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 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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