journey, impact and conviction of Teach For America alumni to lead change, Khadija returned to Pakistan to launch a similar model locally.

In the following years, Khadija materialised her idea into a workable model, and then into a full organisation that embodies the core principles of equity, leadership and growth. The company has recruited six Fellowship cohorts, who have taught and changed lives for over 7,700 children across 64 government, low-cost private, and non-profit schools. Teach For Pakistan’s alumni are now enhancing the impact of organisations and institutions, including The Citizens Foundation, Zindagi Trust, World Bank, DFID, Amal Academy and Knowledge Platform, among others; playing a critical role in Pakistan's education development journey.

Khadija has also led the Teach For All global network's teacher and alumni leadership development work in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa regions. She has had short-term work assignments with national and global organisations, working on women and children’s empowerment, including UN-Women in New York City, HomeBase in San Francisco, and Rozan and Center of Gender and Policy Studies in Islamabad.
Danish Jabbar Khan

(MBA 2005)

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Danish Jabbar Khan

(MBA 2005)

Danish Jabbar Khan, CEO of Kaarvan Crafts Foundation, is a social entrepreneur who works with women in rural communities in order to build their confidence so they can participate in local decision-making and carve connections with relevant urban markets.
With a career spanning over 20 years, Danish has always pushed the boundaries of his discipline - whether in the corporate or development sector. He is always working in a space of experimentation around complex issues and crafting an emergent practice of social innovation that shapeshifts in subversive, yet expansive ways. He is devoted to examining the ways in which gender roles and all forms of human inequality are embedded in culture and society. He works to reduce gender difference by providing livelihood opportunities to marginalised women living in low income communities. Danish believes that the representation and participation of women will pave the path for a culture of peace in the country.
As of 2019, Kaarvan has touched the lives of more than 25,000 women in over 1,000 villages across Pakistan.

Honouring his contribution towards gender equality, The International Alliance for Women recognised him as a Champion of Women Economic Empowerment and bestowed him the World of Difference Award for 2019.
He has also been acknowledged by HRH Prince Charles’s British Asian Trust in recognition of his work in developing and delivering impactful solutions to the challenges of poverty and injustice towards marginalised rural women in Pakistan.
With a Bachelor’s in Architecture from The National College of Arts (NCA) and an MBA from LUMS, Danish had extensive experience in Marketing and Sales with Nestle and Makro before he embarked on his journey of Social Entrepreneurship with Kaarvan.
Azim Rizvee

(MBA 1998)

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Azim Rizvee

(MBA 1998)

Azim Rizvee, CEO, Co-Founder, and award-winning Broker of Record of MinMaxx Realty Inc. has been a proud citizen of Milton, Ontario (Canada) since 2004. Nominated as Milton’s first Federal Liberal candidate in 2015, Azim’s grassroots efforts resulted in a very close race with the incumbent. The vote margin was closed from over 24,000 in 2011 to just over 2000. Today, Azim remains passionate about building better communities for all families.

Azim’s passion for real estate began over 20 years ago when he built a house in Lahore, Pakistan. “Building a dream home is the biggest asset anyone has,” says Azim, “the dream of your own house or helping others build or achieve theirs is a key driver in my work.” Azim immigrated to Canada in 1999 and has been a productive resident of Milton ever since.

Azim launched MinMaxx Realty Inc. in 2006 after a few years of formally working in the real estate industry. Prior to his success at MinMaxx, Azim worked as the Director of Operations at another real estate company and held various management roles in the corporate world, including Bell Canada and Aventis. Azim has made MinMaxx Realty a top real estate company in Milton, leading the team to achieve over USD 1.5 billion in real estate sales by selling over 2500 units within 15 years.

He was ranked as the Number 1 Real Estate Broker in the entire Toronto Real Estate Board for five consecutive years (2008-2012) industry wide, among 60,000 professionals across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Ontario jurisdictions and brands. Under Azim’s guidance, MinMaxx also raised funds for a high school in Milton and sponsored the Milton Cricket League, Milton Transitional Housing, Skate Canada/Ontario Finals and many other community initiatives. Azim also worked hard to help Milton’s Muslim community acquire land for a mosque.
Under Azim’s leadership, MinMaxx won the 2011 Milton Chamber of Commerce’s Business of the Year Award. He is a former Milton Business Person of the Year nominee. Azim was the winner of the Toronto Real Estate Board’s 2012 Community Service Award. In addition, he was on the Board of Directors at the Milton District Hospital Foundation where he worked tirelessly raising funds for a new expansion. Azim sponsored the ‘Put Your Heart in the Arts’ Campaign to raise USD 2.2 million for the Milton Centre for the Arts. He also spearheaded the support for the Milton Education Village Innovation Centre – an initiative to build entrepreneurship and business growth through post-secondary education and applied training.

Azim has an MBA from LUMS and was designated as the University’s Ambassador to Canada in July 2016, as well as Founding and current President of the Canada Alumni Chapter. He is an alumnus of the Ivey Leadership Program from the Richard Ivey School of Business. In addition, Azim is a registered independent mortgage broker in Ontario and holds several prestigious industry designations, including: Project Management Professional (PMP; 2002-2015), Accredited Mortgage Professional (AMP), Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR), Short Sales and Foreclosures Resource (SFR) Certification, Certified Negotiation Expert (CNE) and Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist, and Million Dollar Guild member of The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing.
When it comes to business and community service, Azim believes one should always think big, start small, and act fast. His experience speaks for itself; not only is Azim passionate about building a better community for families, his solid track record of delivering to this community vision continues to yield positive long term results. Azim has consistently supported his community and brought about change, not because he was supposed to, but because he chose to.

Azim enjoys spending time with his wife Dr. Rabiya Azim and their three children Zainab, Ali and Yousuf. He is also an avid book collector and enjoys tennis, cricket, chess, poetry and travelling.
Dr. Bushra Anjum

(MS 2007)

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Dr. Bushra Anjum

(MS 2007)

Bushra Anjum, PhD, is a data specialist currently working in the Health IT sector. She is experienced in analysing large datasets, building complex aggregates, creating data visualization, and conducting multivariate statistical analysis and predictive modeling. Dr. Bushra also has over 5 years of Agile software development experience for large-scale distributed services with special emphasis on performance and scalability. Hence, she combines strong analytical and engineering skills into building systems, and devising algorithms that enable efficient and reliable data analyses. Originally a Fulbright scholar from Pakistan, Dr. Bushra has international teaching and mentoring experience and has served in academia for over five years before joining the industry. She is an inaugural member of the ACM Future of Computing Academy, an initiative to support and foster the next generation of computing professionals. She is also a senior editor for ACM Ubiquity, and the Standing Committee’s Chair for ACM-Women. Dr. Anjum has been recognized by Tribune as a Top 20 under 40 professional for career excellence with a deep commitment to community service.

Dr. Anjum is a keen enthusiast of promoting diversity in the STEM fields and is serving as a community leader and mentor at GlobalTechWomen, Pakistani Women in Computing (PWiC), AnitaB.org Global Community, CRA Widening Participation (CRA-WP), Rewriting the Code (RTC), Empowering Leadership Alliance (ELA), LeanIn.org, among others. She is also a regular speaker at Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing, STARS Celebrations, CRA-WP Grad Cohort, to name a few.
Dr. Anjum received her PhD in Computer Science at North Carolina State University in 2012 for her doctoral thesis on Bandwidth Allocation under End-to-End Percentile Delay Bounds and has authored scholarly papers in the areas of performance evaluation, quality of service prediction/provisioning for networks, data science, and big data analytics.
Chaminda Hettiarachchi

(MBA 2001)

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Chaminda Hettiarachchi

(MBA 2001)

Chaminda has pioneered popularising digital technology and implementing Industry 4.0 for socio-economic development in Sri Lanka, his home country. His latest contribution is introducing fourth industrial revolution technologies there.

With 2 decades of experience in the industry, academia, research and consultancy in 20 countries in Asia, Africa and Europe, Chaminda is Co-Founder and a Director at FabLanka Foundation, a Social Enterprise working on Industry 4.0 and also CEO/Managing Director, Dil Consultancy, a research and management consultancy in Sri Lanka. An alumnus of Harvard Kennedy School, USA, and Fletcher School, USA, he is also a visiting lecturer for MBA programmes teaching project management, strategic management and e-business at University of Colombo, University of Moratuwa and Kothelawala Defense University in Sri Lanka.

From 2014, Chaminda has been conducting programmes for the government, policymakers, academia, corporate sector, rural community and to the general public on the impact of Industry 4.0 and how to prepare society for the digital transformation. He is a most sought after resource person and a key note speaker nationally and internationally on implementing Industry 4.0 for socio-economic development in Sri Lanka.
Mehreen Zahra-Malik

(BSc 2007)

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Mehreen Zahra-Malik

(BSc 2007)

Mehreen Zahra-Malik is Pakistan Editor for Arab News, one of the largest English-language newspapers in the Middle East. Previously a staff correspondent for Reuters, her reportage has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Washington Post, Al Jazeera, Foreign Policy and several other international publications. Mehreen became Deputy Editor at The News, Pakistan's largest English-language news daily, at age 24 and has also served as the youngest News Editor of The Friday Times, Pakistan's first independent weekly newspaper. She has contributed reportage and opinion to Reuters, the Newsweek, The New Republic, Al Jazeera English, The Hindu, Indian Express, Tehelka, Dawn, Express Tribune, Daily Times, The Friday Times and others. Zahra-Malik has an MA in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is currently also writing a feature film.
Mansoor Hassan Siddiqui (d. 2020)

(MBA 1998)

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Mansoor Hassan Siddiqui (d. 2020)

(MBA 1998)

Mansoor Siddiqui did his MBA from LUMS in 1998. Prior to this, he completed his Masters in Economics from Quaid-e-Azam University in 1994 and also attended Development Program at JFK School of Government, Harvard University, USA.

Mansoor has over 20 years of experience in the financial sector of Pakistan and has contributed in multifarious roles towards its development and strengthening. He has been a key part of the change management initiatives and developments at State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) initiated around 2000. Thereafter, as Executive Director, Human Resource Management at SBP, he played a vital role in providing opportunities to young graduates from LUMS to work with the apex financial institution of the country and facilitated them to experience the intricacies of central banking such as formulation of monetary and exchange policies, supervision of financial sector and developmental activities. This in turn has led to the development of a strong alumni network for LUMS at the central bank and consolidate its brand recognition.

As Director for Banking Policy at the SBP, he was instrumental in enhancing effectiveness of the Banking Supervision Framework and align it with the international best practices. He also led a number of initiatives that helped support growth in financing to SME and Micro Finance sectors, through various interventions that included subsidized refinancing windows, improvement in regulatory policies, remodelling of procedures, introduction of Credit Scoring tools and Branchless Banking platform. This has translated into steady growth of SMEs and supported financial inclusion and poverty alleviation.

Currently, as Director General, Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU), since October 2018, he has been given an important assignment to lead Pakistan’s efforts towards completion of its FATF Action Plan and help the country to come out of the Grey List, necessary to support the current economic development objectives.
Ahsan Sheikh

(MBA 1998)

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Ahsan Sheikh

(MBA 1998)

Ahsan Sheikh is a distinguished advertising and marketing professional who has help build and revolutionise outdoor advertising in Pakistan. He is currently the CEO of Kinetic Pakistan, the largest and only internationally affiliated Out-of-Home Media Agency in the country and has managed to change the perception of the medium in Pakistan and took it to Out-of-Home (OOH) from Outdoor.

Ahsan has multiple industry firsts to his name; like the introduction of Digital, Programmatic and Dynamic OOH. Kinetic’s phenomenal growth with blue-chip clients portfolio inclusive of Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Jazz, Nestle, and Unilever etc. with media billings over PKR 2.5 Billion is a testament to his success. Additionally, Kinetic is also the most awarded OOH agency in Pakistan.

Not just Kinetic, Ahsan’s serial entrepreneurship is evidenced by the fact that he is sitting at the helm of one of the leading and notable local agency and media network, The Media Group. He currently holds C-Level positions and is part of the Board of Directors of TMG companies like; Kinetic, Medialogic, Activemedia, Media Monitors, Retailmedia & Momentum Media with consolidated turnovers of approximately PKR 5 Billion and employs over 600 personnel.

Apart from his career accomplishments, Ahsan is known for his selflessness and philanthropy. He is the founder for his LUMS class endowment fund worth PKR 18 million - the highest ever endowment fund by any LUMS class. He has also started two scholarships in the name of his parents for LUMS Undergraduate Law and MBA students. Ahsan also truly believes in giving back to his Alma Mater and for the same reason he is an elected member of the LUMS SDSB Alumni Board. He devotes a substantial amount of his time to the board and has introduced a lot on initiatives; one of which is the myLUMS App - a one-of-a-kind Alumni connectivity app which enables networking, mentorship, fundraising and events for the alumni. Through his media companies, he also runs multiple pro-bono campaigns to support charities all across Pakistan.
Ahsan is based in Lahore, Pakistan along with his wife Romana and children Zain, Muhammad and Alayna.
Sadia Khuram

(MBA 1996)

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Sadia Khuram

(MBA 1996)

adia Khuram is the Chief Customer Experience Officer at Jazz.

Sadia did her MBA from LUMS in 1996, and has since worked in key commercial positions in the telecom and technology sectors. In 2016, she took a sabbatical for the Sloan Fellows MBA in Innovation and Global Leadership at MIT. After MIT, Sadia worked with Careem as a General Manager and led the growth strategy for some of their key markets, before returning to Jazz last year.

Sadia is passionate about helping businesses and organisations take advantage of opportunities presented to them by the digital economy, in terms of creating and capturing new value through innovation in business models and operations. Her focus on first principles thinking and experiment based/data driven approach to business decisions, has helped her drive impact in senior leadership positions such as Director Marketing, and Advisor to the CEO.
Sadia actively volunteers her time to mentor young entrepreneurs, and has kick-started a club Sandbox@Jazz to unlock creative thinking and expression in the organisation. One day soon she would like to be a 10% entrepreneur!

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Rules of Engagement

Alumni that have graduated from a LUMS degree programme are eligible to be nominated.
Self-nominations will not be considered. To be considered for an award, alumni must be nominated by another member of the community.
Alumni, staff, faculty, and any University personnel are especially encouraged to nominate alumni for the awards.
Alumni can be nominated for a single category only.
No LUMS Office of Advancement (OA) staff member or VC AAA committee member or VC AAA winner (previous years) is eligible for nominations.
Nominators cannot also be referees for the nominees.
Relatives/family members are not eligible referees.
Incomplete references will not be considered and may impact the final evaluation of the nominee.
Going forward, engagement with LUMS will carry extra weight as we want to acknowledge alumni who have contributed to LUMS in terms of time, effort, or funds over the years. Alumni engagement of any scale or scope must be mentioned.
An award winner who is unable to attend the VCAAA ceremony in person, may be presented the award in absentia. A member of their family will be invited to accept the award on their behalf.

Criteria

A nomination must include the first four items listed below.

Completed VC-AAA Nomination Form
Single-page resume of the nominee
A single-page case detailing why the nominee deserves to be recognized
One letter of reference (maximum 400 words) following this template
Any additional information or accomplishments of the nominee that may help the evaluation committee (Optional)

Important Dates

The evaluation, shortlisting and finalization of award winners will be conducted by the Awards Committee comprising of eight members consisting of faculty members, senior alumni, the Director of Advancement, and chaired by the Vice Chancellor.