Profile of the Candidates Contesting the Election
Mr. Muhammad Irfan A. Sheikh
Mr. Irfan Sheikh is a dynamic professional. Prior to assuming the role of the Managing Director, he headed the Finance, Information Technology, Legal, Marketing and Communication functions at Bestway Cement Limited. He is also on the Board of various other Bestway Group entities in Pakistan. After graduating from the prestigious Hailey College of Commerce, University of the Punjab, Lahore; he proceeded to the U.K. where he studied accountancy from Thames Valley University and the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants. Mr. Sheikh trained with a Top-10 Accountancy and Business Advisory firm in the U.K. before he joined the Bestway Group in 1996. He was made a Director of the Company in 2001.
Mr. Sheikh has been instrumental in Bestway Cement Limited’s rise to the top and continues to play a vital role in its business growth and in maintaining the highest standards of discipline in all aspects of the business at Bestway Cement.
Mr. Irfan Sheikh is an ardent supporter of many social causes relating to education, health, women empowerment and arts & culture in Pakistan. He is a Trustee of Bestway Foundation, Pakistan and is also on the Board of Governors of the Foundations various projects.
Mr. Dawood Pervez
Prior to joining Bestway in November 2002, Mr. Dawood Pervez worked for Linklaters, the pre-eminent global law firm, where he specialized in international corporate and structured finance work.
Mr. Dawood Pervez was elected to the Board of Directors in July 2004, when he was also appointed as Company Secretary for all UK companies of Bestway Group. In relation to the Group, Mr. Dawood Pervez heads the property investment and development businesses. He is heavily involved in acquisitions and financing, having worked on the Group's acquisitions of Batleys Cash & Carry, United Bank Limited and, more recently, The Co-Operative Pharmacy.
In relation to Bestway Wholesale, Mr. Dawood Pervez heads up the Marketing and Digital departments and is responsible for Bestway’s digital expansion (web, app and iBeacon). He set up the Group Export Division, which has established trade links to over 20 countries. The Division was awarded the Queen's Awards for Enterprise: International Trade in 2012. He also heads up World Foods, which includes MAP Rice Mills and the importing and distribution of World foods.
Mr. Dawood Pervez has served as a Council Member of the Law Society of England and Wales representing Commerce & Industry.
He was educated at Eton College and has degrees from Politics & Modern History (Manchester) and Jurisprudence (Oxon).
Mr. Mohammed Younus Sheikh
Mr. Mohammed Younus Sheikh joined the Bestway Group at its inception in 1968. He was a founding director and a key member of the team that set up Cash & Carry business in 1976 in the UK. Having risen through the ranks, in 1985 he was appointed as Trading Director when he was responsible for setting up the successful Central Buying Office. In 2004, he was appointed as Managing Director, a position he still holds.
In 2015, Mr. Mohammad Younus Sheikh was honoured with the prestigious Outstanding Achievement award from the Federation of Wholesale Distributors. The award was granted in tribute to his work at the helm of Bestway Wholesale and his incredible dedication to the wholesale channel over the past forty years.
Mr. Mohammad Younus Sheikh is a science graduate and has a Diploma in Leather Manufacturing.
Ms. Fauzia Ahmad
An accomplished professional with more than 22 years of experience, Fauzia Ahmad has been collaborating with CEO/Global Senior Leadership teams to accelerate business growth and unlocking value for organizations by enabling purpose-driven resilient culture, maintaining governance and compliance and investing in accelerated organizational capability for future readiness.
She is currently working as Chief Human Resource Officer at Mari Petroleum. She is an IT graduate and has served in HR leadership roles at HASHOO Group, PTCL, IGI Financial Services, Eni and MOL Pakistan.
Fauzia is passionate about organizational renewals in digital age and transformations and believes in being an empathic and resilient leader. She is strong advocate of empowering young female engineers in STEM roles.
Mr. Haider Zameer Choudrey
Mr Haider Zameer Choudrey has been a Director of Bestway Cement Limited since December 2016 and is also a Member of the Board Audit Committee (BAC).
Haider is Finance Director of Bestway Group, which is the UK’s 7 th largest family business with an annual turnover of over £3.4 billion. He has responsibility for provided financial and strategic oversight to all Group subsidiaries in the UK and Pakistan. Bestway Group consists of the UK’s largest independent wholesaler, the UK’s 3 rd largest retail pharmacy, Pakistan’s largest cement manufacturer and Pakistan’s 2 nd largest private bank.
Haider has extensive experience in finance, strategy, digital, tax and transactional services. He has played an instrumental role in developing United Bank Limited’s Information Technology & Digital Offering and establishing international best practice internal governance procedures in both United Bank Limited and Bestway Cement. In the UK Haider has been the driving force behind the Group’s diversification into retail pharmacy business through the acquisition of Well Pharmacy and expansion of the Group’s Wholesale business.
Haider also holds directorships at Bestway Group Limited, United Bank Limited and Well Pharmacy. He is also a certified Director from the Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance.
Haider is actively involved in the charitable work of the Bestway Foundation in the UK and Pakistan and is part of the management team that is supervising the construction of two state of the art schools in Chakwal, Punjab.
Haider is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and previously trained with KPMG LLP.
Haider was schooled at Eton and holds a Master’s in Economics from Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge.
Mr. Tariq Rashid
Mr. Tariq Rashid has more than 20 years’ experience in Management & Information Technology at senior level. He spearheaded the setup of IT infrastructure of mobile operator (Mobilink now Jazz) since inception. He led IT organization of Mobilink through different phases of Telecom industry’s life cycle i.e. infancy, growth and consolidation. He served as VP & Chief Strategy Officer for more than 5 years. He also served as a Director of Information Technology at HQ of Telecommunication company in Egypt. He successfully led few large business/Technology transformation initiatives during his career.
He served as a Director on the board of Mobilink Microfinance Bank and headed the risk committee. He served as Director on the Board of Mobile Number Portability Database (Guarantee) Limited. He also served as President on the Board of International School of Islamabad (ISOI) for more than 4 years.
He holds an engineering degree from University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore and post graduate certificate in Computers from National Academy of Higher Education. He attended different management programs abroad and locally from institutes like IMD, INSEAD, MIT and LUMS.
Mr. Syed Asif Shah
In a career spanning 45 years, Mr. Shah has worked with the Public Sector, International Development Agencies, Civil Society organizations and Private Sector Corporate Organizations. He is a public sector Administration; Reform and Programme Management Specialist who has worked at the levels of Community, Municipality, District, Province and the Federal Government.
In areas of National Development, policy formulation and implementation in the Public Sector, he has served as the KPK Secretary Education and Health, and at the Federal Government as Secretary Commerce. Ministry of Commerce outreach straddles diverse and very large Public Sector entities like Trading Corporation of Pakistan, Trade Development Authority and Public Sector Insurance Co’s into which Mr. Shah as Secretary Commerce gained a close and unique insight while monitoring and supervising their working. Mr. Shah has worked for over 25 years in the KPK province. He was among other positions Secretary Education, and Health. He has ten years’ experience as Political Agent, and Commissioner supervising the tribal areas. Mr. Shah is a B.A Hons from G.C. Lahore, B.Sc (Hons) Econ, from the London School of Economics (LSE), and a post Graduate Diploma in Development Finance from University of Birmingham, UK (with distinction). His contributions as Secretary Commerce, National Chief Commissioner Afghan Refugees and Secretary Education, KPK have been acknowledged by the Provincial Government of KPK, the Government of Pakistan, and the UNHCR.
Mr. Shah has also served as Director on the Board of State Life Insurance Company Limited, Director, National Insurance Company Limited, Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, Pakistan Intellectual Property Organization, Pakistan Tobacco Company, Member, Advisory Council, Layton Rehmatulah Benevolent Trust.