American Pakistan Foundation Appoints Saleem Ahmad, Chairman NIC LUMS, to its Board of Directors

American Pakistan Foundation (APF) has announced the appointment of Saleem Ahmad, Chairman, National Incubation Center Lahore (NICL), LUMS to its board of directors. With this appointment, APF hopes to foster stronger ties with Pakistan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and serve as a pathway to productive economic diplomacy and collaboration between institutions and people of the United States and Pakistan.

Based in Washington DC, APF is a preeminent US-based organisation with a mission to empower the Pakistani American community and to strengthen bridges between the US and Pakistan. APF’s initiatives include a Fellows Program, which supports sustained long-term professional, economic, and cultural ties between the two countries, and its United Nations Initiative that facilitates interactions between Pakistani civil society organizations and the United Nations to advance socio-economic development causes.

The addition of Mr. Ahmad to the high-profile board of APF signifies the advent of deeper connectivity with the entrepreneurial youth of Pakistan and facilitation of intellectual capital development at NIC Lahore, LUMS. In addition to his leadership role at NICL, Mr. Ahmad is also on the board of OPEN (Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs in North America), which will further help cultivate opportunities for foreign investment in Pakistan, connecting tech-enabled ventures with investors in the US.  

Mr. Ahmad is a seasoned finance professional with a US$250 billion track record of investment, restructuring and advisory experience at top global financial institutions including Highbridge (JP Morgan), Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Citi in New York, London, Hong Kong and Pakistan.  He is a Senior Advisor to Afiniti, the world’s largest applied artificial intelligence company, and Co-Founder of 47 Ventures, the first international VC fund focused on Pakistan.

Mr. Ahmad earned postgraduate degrees from Wharton (UPENN) where he was a member of the Executive Council; London School of Economics where he was a Britannia Chevening Scholar and a member of the Court of Governors and LUMS, where he was the recipient of the Vice Chancellor’s Achievement Award. He is passionate about entrepreneurship, microfinance, female empowerment, healthcare, literacy and skills development in Pakistan and has a keen interest in foreign policy and economic diplomacy having served as a Corporate Leader to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.