Institute of Business Administrtion
IBA Alumni in Dubai Go Global

By Danish Kazi, ’02, Interim President PIC, UAE

Pakistan IBA Chapter UAE (PIC), a wing of Pakistan Association of Dubai (PAD), comprising of IBA Alumni has been one of the most active chapters in terms of activity since its inception in 2010. Being the largest regional business hub and home to over 190 nationalities, a Chapter in UAE holds utmost significance. This platform gives all the more reason to get the right kind of visibility for a Pakistan based institute, especially, in a job market where graduates compete with Alumni of prominent business schools like Harvard, INSEAD, London Business School, and IIM. Getting noticed and recognized is a key.

This Chapter is also a good leveraging point to the graduates who are at the mid-level, but significant contribution to the graduates who have started their career in the Middle East or are aspiring to be there.

According to a safe estimate, IBA has over 400 graduates residing in UAE and GCC, who for the last many decades have given strong repute to the institute and the country. The idea behind the formation of the PIC has always been to support IBA Karachi in continuing its legacy and at the same time forming a strong and positive image of Pakistan in this market. Since a lot of the top level executives from the West come to this market on secondment, this poses a good opportunity to present a good image of Pakistan and especially IBA graduates in the professional arena. This means a slightly better chance of IBA graduates to get recruited across the globe.

For these reasons, PIC’s tie with Pakistan Association of Dubai becomes all the more significant as it serves not only the Pakistani community but also gets a lot of positive traction with the Government of UAE by being a registered association with Community Development Authority via PAD. It makes IBA one of the first business schools actively participating in community services here.

One such way to show case not only the achievements of IBA but also a chance for a litmus test on where IBA stands in comparison to its peers from different business schools is the Joint Alumni Iftar. This year, the 4th Annual Iftar dinner was jointly organized by the Harvard Business School and INSEAD Alumni Associations, held on Saturday, July 27, 2013 at Media One Hotel in Dubai Media City.

Attendees were required to pay a sum of AED 150 out of AED 50 were donated to the Adopt-A-Camp charity. Joint Alumni Network, comprises of CASS, Cambridge, Chicago Booth, Columbia, Esade, Harvard, HEC, Hult, IIM, IMD, INSEAD, KELLOGG, LMU, NYU, Stanford, Singapore Management University, Wharton, of which IBA is a proud member.

More than two dozen Alumnus under the leadership of Mr. Waqar Siddique turned up for the event which was higher than last year’s attendance. The co-ordination at IBA side was done by Mr. Arfeen Alam, the interim Vice President of PIC, UAE. Over 200 Alumnus were in attendance from various business schools. Being a paid event, part of the proceeds collected was donated to various charities in UAE. The attending Alumni from IBA, some of whom are entering in their professional careers got a great networking opportunity as many attendees were from different prominent industries in UAE.

In addition to serving the community, PIC is unceasingly committed to continue in its efforts to support its alma mater and the image building of Pakistan. PIC which in the past has endeavored to support many such initiatives including visiting classes from Pakistan and recently participating at an Iftar/medical camp at the Labor camps.
With recent formation of the Charter for the PIC, we look forward to people stepping forward in helping to make this a bigger effort as we believe this forum provides a bigger chance for showcasing Pakistan and IBA more to the international world.

 

 

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