Gohar Sharif Butt

Mr. Gohar Butt, the founder of the Equity Exchange & Trust and its Chief Executive, is a professionally qualified Systems Analyst and an MBA, with over 19 years of diversified and accredited experience in various fields of management with world class multinationals. His key competencies include: Organization Development, Banking Operations, Islamic Finance, Project & Change Management, Business Process Re-engineering & Systems Planning.

In his professional career, prior to establishing EE&T, Mr. Butt held senior management positions in Standard Chartered Bank, ANZ Grindlays Bank and American Express Bank. The last position he served during his employment career was Managing Director of First Grindlays Modaraba (Now Standard Chartered Modaraba), a company modeled as an Islamic Fund catering to the business of financial and operating leases.

Mr. Butt established EE&T as a professional services organization, driven to act as a facilitator in developing and offering innovative business solutions for capital formation, organizational development, and management for value creation by providing specialist professional support to clients. Since EE&T's formation, Mr. Butt has lead several large scale projects for private and public enterprises and has successfully launched new entrepreneurial ventures from this platform.

Amongst the new business ventures, Professional Employers Private Limited (People™) was established first, which has grown to become the leading HR and Process Outsourcing firm operating out of Pakistan and UAE. In August 2007, Mr. Butt diversified EE&T's private equity portfolio by establishing a real estate development and management company named Orix Properties Pakistan, in partnership with Orix Corporation Japan and Orix Leasing Pakistan. In 2008, The D'Hamidi Partnership Private Limited, one of Pakistan's critically acclaimed ideas company, was added to the portfolio. Other ventures launched by Mr. Butt include The Warehouse (importer and retailer of specialized furniture) and Countryside Natural Products, a farming and food processing business catering to local and international markets.

Shahab Sharif

Mr. Sharif is a professionally qualified Human Resources Specialist and a Masters Degree holder in Economics and Law. He has over 20 years of experience in Consulting and HR Outsourcing, Industrial Relations & Personnel Management with indigenous and multinational organizations. His key competencies include Personnel Management, Industrial Relations, Labor Management, Training and Organizational Development.

Mr. Sharif is responsible for establishing the outsourcing division of People™ called Employee Outsourcing (EO) - which, under his leadership, has become the largest HR and process outsourcing platform in the country.

He also provides expert advice and support in other areas of Human Resource Management. He is currently advising numerous financial sector organizations in matters relating to employee relations, recruitment and selection and outsourcing.

Zafar Aziz Osmani

Mr. Zafar Osmani is a well renowned, seasoned business professional and carries vast management and leadership experience spanning over thirty years.

In his career, Mr. Osmani served prominent organizations in senior management and leadership capacities in the Human Resources, Organization Development, Marketing and Project Management functions. Prior to joining PEOPLE™, Mr. Osmani was the Chief Operating Officer at Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC). He also served as Senior Executive Vice President and Head of Human Resources at Habib Bank Limited; as Member Human Resource Management at Central Board of Revenue (CBR); and as Senior Executive Vice President (Business Planning, Marketing, IT and HR) at Pak Kuwait Investment Company/Meezan Bank. Mr. Osmani also served American Express Bank as Director/Head of HR for Pakistan and Bangladesh and as Regional Director (Asia-Pacific Region, based in Singapore) Compensation & Benefits. Earlier in his career he also served at Gulf International Bank, Bahrain, Exxon Chemical Pakistan Ltd. and Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan.

In recognition of his outstanding career and services in the various industries, Mr. Osmani has been presented with prestigious awards. These include Global HR Excellence Award, by Asia Pacific HRM Congress in Mumbai 2006; HR Leadership Award, by Times-Ascent & ITM group in Mumbai 2008; and Life Time Achievement Award, by Indira Group of Institutes in New Delhi in 2008.

A much sought after professional and speaker on HR and business related matters, Mr. Osmani is actively engaged in various capacities in professional associations. He has been making professional contributions to the HR and Management in Pakistan as a Member of Executive Committee at Pakistan Institute of Management; Member of Board of Governors at Pakistan Society for Training & Development and Member of Advisory Board, Indira Group of Institutes, Pune, India. He has recently been inducted as Member of Executive Board of Intercontinental Institute of HR Management based in Sri Lanka.

Mr. Osmani holds a Masters Degree in IR and Political Science and a Bachelors Degree in Law. He completed a Human Resource Management Program from Cornell University, USA and has conducted various HR, Leadership, TQM and other management development programs for indigenous and multinational organizations. He has also facilitated many training programs, workshops and seminars through management institutes in Pakistan and abroad.

Mr. Zafar Osmani’s key areas of interest and specialization are organizational restructuring and process re-engineering, corporate governance, Human Resource Management, Managerial Decision Making, Leadership and Enterprise Resource Planning.

Arif Irfanullah

Mr. Irfanullah is Regional Head, Training and Development at People™ and is also the Chief Operating Officer of CFTR Private Limited (a People™ subsidiary).

Mr. Irfanullah has wide ranging senior management experience at MindTree Inc. and Oracle Corporation. In 2007-2008 he was Head of MindTree's Middle East business, based out of Dubai, UAE. Prior to joining MindTree, Mr. Irfanullah worked at Oracle Corporation in the United States for eight years. He was responsible for implementing Oracle's Financial and Enterprise Resource Planning system at some of the largest companies in the United States. This role involved significant training, development and change management at client organizations.

Mr. Irfanullah has an MBA from the University of Chicago and an engineering degree from Dartmouth College, USA. He has a passion for training and development. While in the United States he taught part-time at the Middlesex County Community College. He is currently a visiting faculty member at IBA, Karachi, and is assisting candidates with their CFA® Level I preparation at CFTR. His key areas of expertise are design and delivery of training and development initiatives, management and leadership development and change management.

Faisal Ashraf

Mr. Ashraf is Country Head Finance at Equity Exchange & Trust. He obtained his bachelor's degree from University of Engineering and Technology in 2001 and went on to become an Associate Chartered Accountant in 2005.

He has worked in the fields of Audit & Compliance, Finance and has successfully delivered on many consulting assignments. He has a strong background in project development, arranging finances and setting up accounts and finance functions for organizations from diverse industries.

Zille Elahi

With a medical background and subsequently an MBA degree from LUMS, Dr. Elahi has gained vast management and consulting experience in Human Resource Management, Management Skill Development and Corporate Business Planning. He has worked with various indigenous and multinational organizations in consulting, managerial and entrepreneurial capacities.

In his various roles, Dr. Elahi has always strived to make contributions that help organizations achieve and maintain a healthy state. His diagnostic capability, preventive rather than curative approach, problem solving attitude and relentless customer focus, help to formulate durable, long term solutions for frequent as well as unique business issues. He is an ardent observer of best practices in the disciplines of management, corporate governance and enabling technologies. His interventions incorporate these developments with a view to providing effective and enduring business solutions.

His key areas of interest and specialization are corporate governance, human resource management, leadership & management training and development, management communications, organization development and strategic business planning.

Mujtaba Iqbal

Mr. Iqbal, a member of the CFA Institute® and the CFA Association of Pakistan, is the Country Head for Training and Development business at People™. He is also the Chief Executive of CFTR Private Limited (a People™ subsidiary). CFTR is a training company with a primary focus on assisting CFA® and FRM® candidates with their exam preparation.

Mr. Iqbal has over fifteen years of experience in corporate finance and consulting, carrying out several buy and sell-side due diligence examinations, and advising on privatization and acquisition strategies. He has advised clients on risk management, conducted specialized investigative projects, and has been involved in mandates on valuing organizations using various quantitative models.

Key competencies include corporate finance, valuation and risk management methodologies as relating to market risk, training and development and organization development. Mr. Iqbal has been the founding director for Alchemy Associates (Private) Limited, Alchemy Technologies (Private) Limited and Centre for Financial Training and Research (Private) Limited.