Class Notes 2010

Compiled by Ahmed S. Butt

Contributions by Farooq Soomro, Fizza Ijaz, Saud Mukhtar and ‘Facebook’

Abubakar Siddique aka ‘bobby’ has gotten married and consequently has curtailed his social life.

Adeel Allawallah is joining Unilever Dubai coming October as Assistant Manager Marketing after he got fed up with his Korean boss at Phillip Morris.

Adnan Nisar is still at PTC and is fast rising up the ‘familia’ ladder as he reports to be upgraded from being married to fatherhood. He named his son Azaan.

Ahsan Ahmad Maykan, the cool dude of MNC is still clinging to Telenor. He has shifted himself from segments to pricing department.

Ali Abbas aka Pujji is playing 'Daddy Responsible' with his almost 1 year old lovely daughter, Zuha. The little one is often found attending MBA gatherings in Daddy's arms. Ali is working with Habib Bank AG Zurich and settled happily in Sharjah with wife and daughter.

Harsh weather, unfriendly environment and unprofessional colleagues have not yet got the better of Ali Maaz who is bringing first day zeal and vigor, to the work every day. Due to his ceaseless energy, he and his boss are getting higher and higher in the corporate hierarchy even if the pay stays the same. His son Rayyan, aptly nicknamed sher khan has become a darling mashallah. Ali Maaz was recognized yet again for making most useful Class Participation in a conference at Alghanim, a feat he humbly attributes to the listening patience of Kuwaiti gang.

Aly Abdul Rehman is working at Publicis, a French multinational advertising and communications company. Aly’s most frequent French sentences are “Est-ce qu'il y a quelqu'un ici qui parle anglais? Où sont les toilettes?”

Aly Yousaf got married earlier this year. He has been promoted to the position of Group Management Accountant at Unilever and was rewarded a brand new Honda city and still learning driving on it.

Amina Ijaz is at coke. She travels around the world when she’s working and when she’s not working.

Ammar Butt is still working in his family business. He persists on maintaining his singlehood status. He was last seen attending the Finals at Wimbledon and watching Rafael Nadal in action.

Anwar Kabir is still working at Lowe & Rauf as Business Director for the company’s largest Account in Lahore; Nestle Pakistan. This last year was special for him in a way that he finally got married in November 2009. His family shifted to their newly constructed house in State Life Society in early 2010 and he spent quite a bit of his time this year settling down at the new place. Kabir got elected as Founder Board Member of newly formed SDSB LUMINITES Alumni Association and worked as Director Outreach during the board’s tenure. During this time, he got an opportunity to reach out to Business School Alumni across all batches and was successful in engaging quite a few of them in alma mater and alumni related activities. As Director Outreach, he supervised Association’s Mega Launch Event which was attended by a large number of alumni. His active involvement with Rotary Club still continues.

Arshad Moazzam left Mobilink in November last year and joined Etisalat UAE. He is living in Dubai with his wife and daughter who will be 3 coming October.

Asad Mahmood has finally gotten himself rid from the Abu Dhabi Group. He’s now working as Business Manager for Mantaq Systems

God’s mercy will no longer shower over Kuwait as it did earlier. Asad Shafiq has decided to move on and will be pursuing his doctorate at Richard Ivey, School of Business, which is quite famous with the MBA lot for publishing short length cases. In three years of his stay, Asad transformed the businesses he worked with, “warna yahan kya rakha tha, kaheen thaa maweshi charanay pe jaghra”. On the personal front, Asad was blessed with a baby boy named Ibrahim, much to the annoyance of his daughter Umaima, who now has to share the parents love with him.

Ashhad Saeed is now never to be found alone since his 'coupled' status and his better half is now an equal part of the mba07 group in Dubai. They are more than often found hanging out with the rest of the gang over weekends. Ashhad is working with Etisalat in Abu Dhabi and enjoying not only his work but also the public service employment from every aspect. His employee loyalty continues that has led him to reject all calls that come from a non-etisalat number.

Azamat Akbarov is at General Motors Powertrain Uzbekistan working as Senior Financial Analyst. His role revolves around financial control and budgeting.

Babur Rais is at BMA capital and is continues to stay single in the near distant future.

Bilal Javed Bhatti is a proud father of a baby girl Hajra. This still did not make a responsible driver out of him and he still leads the most fouled driver race among Kuwaiti gang. He is working for Alghanim Electronics now and is seen squeezing suppliers by all means for fulfilling corporate appetite for profits. Rest of the day, he is found happily babysitting his daughter.

Bilal Malik has successfully completed his post graduation in Public Policy and Management from Monash University Australia. His profile got the maximum hits from MBA 2007 people in 2009-10 due to inclusion of supermodels in Bilal’s friend list.

Dilafruz is still very loyal to the furniture industry & not thinking of moving away very soon. Last year company finally realized her true potential & made her the Brand Manager for Cilek (furniture brand for kids). Since then the brand is enjoying triple digit growth over last year and she hopes to keep this momentum going forward as well. On her personal front, MBA boy Kamran is going to reception this year, and his sister is in 4th grade. Both of them hate Kuwait’s weather, but love the sea and no matter how hard Dilafruz tries to teach them Uzbek & Russian, they both speak only English.

Fasahat Feroze is happy with his life and has recently visited USA, along with her lady-in-red. He is still at Telenor.

This year has been quite an eventful one for Fizza Ijaz. She has been with Unilever, Dubai for over an year now and is doing very well, enjoying herself thoroughly applying all the marketing ‘dabbas’ learnt during the two years of MBA. In addition to her portfolio role on Home & Personal Care for North Africa Middle East, she has taken up a brand project with the Dove team and will be landing her first launch end of this year which she is very excited about. More importantly, she got engaged earlier this year to our very own Mulli (no prizes for guessing), Hamza. The couple will tie the knot early next year Inshallah. We wish them both a very happy life together.

Haleema Muniba quit her job to work as full-time mother for her daughter ‘Soha’.

After playing the "tarang" tune with "Saima jee" for the last two years at Engro foods, Hamza Ahmad now signs off his emails as the business development manager for their global business unit. Following critical assessment of a business opportunity, he is now evaluating whether helikes Toronto or Vancouver more as the base for his operations and seems pretty happy considering J-lo for his new campaign. Hamza also got engaged recently (you can spot the victim in one of the classnotes here).

Husnain Alam after escaping two companies without knowing the results of his sales effort hasfinally received a fat pay check of Commission from IBM.

Imran Hafeez is misleading, sorry leading students through his inspirational speeches. He is known as ‘Hatim Tai’ when goes out to dine with hisstudents but vanguards his budget like a snake while eating out with friends. On request of some close friends he has dedicated his weekends to his friends. The lucky draw of which weekend happens once every year.

Jasim Ahmad facebook profile reports that he is currently in an open relationship; his employer is Adamjee Insurance and CFA level 2 certified.

Kanza Fida became a proud mother of a baby boy. She works for Warid in the Strategy department.

Kashan Yaqoob is still at Engro and has moved from supply chain to marketing division.

Kashif Munir is happily married and reports to have gained a few pounds consequently. He has joined AC Nielsen as Manager Consumer Research.

Khurram Mir is reported to have moved to UAE with his newly wedded wife sometime back and has been running his own business. He is often found in famous Pakistani restaurants in Dubai.

Khurram Saleem Malik is enjoying the status quo with his wife and son Ibrahim.

Khwaja Faisal’s bachelorhood shall be no more as he is cherishing his last few days as a nikkahofied bachelor. Rukhsati will be in November and hopefully all of you will be getting the invite in your inbox. He is working for Alghanim’s FMCG division and brings first day zeal and vigor, to the work, albeit for different reasons (not all of which are professional). He is also found boarding wrong planes and cars often.

Luqman Awan is working with 3M and was declared Best Sales Man of 3M Pakistan for the year 2009. On his personal note, his son Suleiman is growing fast (20 months already) and is responsible for creating a lot of excitement in Luqman’s life. He is thankful to his wife Sheema for allowing him to participate in Alumni Association activities. He reports that our class endowment fund has crossed the PKR 1.4 million. He has offered unconditional hospitality to his batch mates visiting Lahore.

Mehdi Raza is still at UCH power and believes power sector to be the only viable job sector in the future. He has gotten married.

Cisco loyal Mehtab Lasharie has moved from sales to operations management and is enjoying a much welcomed improvement in work-life balance.

Muhammad Anis Sajid is reported to be engaged. He resides in Lahore near LUMS campus. Shell continues to be his employer choice.

Muhammad Farhan Tayyab is at P&G playing “surf wars” with other competitors for Arial.

Mian Murad is as colorful and lively as ever. He has always been a source of unanticipated entertainment. For some reason people were amused to find that Mian performed an Umrah on an official trip to Saudi. He is an avid reader and one has to make way through spiral of the books to reach his throne where he is found lying majority of the time.

Muhammad Ali Imam after hopping from Engro and ICI has now joined Mobilink and is heading the Organizational Development department.

Muhammad Ali Jawed (AJ) part time job outside his professional role at Petrofac’s, is to photograph his very cute son who is now 9 months old. The baby has been titled "the friendliest baby in UAE" (mashallah). Despite their busy work, social and baby schedule, Ali and Fatima make it a point to join the mba07 Dubai gatherings on most occasions.

We have good news from Muhammad Ayaz Karim's den - he tied the knot in July 2010. He is steadily working with Habib Bank AG Zurich since 2007 and enjoying his time in Dubai. He still never misses the first show first day of all bollywood movies released and plays the ultimate host to all visitors. Since he has become a veteran in Dubai now - we also like to call him our 'navigator' since he is the one emergency number we call if we are lost on the roads of UAE.

Muhammad Bin Shahbaz works at Nestle Pakistan and has recently joined parenthood.

Muhammad Faisal Amin has joined the ever increasing group of new parents with his daughter named Rania. A lot of us know him as man of few words but his passionate political dialogue surprises most of the people around. He is working as Planning Manager at Alghanim Engineering Division and is highly rated by his superiors. His General Manager once said that he would be willing to recruit a dozen like him, even during the recession.

Muhammad Farooq Soomro has decided to move back to Karachi as he could not count the stars in dusty Kuwaiti Sky using his telescope. He is happily married and trying to find nirvana in selling Byco oil to consumers. He has joined the ever increasing group of Facebook inspired photographers who own a camera and that’s why post them to Facebook. He hallucinates and writes as ‘The Karachi Banjara’ on blogosphere.

Muhammad Shahid Bashir entrepreneurial soul was recently rewarded ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ award by the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Muhammad Usman Ahmed is a proud father of a baby boy named Zakariya. He is spending his days blissfully with his family in Toronto while hunting mad cows around. He has moved to Canada to purse his doctorate in Management Sciences. He has plenty of leisure time at his hands which he uses to lure people to Canada for a doctorate or write cheeky emails on the class email group. He plans to opt for a teaching career after his Phd much to the delight of corporate sector.

Muhammad Usman Khan reports “By the grace of Almighty we have been blessed with a baby girl.” The baby girl is enjoying free supplies of Nestle nesvita milk.

Muhammad Umar Tanwir aka Haji Tanwir is at Mobily Saudia Arabia and longs for his lawlessness life in Pakistan.

Natalia Nicklaevna is working with Petrofac and leading a peaceful life in Sharjah.

Nizam Ahmed successfully resold his valuable CPs for a six figure salary. He is working for Dhaka Stock Exchange. He hasn’t managed to increase the population that much; with just one kid.

Omar Ahmed the wiz kid of Pakistan Tobacco has bid farewell to controlling costs and is now spending money of USAID on a high profile project at Eli Walker.

Omair Yunus and Kamilia Iftikhar are happily married to each other. Since then they have been travelling to many destinations in a short while it is difficult to find which one was their honeymoon. Omair is working for Electronics and was last found launching an electric cigarette in the ‘Health and Wellness’ category. Kamilia is working for Home furnishing division now. Her business had a record selling month which may or may not be attributed to her joining the business.

Rabia Raza Tirmezey is going strong and steady in the Treasury department of Mashreq Bank, working on structured commodities and rates. Recently Rabia has marked another achievement up her sleeve by clearing CFA level 2. Other than her frequent trips back home, Rabia likes to spend her weekends watching movies, looking for new places to dine out and organizing batch get-togethers and not-at-all surprise birthdays.

Rai Usman tied the knot in February this year and has been living with his family in Dubai. He is still working for Barclays Bank as ‘Portfolio Manager’ for their credit cards division.

Raza-ul-Haque is working as Senior Zone Manager at Chevron where he has been given additional got additional portfolio of retail along with industrial sales. With Khwaja tying the knot this year, he is facing serious pressure from his mom to call quits to his bachelorhood.

Saima Ansari has been promoted as Brand Manager Surf at Unilever.

Sajjad Ali Khan is working for Wateen Telecom.

Salman Ahmed Khan was last seen at Umair Shabbir Butt’s wedding. He hasn’t changed a bit in size. He has successfully worked for 3 major bank employers during one employment; first with ABN AMRO, second with RBS and third with Faisal Bank.

Sarmad Balouch likes to stay in the saner part of the emirates i.e. Abu Dhabi where he devotedly works for First Gulf Bank. We give him credit for always making appearance at batch level get-togethers in Dubai.

Saud Mukhtar after putting on weight from his current job has co-opened a Khoka. He has successfully roped in Husnain, Mehdi, Umair Mukhtar after showing them greener pastures of Food revolution.

Saqib Mubarak has moved from Alghanim to Babtain Group as Marketing Manager and is found polishing his Arabic skills which were found disastrous in Kuwaiti gang’s eventful Turkey trip. Saqib has managed to get married this year despite all the torrential rain, floods, target killings and bomb blasts. The first half of the year has been most happening for Saqib as he starts a new era, with a new job, new house and a new laptop.

Shafiq Sobhan reports “I am still alive and kicking, enjoying life in Down Under and currently visiting family and friends in Bangladesh.”

Shahrukh and Maryam have moved back to Dubai from Abu Dhabi with Shahrukh working in corporate banking at the National Bank of Oman and Maryam in product management at Thuraya Telecom Co. The two were recently found trotting the globe across France and different parts of Canada. Their home is one of the most popular spots for post dinner 'chai and gupshup' sessions over weekends.

Faysal Bank continues to be employer of Shahzad Ahmad’s choice (“Majbori”) in these years of recession. After office hours are spent with wife and son Ali, he has recently joined gym to limit my ever growing waist. He has passed level 3 of CFA exam; the first person in our batch to achieve this milestone.

Shehreyar Mehmood has been with Oracle for the past 2 odd years. He has just moved to Melbourne for a new role. He is trying to cope up with the "AUSI" lifestyle and at the moment is pondering on which AFL team to pick. He is taking singing lessons to improve his vocal skills and has also taken up photography as a hobby.

Shelina Ramzan Ali Khoja has apparently settled in a marketing role at Engineering Division. Her commitment to work is unmatched as she has been seen working or rather holding up for his boss during Eid holidays and weekends. Her presentations are as colorful as ever and her driving as wild as it could get. Her car pool buddies have become immune to shocks, jolts, surprises, tremors and sudden changes in speed.

Siddique Ahmad is the latest addition to the Kuwait gang. He now works for Wataniya Telecom. He joined the ranks of fatherhood with the birth of his son he named Zuhayr.

Sohaib Hashmi is working with Habib Bank AG Zurich. Since life in Dubai isn't always as exciting - he made an adventurous trip to Switzerland all on his own! People looking for tourism info on the Swiss Land - please contact Sohaib! His message to the batch this year is 'Life's good and must visit Switzerland once in a life time!"

Suresh Shrestra after working for the Department of Transport Management is now placed in Water and Energy Commission secretariat in Kathmandu.

Syed Aamir Asif still continues to work for Mashreq Bank and is having a nice time in Dubai.

Syed Ali Haider is working in Corporate Banking, Barclays UAE since October 2008. He spends most of his time with family (wife and daughter ‘Khadija’ who turns three this Sept) and remains in contact with friends, mostly over phone.

Syed Ammar Yasin after shuttling between Lahoreand Islamabad has finally accepted ‘Isloo’ to be his home place atleast for now. He works for Telenor Pakistan and played an instrumental role in launch of EasyPaisa; Pakistan’s first Branchless Banking.

Taimur Karim cleared his CSP exam and will be joining Pakistan’s bureaucracy. His training will be starting coming January in Lahore. He also won an award in KESC for its turnaround.

Umair Shabbir Butt finally left Wateen and joined Mobilink in the Marketing division. He is one of newly married people in our batch who spend his free time cross checking his electricity meter readings.

Wasif Sikander Butt got married.

Yashrah Masood won the performance award this year at Servis at the annual business conference. She has now moved on to Mantaq Systems as supply chain consultant to Servis and other vendors. Yashrah says “we had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun but the hills that we climbed were just seasons out of time” and now she so wants to go back to school and study Economics.

Yasir Suleman Memon got promoted as manager in the Modern Trade division at Unilever. He was found vacationing in Thailand at the time this class note was written.

Zenubia Qureshi has recently moved from Bahrain to Dubai. She has just finished setting up her new home beautifully and plans to relax and enjoy some homely time now.

And lastly, your class note coordinator Ahmed Shiraz Butt reports “I have slowly become accustomed to life here in Federal capital Islamabad. If Daewoo had offered travel reward points system, I would have won a trip to Korea by now; considering the number of miles I travelled last year. Telenor continues to be my choice of employment.”

Class Notes 2009

Compiled by Ahmed S. Butt

Contributions by Farooq Soomro, Fizza Ijaz and ‘Significant Others’

The year 2008-09 has been a tough year for everyone. While unstable political and security conditions of our country continue to haunt us, recession has taken its toll globally and already we can see it aftereffects. There have been casualties and losses all around us. Some of us have been affected financially; some mentally; while some (like me) physically as well. But Alhamdulillah, we all stand up high on my feet determined to face the growing challenges with the same courage and spirit with which we all entered the corporate world.

This year also marked the sad demise of our beloved finance professor Dr. Naim Sipra. Words cannot do justice to this person’s sheer brilliance, knowledge and command over his subject. Not only was he a genius at mind, he was also a very kind-hearted, soft spoken, composed and down-to-earth gentleman who treated his students with respect and never left an opportunity to share his crude humor with them. With his death, LUMS has lost one of its best professors whose replacement can never be made. May his soul rest in peace!

Here is a one-to-one highlight of this year activities of our batch mates:

Abubakar Siddique has been gaining rich experience working as category specialist at Nestle looking after the products Nido, Everday tea whitener and Nestle Cream. His comprehension on the dairy category came in handy in his suitor pursuit, as a Kashmiri family has agreed to commit their girl with him.

Adeel Allawallah says that Life has been really hectic post LUMS. He sells cigarettes during the day at Phillip Morris International and cakes in the evening at Masooms. Everybody is invited to have a free cigarette with a cake slice at his franchise.

Adnan Nisar reports as being engaged and will soon be changing his status to happily married. He has been loyal with PTC and after his short stint in South Korea, has been appointed as Area Manager in Faisalabad. He has been planning and strategizing to increase cigarette sales for PTC brands but he himself has yet to taste one.

Ahsan Ahmad Maykan continues to work at Telenor doing segmentation for Talkshawk. He insists that his campaigns have nothing to do with TVCs that get aired on television. After his split-up with Ali Zafar, he now listens to Annie and Amanat Ali songs on long drives.

Ali Abbas Pujanis is based in Sharjah where he is working for Habib Bank AG Zurich and happily settled with his wife. Puji has become a proud father of baby girl and has already started strategizing investment plans for her.

Ali Maaz got married last December but did not give much relief to bachelors by getting back immediately with his ‘cooker’ stories. He is still with Electronics Retail and was a star performer last year. He significantly exceeded his Kitchen category budget, only to find out that his bonus was tied to corporate performance. He has not lost the need for a larger audience and his appetite for class participation, former being reluctantly offered by bachelor brotherhood.

Aly Abdul Rehman has got engaged. Now we have a ‘Bro’ and a ‘Sis’.

Aly Yousaf has also got engaged and plans to get married in December. He is still at Unilever in working in the Finance Department.

Amina Ijaz is presumed to be at Coke getting free passes to all Coke Studio sessions.

Ammar Butt is busy revolutionizing the Bicycle industry by implementing ISO-9001 and web-based systems in his company; creating a good excuse for current downward sales trend. He’s happy spending his last bachelorhood years playing online poker and Nintendo at home.

Anwar Kabir took a brief stint at LUMS as Head of Corporate Communication for SDSB in early 2009, however was pulled back by Lowe & Rauf (his third time employer in last 5 years) as Business Director for their largest client “Nestle” in Lahore. Anwar spends quite a bit of his time at Nestle, for which his company works as advertising and communication partner for leading brands like MilkPak, NesVita, Nescafe, Yogurts and others. Anwar went on a world tour last year and his pictures/travelogue is available at his 900+ Facebook friends site. He spends most of his free time getting his house constructed near LUMS and also dreaming and planning his next vacation trip later this year. Anwar recently became Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International and continues to have a very active social life with Rotary Club and otherwise. Our ‘Shahzada’ is still single and got the title of “most eligible bachelor” from his close friends, with not many bright chances of getting married anytime soon. Let’s all pray, he finds his “significant other” this year.

Arshad Moazzam has shifted to VAS department at Mobilink and is currently attending training course in Singapore. His daughter turns one this year.

Recently, Asad Mahmood got the opportunity to cut loose of Wateen's lair, but at the same time remained in Abu Dhabi Group's farm joining the healthcare sector. He is currently serving as Manager Marketing in Al-Razi Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. He got married in last October and insists on having granted by Allah sufficient powers to execute the relation ;).

His Sheikhness Asad Shafiq is working with Supply Chain at Alghanim Industries. He has long been disappointed with society’s failure to appreciate his ideas and act accordingly. Now he mourns every disappointment by eating more and his ever increasing waistline is a reflection of his anxiety. He has started playing football and plays very well even if football is not around.

Ashhad Saeed is enjoying his 07:00 am to 04:00 pm public lifestyle at Etisalat where he is working in the Strategy & Planning department. It is heard that his brand loyalty has led him to reject all incoming calls from a non-etisalat number. He is expected to tie the knot by the time the class notes become public.

Azamat Akbarov is serving the oil and gas sector as Financial Analyst at Eriell Corporation; an oil and gas drilling company based at Tashkent. He has become quite an active visitor of Facebook owing to his plans of changing his bachelorhood by the end of this year.

Babur Rais is still working for Investment Banking at BMA Capital. He recently won the award for second best M&A deal in Asia Pacific by the Banker Deals of the Year 2009. That’s what you get for putting in late hours in office. He plans to remain single for the moment.

Badri Nath Baral is working for a leading IPP company in Nepal named Butwal Power Company Ltd. as a Financial Analyst. He is happily married with a six month old daughter.

Bilal Javed Bhatti has moved to Electronics Retail after seeing out whole life cycle of his former division. He got married in September and recently visited the pyramids. The “jawaan” who used to dodge speeding cameras now spends time sleeping between them.

Bilal Malik is currently in Melbourne to study how females of the human species have evolved differently on the two continents viz., Asia and Australia. It is an intensively research oriented project interspersed with occasional guess-work and recourse to divine inspiration. To legitimize his stay in Australia, he has enrolled for public policy studies, which he is least interested in. By the end of 2010, he intends to share the findings of his ground-breaking research with the most important stakeholder group i.e., Perennial Bachelors of Pakistan, having illustrious members like Mr. Anwar Kabir and Mr. Jasim Waheed. Instead of the benefits, Mr. Malik remains more interested in the fringe-benefits of the project.

Dilafruz is looking for MOP notes, anybody wants to share? She has to learn how to play "blind, deaf & dumb" game without playing it. She is proud of making 60% more sales than year for a small category. Only percentages are making her days!

This year has been very kind to Fasahat Feroze who got first promoted to Assistant Manager Product and Platform at Telenor, then got engaged and later hair started growing back on his head. The last miracle was courtesy of the laser hair treatment he got from his bonus. His nick has now changed from ‘Goldie’ to ‘Goldilocks’.

Fizza Ijaz has once again been on-the-go. After having worked in Global Markets at Deutsche Bank London for a year and a half, she decided to move to the more glitzy world of marketing. She is presently working as Assistant Marketing Manager for Home and Personal Care at Unilever Dubai. She is enjoying being with family and the new work-life balance as opposed to the hectic hours and cold of London. Being the kind-hearted that she is, she is making her share of foreign remittance and investing heavily in Dubai economy by buying herself a new car and renting a new apartment.

Haleema Muniba spends her working hours as Assistant Demand Generation Manager; managing a team of 60 non-luminites at ICI Paints. She insists that she has forgotten everything learnt at LUMS; while we still question on the ‘learnt part’.

Hamza Ahmad is found flirting with Syed Noor on the set of hit show ‘Hero Banney Ke Tarang’. Engro Foods is helping him fulfill his dream of becoming a super star. We won’t be surprised if Hamza gets casted in Pakistani film ‘Dostana’ along with John Rambo and Resham.

Husnain Alam recently joined IBM and went to see Egypt in his very first month on his job. Husnain insists that ‘wohi aik chaal be-dhangee si, jo pehley thee so ab bhee hey’; we however doubt it. On public gatherings, he never hesitates to enlighten the audience with his views on life, politics, religion and everything else.

Ever since Imran Hafeez has got married, his mobile is always found on ‘not responding’ status after 05:00 p.m. He is employed at Ufone and insists that he has nothing to do with either Ufone pricing or its ads.

Jasim Ahmad is still at Adamjee Insurance working as Senior Manager heading a branch in Lahore. He recently has passed his CFA level 1 exam with flying colors; another milestone added on his ‘bachelor’ profile.

Kamilia Iftikhar has completed the most air miles among the Kuwaiti community. She has already finished the Pakistani quota for UK visas and has been the reason for rejections for rest of the people. Despite major restructuring she is holding her position firm in Business Development at Alghanim.

Kanza Fida is getting married. Electronic copy of the wedding invitation will be e-mailed one week prior the big day. Those wanting to congratulate her can catch up with her at Wateen.

Engro brought Kashan Yaqoob back to his hometown place Karachi after spending nearly a year at village-cum-city Sahiwal. He got promoted to fatherhood with an adorable son named ‘Shafay’. Consequent of his craving for the opposite sex, he is recovering from a minor slip disk. We all wish him speedy recovery!

Kashif Munir insists that there is nothing better to do than to get married during recession. So, he has got himself engaged quietly and plans to complete his conquest in December. Consultancy continues to be his line of business at Xavor.

Khurram Mir entrepreneurial venture Kualitatem previously known as Kraysis continues to make headlines every now and then. From being declared as Best Start-up for Pakistan and Asia Pacific separately to contracting with big clients like Wateen Telecom and Netsol Tech., Kualitatem has become already a success story that we should all be proud of. Khurram has got engaged and is looking forward to get married later this year.

Khurram Saleem is still working for Xavor where he is currently consulting with Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, helping them with their supply chain. He is currently based in Burbank California which is home to most major studios (both Film and TV); and enjoys the Southern California summers where the maximum temperature is 28-30 degrees Celsius. His son Ibrahim turned two this June.

Khwaja Faisal is still a proud bachelor and is always found in middle of chicks, chicken and gossip. He has been a prime target of sermons by Usman luring him to get married. He is working in FMCG division and has lately been responsible for importing chicken from Brazil. Naturally he did not want to stop the importing there! He is the owner of infamous “kotha” which has been a meeting place for the Kuwaiti gang.

Luqman Awan became a proud father of baby boy he named Suleman and not ‘Suleman Dawood’ (because of strict adherence to copyrights). His ongoing commitment with MBA-07 Endowment Fund has resulted in generating Rs. 1 Million which has been invested in Islamic mode of Finance. Kudos to Luqman! Presently, he is heading one of the business categories of 3M in Lahore at National level.

Mehdi Raza is busy making ‘tons of money’ working as Financial Analyst for Uch Power. He is celebrating nation’s newly discovered judiciary freedom with full zeal and vigor.

Mehtab Lasharie returned from her sales training (others insist paid vacation) in Amsterdam since last July. Having spent a year with individuals from 41 different nationalities, she opened up other exciting career opportunities as linguistics expert, Europe tour guide, biryani chef to name a few. She settled for continuing to work for Cisco, as a Service Account Manager covering global accounts for Middle East and Africa.

After spending a couple of years in scorching heat of Sindh and enjoying metropolitan life of Karachi, Muhammad Anis Sajid is back in Lahore. Persisting with Shell and still selling lubricants, he is always looking forward to bump into any old Classmate.

Muhammad Farhan Tayyab left P&G early this year and came back to Lahore to attend to some family matters. During this time, he made a brief stint at Wateen Telecom in their Solutions division. He is now back at P&G as Assistant Brand Manager ‘Arial’ and is looking forward to continue his streak from where he left.

Mian Murad is working for Kimmco, insulation material manufacturer and has become SAP guru over past two years.

Following the legacy of Mard-e-Mujahid Mr. You-Know-Who; Muhammad Ali Imam is looking after six sigma and leadership development interventions at Engro Chemicals as Organizational Development and Quality Manager. His children are growing fast as Ali turns 05 and Zainab 01 this year.

After spending almost a year to-ing and fro-ing between Dubai and Aberdeen (Scotland), Muhammad Ali Jawed has returned to Sharjah for good. He is currently engaged with Petrofac's ERP implementation project and enjoying a happy married life.

Muhammad Ayaz Karim; being the peaceful, disciplined and self still sticking individual that he is. (NOT!!), he still works for Habib Bank AG Zurich Dubai in Corporate Banking. He is found active in the Dubai social circle and is seen on one too many occasions attending premiere of bollywood flicks. His weekend usually includes a trip to Sharjah to visit his relatives and is a frequent flyer to Karachi as well.

Muhammad Bin Shahbaz spends his leisure time cursing his competitor Gourmet for giving Nestle water a hard time in Lahore. He prefers to drink Sufi Water for himself.

Muhammad Faisal Amin has taken charge of planning at Engineering division. He is a regular member of the football team and has transformed into a no nonsense defender.

Muhammad Farooq Soomro, the not so holy disciple of His Sheikhness spends most of his time connecting over smoking pot. He still dreams of load shedding in the scorching heat of Karachi while sitting in his chilled room in Kuwait. He has become an expert in writing macros and has been planning to use them to find answers to God, Universe and everything else.

Previously, Muhammad Hamid Khan worked as a Business Development Manager and headed the Graphics and Animation division in a multinational software company. This year, he rejoined his family business and is now working on consolidating the different work sites in to one factory. He is still single and looking... and giving serious thoughts on relocating himself to UK.

Muhammad Niazi Malik is still at SAMBA working as RM corporate.

Muhammad Shahid Bashir continues to make his mark as an entrepreneur. He resides in Lahore and is working on three business projects; a transformer manufacturing unit that he runs as a CEO, expanding the ethanol unit to include a steel mill to utilize excess electric energy generated from in-house sources and lastly setting up a dairy farm in Kasur of a head count of 500 and establishing sale points for milk and beef in different neighborhoods in Lahore. His son is fast learning to become a footballer.

Muhammad Usman became a proud father of a baby boy named Omar. Working at P&G sales, he is currently posted at Lahore.

Muhammad Usman Ahmed is working for Home furnishing division at Alghanim. He got married in December and since then has disappeared from everyone’s sight. It is rumored that he is planning something fishy. However he is still conscious of his social responsibility and constantly sends emails, marked yellow at times to highlight misconduct and to nip evil in the bud.

Muhammad Usman Khan is looking after Key Accounts Business Development with Nestle. No wonder the chances of finding Nestle products at Utility Stores are higher these days than plain flour. He will be getting married this autumn.

Muhammad Umar Tanwir after making his way up the ladder towards becoming a manager at Zong realized that he needs to start all over again as an executive at Mobily. UT has got married and will be moving to Saudia Arabia by September. He is busy collecting home entertainment content for his Saudia stint.

Natalya Nicklaevna is with Petrofac in Sharjah and prefers the burning heat of Dubai over the freezing cold of Moscow.

Nizam Ahmed has gotten fed up of making finance CP’s and has moved into ICT development sector where he enjoys making Dabba’s for a change.

After spending his honeymoon period at Kuala Lumpur, PTCL has placed Omar Ahmad at a remote location called ‘Akora Khattak’ in Pakistan, which according to Omar is in the middle of nowhere and he is facing tough competition from local cocaine producers.

Omair Yunus is rising up the corporate ladder and very soon it will be difficult to find him a suitable boss. He has been instrumental in developing the toys and several other categories within Alghanim Electronics. He is mostly found on planes to different destinations across the globe.

Rabia Raza Tirmezey has successfully completed over a whole adventurous year in Dubai. She has proudly cleared CFA Level 1 and is working For Mashreq Bank Treasury as a Derivative Structurer for Commodities and Rates. (Who says finance was only the guys thing at LUMS?!!). Visitors to Dubai can catch her up on either premiere of a bollywood movie or on inbound flights between Dubai and Karachi.

Rafael Ali moved to UAE last year and is working with Descon. He is enjoying life with his wife and two sons in Ajman. He was last seen on Yasir Memon’s wedding dancing on the song ‘menu yaar daai waiya uthaay naachan veei daai’.

Rai Usman has gotten engaged according to our sources. He is still at Barclays Bank posted at Dubai, UAE.

Raza-ul-Haque got promoted at Chevron and is now working there as Senior Zone Manager. His guest appearance in the TV show ‘Happy Hour with Rukhsana’ resulted in a massive flow of marriage proposals; subsequent to his saucy exercise-cum-dance performance.

Raza Rehman is working as Assistant Brand Manager at Nestle and is managing complete NIDO Portfolio for the past 8 months. Raza was blessed with a son last year. He continues to live his passion for site seeing and trekking in northern areas and went to Nanga Parbat Base camp (South Side) and Hunza this year.

Saima Ansari is sticking to her guns working as ABM Surf at Unilever. She regularly adds her photography work on her Facebook profile.

Sajjad Ali Khan has gone back to what he does best that is music. He recently launched his demo song on the website http://www.sajjadkhan.net/ and is expected to release his own Rock music album soon. In the meanwhile, Wateen Telecom continues to be his professional home ground.

Salman Ahmed Khan is working for an organization where employer turnover is higher than employee turnover. He is designated as RM corporate for RBS which was previously known as ABN AMRO, and will soon be called as MCB.

Saud Mukhtar keeps his mind and heart occupied to extra-curricular activities thanks to his 09:00 AM to 02:00 PM job timings at SECP and his non-marital lifestyle. He has become a fatherly figure of LUMS Alumni Islamabad chapter and was last seen collecting funds from LUMS Alumni for Islamabad chapter reunion function; at gunpoint.

Saqib Mubarak’s division acquired an ailing business and now struggles to meet its own budget every month. He spends day and night devising strategies and models which, to his credit, at least “forecast” the past accurately. His legendary bat carry in which he did not score a single boundary helped Alghanim Industries clinch a corporate cricket trophy. He was rewarded with a toaster for his efforts. He is still as colorful as ever and has the widest collection of dazzling shoes.

Shafiq Sobhan has moved to Melbourne Australia and lives there with his wife.

Shahrukh and Maryam moved to UAE last year and have been hopping around Abu Dhabi and Dubai since then. They spent their last year going through their ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ life stage. Shahrukh now works for Bank of Oman.

Shahzad Ahmed was last seen hiking around endangered species and wildlife resort at Makhspuri trek in Nathia Gali. Faisal Bank continues to be his employer of choice.

Shehreyar Mehmood can be found at Oracle working as marketing manager for Sage West. His colorful language vocabulary is a treat to listen in all of ‘Isloo’ gatherings.

After commoditizing sky diving experience in Dubai, the next agenda on Shelina Ramzan Ali Khoja’s list is bungee jumping in Seattle. First batch of her pictures has been uploaded on Facebook as I am writing these lines. She has been moving from department to department in the Industrial division of Alghanim during past one year.

Calm and composed Siddique Ahmad was last seen screaming and cheerleading at Maykan’s apartment for team Barcelona in UEFA Cup 2009 final match. He now prices prepaid Jazz at Mobilink.

Sohaib Hashmi turned out to be a true Lahori acting as a great host to yours truly and Umair Butt during our trip to Dubai. Not a huge fan of clean-up, we discovered 73 empty water bottles lying unattended below his bed. He is still at Habib bank A.G. Zurich.

Suresh Shrestra is working for the Department of Transport Management under the Ministry of Labor and Transport Management Nepal. Both of his daughters have started their schooling; one studying in Grade-1 at St. Mary's High School and the other enrolled in Nursery at Eurokids International.

Syed Aamir Asif continues to work as part of the Investment Portfolio team at Mashreq Bank, overseeing the Hedge Funds Portfolio of the Bank, where he is still popularly known as “Mr. Touch-me”.

Syed Ali Haider made a successful job hopping in the recession stricken Dubai city where he moved from Habib Bank AG Zurich to Barclays. He is enjoying his stay in Dubai with his wife and his little daughter who is soon turning two.

Syed Ammar Yasin switched from Telenor to enter the cheesy world of water, milk and juices at Nestle. Having declared himself as an ‘IDP’, he came back to Telenor where he now works in Financial Services Division and spends his time researching names for his upcoming products. Doctor joined the parents club earlier this year with the birth of his daughter.

Tahir Masood has been promoted to the position of Chilled Dairy Manager for Central Zone. He controls the Yogurt supply-line for Punjab which makes him second most influential person after Shahbaz Sharif.

Taimur Karim now does budgeting for KESC while controlling the electricity supply to North Karachi. He rarely makes public appearance these days due to inherent controversial nature of his job.

Thanks to Umair Mukhtar’s wife, they are enjoying the luxuries of a ‘Sarkari’ apartment in G7 Islamabad. He continues to inspire PTCL with his profound strategies.

Umair Shabbir Butt is still single and insists on maintaining the status quo during recession. He hasn’t left Wateen nor has Wateen left him. Juggling between corporate and consumer segments of Fiber and Fixed Network, he spends his free time gaming on his Play station.

Unilever’s two ABMs Umer Farrukh and Umer Mehmood reside together in Karachi, one looking after Energile and the other looking after Walls. Consequently, they have unlimited supply of energy drink and ice-cream at their apartment.

After a year at Citibank, Wasif Sikander Butt decided to head back to Lahore. He is now working with Standard Chartered Bank - Global Corporate and enjoys the long hours pretty much! Still single but plans to rectify this status shortly.

Yashrah Masood is still working with SOUL Collections (sister concern Service Sales Corporation) since graduation and is letting no stone unturned to win CEO Excellence Award for 2009. Despite her efforts to behave like a typical corporate sugar coated pill, she is recognized as the one having the loudest vocal cords.

Yasir Suleman Memon life has become quite calm and composed since his marriage last year. His busy schedule starts in the morning working at Unilever in the Modern Trade division, and continues at night which involves cleaning dishes, dusting and laundry.

Zenubia Qureshi has moved to Bahrain with her husband Arsalan and is currently waiting for her CPR; it’s a resident visa status - not to be confused with Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation.

Inspite our tiring efforts we could not get update on Ahmad Raj, Abdul Jawwad, Hassan Ismail, Sarmad Balouch, Shuhrat and Zeeshan Saleem Bhutta. We wish them good luck for their future and fine and hope to hear from them next year.

And lastly, your class note coordinator Ahmed Shiraz Butt vowed a New Year resolution of having ‘a new job, a new babe and new weight’ by year end. After experiencing a four-month non-stop mental torture of job insecurity, he managed to dump Wateen just-in-time and joined Telenor Pakistan as Sales Planning Executive in Postpaid department. Consequent to his move to land of opportunity ‘Isloo’ and his flirtatious nature, his family decided to hook him up for good. And as further consequent to his engagement, he has been forced to shed some pounds and has left fast food industry for good. In short, his New Year resolution of having ‘a new job, a new babe and new weight’ has been achieved successfully.

I would like to end this article with a quote...

Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always brings your own sunshine. (Anthony J. D’ Angelo)

Class Notes 2008

Compiled by Ahmed S. Butt

Contributions by Ahsan, Farooq, Rabia, Yasir and ‘Significant Others’

It’s hard to imagine that one year has already passed since our graduation. The year 2007-08 was marked with success and triumph for our batch mates all around. More than one-third of the batch is working abroad, 24 of us decided to end their bachelor lives this year making it 40% of the whole batch, while 12% of the batch added new members to MBA 2007 family. The highlight of the year was definitely our much awaited convocation ceremony; the defining moment in our lives that we all worked so hard for!

Here is a one-to-one highlight of last year activities of our batch mates:

Abdul Jawwad joined back his parent department at FBR working in the Tax Payer facilitation and HR Division. He is proud to author a case on FBR for the change management course which is currently being taught to MBA students and at Rausing Executive Center.

Adeel Allawallah is presently working as a Business Planning Analyst at Phillip Morris International also known as Lakson Tobacco Company. He was too lazy to disclose anything else about him.

Adnan Nisar is living a happy bachelor life in Islamabad and is working for Pakistan Tobacco Company. He has so far exhibited loyalty with the company and has been immensely involved in designing strategies for increasing sales for Gold Leaf though he himself has not yet developed taste for it and hopes to maintain the status quo!

Ahsan Maykan was the last one to join the ‘Wateen – the future is green’ bandwagon but soon realized that the grass is always greener on the other side. After nearly bankrupting Wateen, he is now at Telenor working on TalkShawk. Rumor has it that he is partly to be blamed for the recent campaigns launched for Talkshawk that have been the cause for the 'network busy' messages you may have been getting when dialing.

Ali Abbas Pujanis is helping boost the earnings of Habib Bank A.G. Zurich; Sharjah branch. On the personal front though, in line with his old practices, cost cutting remains the central focus of his life. Putting his sharp financial brains to use, Pujji has become a shrewd investor in the real estate in Dubai. He is getting married in July this year to a dentist.

Ali Maaz is working for Alghanim Electronics as Product Manager and was instrumental in turning around a poor selling category into a success within his first six months. He was rewarded by getting assigned to another doomed category and now talks non-stop about his cookers which he loves to hate. He divides his time equally between his cookers and overseas calls. He has not lost his appetite for class participation and finance; a constant reminder to whoever is around him.

For Amina Ijaz, the Coke life isn’t turning out to be ‘very chill’ as they claim. Working with Coca-Cola since her graduation, she has survived the jitters of her first major campaign launch, juggled between multiple-brands and bosses, managed to visit five different countries but enjoys free Coke everyday!

Ammar Butt joined his family business soon after graduation. At a time when many of our friends are either looking for or settling down with life partners; Ammar is looking for a tennis partner instead. He’s working on introducing the concept of Online Bicycle Selling in Pakistan. We won’t be surprised to hear our children getting caught for secretly using our credit card on his website in a few years time.

Anwar Kabir works for Lowe & Rauf Lahore as Group Account Director. Anwar prefers to keep a balanced lifestyle by keeping himself involved in off-job activities such as family house construction, frequent oversea vacations and taking the role of ‘Best Man’ in all of his friends weddings. His next oversea vacation stop is US and UK this summer.

Arshad Moazzam became one of the early adopters of parenthood as he was blessed with a daughter last year. Currently taking care of Mobilink marketing research at Islamabad, Arshad’s life revolves around the world of SPSS figuring out dimensions of perceptual maps. His family doesn’t complain about not going on any long drives as he spends his weekends driving up or down the motorway with them.

Asad Mahmood got engaged to Amna earlier this year and intends to settle down in holy matrimony soon. He works for Wateen Telecom’s Products and Services division – Data & VPN, holding a simple job description of providing solutions (such as dark fiber, managed capacity, lambda light-up) for Long Haul over fiber optic and Metro Solutions that include WiMAX, Ethernet Bridges, Wireless Radios, VSAT etc. using the IEEE 802.5 communication standards with compliance of the WiMAX 2.0 Forum such that the carrier clients may have uninterrupted traffic on their GSM signaling networks support systems over the Pakistani terrain with the parallel use of the IP/MPLS cloud. To make this all simple, he is an Assistant Manager!

Asad Shafiq is a proud father of a daughter and leads a team of 100+ people. He is working as Account Manager for Supply Chain, a central function providing services to retail businesses at Alghanim Industries. Importance and complexity of his job can be judged from the fact that he is so far the only MBA to receive a Blackberry. He still gets upset with prevalent corruption in the world, his increasing waistline and the lack of his control over both.

Ashhad Saeed works at Etisalat as Senior Specialist in the Strategy and Business Development team. He has been contributing well to the department’s profits and has impressed the management. He is glad about the fact that he is able to put the entire lingo learnt at LUMS to good use. He resides in Abu Dhabi but like Ali and Fatima, prefers to spend his weekends in Dubai and usually can be found attending Formula One Grand Prix or dining out at one of the ‘desi’ restaurants in town.

Azamat Akbarov got a head start to his career at Alghanim Industries Kuwait. Later he moved back to his hometown where he is currently serving Sarbast Plus JV as a Cost Accountant.

Babus Rais is found working long, exhausting and blood sucking hours in investment banking at BMA Capital; along with putting in relentless efforts at the gym, with no apparent gain. And more importantly, he is still resisting the reiterating family onslaught for getting married.

Bilal Javed Bhatti is doing marketing for the Platform division of Alghanim Industries, a new retail business, dealing with building materials. He is a part of the team which launched the first store and is now planning further expansion across the Gulf. Bilal is seen dodging the speed cameras on the roads of Kuwait in order to spend the least possible time to, from, and at work. He has finally discovered how to download torrents and has been detrimental to the bandwidth in Kuwait in the recent past.

Bilal Malik is back to his adventurous professional life. Instead of settling down in the private sector, he has decided to remain unsettled in the public sector; atleast for the time being. His fundamental belief in the System's power to efface the Individual has strengthened.

After two rigorous years at LUMS, Dilafruz took a break for six months before joining Alghanim as Assistant Merchandising Manager. She is glad to be part of a team which is fighting ferociously to increase the sales and profits for Home Furnishing. She is hopeful that she will be able to overcome one last hurdle before she can completely settle down in Kuwait with her family i.e. her driving license. Soon we may see her cruising down Gulf Street in her SUV which her young son, Kamran, is very eager to buy.

Fasahat Feroze is working for Telenor in the VAS department. Thanks to Fasahat, the doctor will now be just a call away through Telenor Tele-doctor service; he managed to introduce just recently.

Fizza Ijaz has been out there in rainy London, working with Deutsche Bank covering structured liability sales for the exciting region of Africa. Over the year, she has learnt how to live in never-ending winters, and avoiding home sickness by going to Pakistani restaurants and watching GEO UK. On a brighter note, Fizza has pursued her passion for traveling and been to some interesting places including Amsterdam, Jo'berg and Scotland. But after all that, Fizza still longs for the dorm life at LUMS.

Haleema Muniba has taken up the challenging task of making purchase decisions on behalf of ICI Pakistan Paints division. Happily married to Adnan, she frequently uses her ICI purchasing experience at home to impress her in-laws.

Hamza Ahmad made the entire bus driver community of Pakistan dance to the rhythm of ‘Tarang’. Working at Engro Foods Ltd. as Assistant Brand Manager for product ‘Tarang’, he has been instrumental in using the right promotional mix to attract the right audience.

Hassan Ismail is busy setting up a Telemarketing and Customer Support center at Adamjee Insurance.

Husnain Alam initially joined AllenDick but left soon afterwards due to apparent profanity found in his company and boss name. He now works for Alcaltel - Lucent as Sales Manager where he wears a suit everyday. He is expected to change his marital status from Single to Happily Married this year.

Imran Hafeez is working with PTCL and giving strategic management lessons at SZABIST alongside. Being a strong proponent of women empowerment, his students include only young (cute but not so hot) girls between 18-22 age bracket.

Jasim Ahmad earned the reputation of most eligible bachelor for the year 2007-08 as he joined the league of top salary withdrawers from the local industry. Initially placed in Karachi and later in Lahore, he works for Adamjee Insurance as a Senior Manager. Quite recently, he has been found working out in Shapes to get in shape.

Kamilia Iftikhar is a proud owner of a golden Epica and burgundy hair. She is working for Corporate Business Development & Strategy at Alghanim Industries which is currently contributing to corporate costs for rest of the divisions. Apart from adding to costs, she is working on strategies for launching new businesses in different geographical areas. She is the spokesperson for all 2007 graduate recruits at Alghanim and delivered quite a speech at the Alghanim MBA convention. No one still believes that she could write such a speech herself!

Kanza Fida is working for Wateen in the Telephony and Voice department. She’s currently working on a product named ‘Virtual Telephony’ which is expected for launch this year.

Kashan Yaqoob joined Engro Foods as Customer Service Manager and has been one of the few who have to date remain loyal to the ‘CORPORATION’. Kashan took extra care in deciding the perfect date for his marriage (making sure it does not coincide with our convocation and other batch fellow weddings, as is the case in the month of December). But as it turned out he had to delay his wedding function due to Benazir’s untimely death. He and Batool finally tied the knot in January. Wishing them a happily ever after!

Kashif Munir is working as a Management Consultant, trying to teach folks at Warner Brothers and SONY Pictures how to conduct their business, and become an expert in selling DVDs in US. He is enjoying his "Happily Unmarried" status, especially during his brief stays in Hollywood.

Khurram Mir is flying high these days with the successful spin out of his entrepreneurial venture Kraysis from LUMS. Working as Chief Marketing Officer for the 1st Software Quality Assurance Company in Pakistan, he is determined to provide “Quality through Creativity”.

Khurram Saleem added another member in his responsibility matrix this year when he was blessed with a baby boy named Ibrahim. He has been working with Xavor Corp. as a Management Consultant. Placed in the land of Uncle Sam, he provides consultancy services to high profile clients such as Sony Pictures, Fox Interactive Media and Stradling Sourcing.

Khwaja Faisal has switched divisions at Alghanim - from Facilities to GTRC (which handles FMCG distribution in Kuwait). He will be responsible for launching private labels for his new division. Due to lack of other opportunities, he has shifted his focus to sports and has discovered that he is fairly good at football and squash; albeit his golden touch is hindered by recurring injuries. He spends rest of his time planning vacations and dreaming of pre-MBA Siemens job.

“Happily married” Luqman Awan is our official wedding crasher of the year. He has been kind enough to bestow his presence and blessings to every single batch mate’s marriage last year. His strong interpersonal and relationship skills work as a perfect match for Shell Pakistan Lubricants business for the B2B segment.

Mehdi Raza spent the last year working for Uch Power as financial analyst earning loads of bonuses. Though serving the energy sector, his focus of attention is on judiciary rather than power crisis.

Muhammad Anis Sajid is single and ready to mingle. He started off with Reckitt Benckiser and just over half a year (7 months) switched to Shell. Currently stationed at Hyderabad, he is working for their lubricants business. Anis insists that nothing much changed about himself except for that he has grown a year older and his skin has tanned a bit more (courtesy of scorching sunlight of Sindh).

Our batch topper Muhammad Farhan Tayyub is working as Assistant Brand Manager Gillette at P&G. Settled down with his wife and kid in Karachi; he is often seen on local TV channels giving interviews in his typical CP mode. And how can we forget his famous speech at the convocation? Our congratulations to Farhan! He truly deserved to be at the top spot.

Mian Murad Ahmed has moved from Home Furnishing division to Kimmco, a manufacturing concern of Alghanim Industries. He has become a SAP guru and is set to fly to Hyderabad, India, for SAP implementation. He is the founder of Astronomy Club in Kuwait, which is still awaiting the several hundred dollar telescope ordered by him for the star gazing experience in the desert. Besides that he has successfully launched a group on Facebook in honor of Mohammed Usman Ahmed. He has lost quite some weight by devotedly working out and following a strict diet plan.

Muhammad Ali Jawed is a good deviation from most of his banker batch mates in UAE. AJ, who is presently working as a Business Analyst at Petrofac, an Oil Servicing company, lives and works in Sharjah. He is moving into the Information Management Unit at the organization soon. His wife is working at Pepsi DRC. On weekends, the couple is mostly in Dubai for excursion or shopping and Ali’s love for photography continues and has rubbed onto his wife as well.

Muhammad Ayaz Karim works as a Relationship Manager at Habib bank A.G. Zurich and was the first one from the batch working in UAE to get a driving license. Inspite of his busy work life, Ayaz has become the official host for anyone from the batch visiting Dubai. On other days, he is usually found fighting the traffic between Sharjah and Dubai.

Muhammad Faisal Amin is working as Planning Manager for Project Engineering and is responsible for establishing the Planning department. He got married last October and spent blissful weeks of vacations in Italy. He has not lost his appetite for finance and envies his wife who has successfully passed two levels of CFA.

Rising Oil prices have ensured Muhammad Farooq Soomro’s stay at Alghanim. Apart from work, he is busy with sports, reading, network gaming, movies, music, arts etc. Farooq made an attempt to uncover his roots with the earliest civilization found at Petra in Jordan. Though unsuccessful, he still managed to take some quality pictures of historical monuments; convincing rest of the Kuwaiti Gang to try their luck next time.

Muhammad Hamid Khan, who unfortunately had to leave us in the end, has realized that ‘the show must go on…’ After completing his MBA from University of Bradford, he now works for an Advertising Agency in Lahore.

Muhammed Usman Ahmed has switched to the more techno Supply Chain department of Alghanim Industries after a brief stint at the Home Furnishings division. He keeps himself intellectually busy, in the otherwise non-stimulating environment of Kuwait, by trying to learn Arabic online as well as attending classes at two different learning centers. He actively participates in football and squash matches and keeps everybody amused with his cheeky comments, the evidence of which can be found by his fan following on his Facebook group.

Muhammad Usman Khan works in the key accounts division for Nestle, developing business opportunities with the makros, metros and alfatahs of Pakistan. In return, he gets a hefty discount on essential items which include flour, rice, cooking oil and LUX beauty soap.

Muhammad Umar Tanwir aka ‘UT’ became the proud claimer of a six-digit salary figure as he joined China Mobile earlier this year, pricing their product ZONG. His six-digit mark is also responsible for extra pounds that he has gained in weight and the domino effect in turn. With tariff rates cheaper than a toffee, we now see parents buy ZONG for their children to meet their nutrition demands.

Natalya Nicklaevna is another lucky one at Petrofac Sharjah, working as a Graduate Trainee there.

Nizam Ahmed and Saira will now have something to cheer about all their lives as they became proud parents of a baby girl. He now makes CP in a real capital market and intends to bring in some changes even though he did not take change management. Saira still makes more money than Nizam!

Omar Ahmad is based in Kuala Lumpur as an economic hit-man for the global tobacco industry. As Manager Finance Standardization for British American Shared Services, his job takes him to 16 countries every 7 months, where he makes sure everyone gets that great taste expected from a BAT product. Meanwhile, his hobbies include chasing cute Vietnamese girls, having drunken brawls with Thai waiters, disappearing at any indication of a conference-call and setting fire to the office while visiting his boss in Hong Kong. He himself however prefers not to smoke.

Omair Yunus is a Product Manager at Alghanim Electronics. His claim to fame is a robot that he sourced for his division and which is set to become the brand ambassador for Alghanim Electronics. The last product he launched for Electronics was the world renowned Elmo which was an immediate hit in the Kuwaiti market. During the past nine months he has refined his Arabic and now speaks it fluently. He has also impressed everyone in football as he has finally learnt how to kick the ball while running. Omair is not an advocate of freedom of speech and constantly reminded this to the writer of these lines.

Rabia Tirmezey is in the Structured Products team at Treasury and Capital markets, Mashreq Bank. Finding it somewhat tough initially, Rabia has become accustomed to an all-male environment on the trading floor at work and the idea of living alone at home. And in turn, few of her closer friends from the batch in Dubai are now used to her frequent emergency calls after having lost her mobile/wallet or having landed in some problem or the other.

Rafeal Ali had a memorable trip to Pakistan earlier this year when he came to work for Descon Engineering. He will be moving on this summer as a Marketing Engineer for Descon’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Division at UAE.

Rai Usman is with Barclays Dubai, UAE in their Consumer Banking Division.

Raza-ul-Haque is still with Chevron. A reliable source has been able to quote that somebody heard his boss saying that Labor Day (May 1st) is basically Raza's day. Consequently, he has not been able to remove the stigma of "cheap labor" from him. His company has recently given him a brand new Corolla which he profusely uses to roam around in the city of Karachi during the late night hours.

Sajjad Ali Khan after spending half the year working as Research Associate under Nasir Afghan is now working as Assistant Manager Data and VPN for Wateen. To save on writing space, anyone who is interested to know his job responsibility can read Asad Mehmood’s class note.

Salman Ahmed Khan got married to Umama this year. The highlight of the event was the 16-hour long road trip from Lahore to Abbotabad and back to Lahore (details of which cannot be disclosed to our respected readers). Thanks to Umama, his smoking activity has gone underground; atleast for now! Working as Relationship Manager in ABN AMRO; he still goes through all of the readings before coming to the bank.

Sarmad Baluch is employed at the Corporate Banking Group of First Gulf Bank, located in Abu Dhabi. In spite of living in one of the quieter Emirates, he is hardly seen in Dubai. One of his recent achievements has been endorsing recruitment of LUMS graduates at his organization, an effort that the junior batch has benefited from.

Saud Mukhtar is currently working in REITs and New initiatives Wing at SECP. Prior to working at SECP he worked for an assignment for the World Bank. He got married last year but his friends insist that he is still single at heart.

Saqib Mubarak is working in Projects Engineering at Alghanim Industries, the same department as Faisal Amin and this has convinced everyone of the diversity of LUMS MBAs. He has been pivotal in increasing the social circle for the LUMS community in Kuwait and due to his efforts everyone is now invited for dinners at the Pakistani Consulate. He works extra passionately at the office and the management rewarded him by making him to work on Saturdays as well while everyone else is asleep.

Shafiq Sobhan works in the Transaction Banking unit at Standard Chartered Bank. He was the first one to organize a batch gathering for all in UAE, the only event so far which had the maximum attendance from the batch. Shafiq has to divide his time between Dubai, Australia (where his wife is working) and his hometown Bangladesh.

Shahrukh and Maryam spent most of last year planning and enjoying their wedding celebrations. Now back to real life, they're busy working away in Lahore; him in a booming bank and her in an underpaid marketing division. And now finally taking a break from work, they're anxiously waiting for their (now-a-bit-stale honeymoon) trip to the beautiful white beaches Far East very soon!

Shahzad Ahmed lost his Bachelor’s Degree to Maryam on 15th March, 2008. Currently, he is managing Corporate Banking relations for Faysal Bank after hopping away from a local engineering firm.

Shehreyar Mehmood (Shere) is working on Mobilink VAS and can also be seen in several music videos that he has uploaded on Facebook. He’s is surely becoming a treat to watch for all music lovers.

Shelina Khoja has kept up with the MBA tradition of switching jobs. She has recently joined Kirby, a manufacturing concern of Alghanim Industries. Prior to working at Kirby, she was working for National Industrial Park in Karachi. She spends most of the time commuting between home and office as her office is located in one corner of Kuwait. She is thinking of enrolling in Malyalam classes instead of Arabic because she works in a division dominated by South Indians.

Siddique Ahmad works for the pricing and business intelligence department at Mobilink. He got married to his FASTian counterpart named Amina earlier this year.

Sohaib Hashmi is another one of the Relationship Managers at Habib bank A.G. Zurich. The only one from the batch to live in one of the posh areas of Dubai, Jumeirah Beach residence, Sohaib is mostly found at Jumeirah Beach and has a very active social life. The most recent update about him is that he has started working out in an effort to show off at the beach.

Syed Aamir Asif is presently working as an Associate in the Treasury & Capital markets unit at Mashreq Bank. Referred to as ‘Touchme Talcum’ by his office colleagues, he is looking after Alternate Investments. Between going for his recurring driving tests (he finally has a license) and studying for his upcoming CAIA exam, Aamer manages to take out time to woo girls, whether in office or outside.

Syed Ali Haider is working at the Corporate Banking Group of Habib Bank A.G. Zurich. Moreover, he joined the parenthood clan this year when he was blessed with a baby girl recently and since then has been devoting most of his free time to family.

Syed Ammar Yasin aka ‘doctor’ works for Telenor in the pricing department. When Tahir Bhai’s decision to ditch doctor and settle down for good became public, Ammar managed to get even by getting married 3 days earlier to Tahir Bhai’s marriage.

Tahir Masood went on to join the textile industry but later on called it a day. He’s now working for Nestle Pakistan as Area Sales Manager looking after the Old Lahore City. On his personal update, he parted away from ‘doctor’ for good and got hitched.

Umair Mukhtar is living his life with his wife and two kids in nation’s capital Isloo. Last time we heard, he was in PTCL working on a highly strategic (not to be disclosed publicly) product.

Umair Shabbir Butt works for Wateen Telecom in the Product and Services division, where he’s using his excel skills to the limit as he tries to run entire Wateen operations on it. Knowing that Pakistan is facing the worst electricity crisis to date; Umair has found out a way to save electricity by deploying fiber optics (which require only passive elements and no amplifiers which consume electricity) to every household in the country. Eyeing for marriage before start of 2009, he spends his free time doing qualitative analysis of marriage proposals.

Our self-proclaimed banker dude Wasif Sikander Butt gave a shock to everyone when he decided to quit Citibank and join Nestle instead. He is responsible for channel development of MAGGI.

Yashrah Masood after listening to the hue and cry of her friends, for being fashion blind, finally took up a job as Manager Supply Chain at SOUL Collections, a sister concern of Service Sales Corporation, dealing entirely in ladies fashion footwear. To her extreme disappointment, there is no discount even for the employees. So, she is stuck with her old friends and old shoe stock!

Yasir Suleman Memon is on his quest of saving the world from ‘khuli chai ki patti’ by working at Unilever Pakistan. Marketing is fun but he still can't resist dismantling every computer related object that ceases to work. These days he is busy reading articles on "101 ways to be a good husband"; something he needs to finish before the end of this year.

The following people are being classified as ‘Missing in Action’. Due to their overly self-exclaimed busy schedule, we could not get their class note update. Consequently, the class notes editor had to use his sixth sense to determine their recent activities and whereabouts. We hope to hear from them directly in the years to come.

Far from the outskirts of Lahore in the district of Gujranwala, we find Muhammad Bin Shahbaz trying to convince the masses to drink and bath from Nestle water rather than tap water. While Raza Rehman is also doing the same for the Lahore city, ‘Bobby’ aka Abubakar Siddique is working on some top secret retail census project. Working together, Bin and Raza have also changed their bachelor status while Bobby intends to stay ‘single’ for the time being.

Aly Abdul Rehman and Muhammad Niazi Malik are working for SAMBA (It’s a bank and not a dance number). ‘Bro’ is placed in Karachi and takes his time out to visit his family in Canada, while Niazi works from the Lahore office.

The Unilever Group successfully went through their year long management trainee program and has started to settle down in different areas. Aly Yusuf works on justifying the financial decisions of top management for the ice-cream category. Saima Ansari is working for the ‘Surf’ brand and spends her Sunday’s doing the weekend laundry chores with her husband Arman. Umer Farrukh aka KC’s energetic personality landed him into the ‘Energile’ brand. After much deliberation from others, he finally got a hair cut earlier this year. Also, he has recently shifted to a new apartment with Spikey. Also Known as Umer Mehmood by some, Spikey is in tea category working for brand Brooke Bond A1 Karak Chai.

Cisco Girl Mehtab Lasharie spent most of her last year at Amsterdam. She was last seen dining out with her old friends in Arizona Grill Lahore. She plans to come back to Lahore permanently this summer.

Some of our foreign friends have also been found missing in action since graduation. Our volleyball wonder boy Badri Nath got married earlier this year. He’s working for some power production house providing them financial consultancy. Shuhrat was last seen in his hometown working for some financial concern. Suresh Shrestha spends his time seeing his two kids growing up. He is looking forward to take up a key position in office later this year.

Muhammad Ali Imam is applying his OB, OPD and Change Management models at Engro’s HR. He was blessed with a second child this year; a baby girl named Zainab. Muhammad Ahmed Raj is also working for Engro and has been underground since his head quarter office in Karachi got burnt. We hope to hear from him soon.

Another one of our young entrepreneur Muhammad Shahid Bashir is having success selling Ethanol (made from Sugarcane) to prospective local as well as foreign clients.

Happily married Muhammad Usman sells Safeguard soap for P&G. Our Don of Karachi Taimur Karim aka ‘Timi’ works for HSBC Corporate. Zeeshan Saleem Bhutta tries to sell the ‘real news’ through the Daily Times. Zenubia Qureshi left ICI and is now working for Inbox.

And lastly, your class note coordinator Ahmed Shiraz Butt is at Wateen serving the Telecom sector; where he has managed to impress his superiors through his exquisite PowerPoint skills that he polished during his LUMS days. He’s working on bringing in the digital TV revolution in Pakistan. At Wateen, he has found two new passions in his life which are making a DVD library collection (currently stand at count 132) and playing MOHA. Known as ‘Merchant of Death’ by his MOHA Comrades, his ever increasing belly is fast becoming a source of obstruction to his daily life routine.

In short, many of us have already started to live through their hopes and dreams that we once had when we were about to leave LUMS. And as we move on to continue with our lives, all of us still have high hopes and dreams and while original ambitions may not have survived, our determination still remains…