Team
The organizing team of TEDxLahore is as diverse as it gets with experiences spanning a multitude of dynamic disciplines and the motivation to make things happen. If you’re interested in helping out or wish to be associated with TEDxLahore in a specific manner, feel free to check out individuals mentioned below to get a better understanding of our organizational structure.
Asim Fayaz – Curator
Areej Mehdi – Co-Curator & Content Management
Nuzhat Saadia Siddiqui – Strategic Partnerships & Public Relations
Bilal Rashid – Media Coordination & Strategic Partnerships
Omer Khalid – Event Logistics & Attendee Management
Minahil Zafar – Registration & Logistics
Abdul Rehman Khawar – Creative & Graphic Design Lead
Khurram Siddiqi – Speaker & Talent Management, Program Design
Asad Khalid – Marketing
Mustafa Hussain – Graphic Design
Zeerak Ahmed – Event Logistics
Asim Fayaz
Curator
Asim just spent the last four years of his life rediscovering himself at LUMS. In the process, he managed to acquire a Computer Science degree that should help him survive, get married, have kids and see the world. Yes, that’s his dream.
While juggling classes and coursework, Asim discovered entrepreneurship – both for social benefit and profit. Along with some fellow students, he co-founded chOpaal.pk, a free group SMS service that went on to become Pakistan’s largest SMS social network. He was part of the LUMS Model UN Society (LUMUN) and participated in MUNTR. At LUMUN, he helped initiate the Social Responsibility Program, an effort to train less fortunate kids in the art of public speaking. Asim also helped launch Enspire — a magazine about entrepreneurship that’s now in it’s 3rd year of publication. Last year, he organized TEDxLahore, the first TEDx event in Pakistan. He then went on to attend TEDIndia, an experience of a lifetime.
Asim likes to share. He can be reached at asim@tedxlahore.com.
Areej Mehdi
Co-Curator
Areej is in a bit of a quandary when deciding what to tell about herself. She’s a self-proclaimed TED enthusiast who has the eat-drink-sleep TED routine perfected to a tee. A junior at Kinnaird College for Women, she is also the organizer of TEDxKinnaird, a university-style TED event. Being an English Major allows her the luxury to bang her head on the walls when any grammatically incorrect person and/or thing passes her by. Her interests vary from reading up on quantum mechanics and just about anything written on a piece of paper to blogging (irregularly) about things that make no sense at “Desultory Rants Of The Spotless Mind” along with a couple of friends. She can usually be found lamenting the current losing streak so obvious in the Pakistani Cricket Team while trying to rid the world of zombie unicorns. On a rainy day you will find her, TEpoD in hand, swooning over dozens of TEDTalks.
Her motto: ‘I judge not by the colour of the skin, but by the content of the talk’.
Areej can be reached at areej@tedxlahore.com.
Nuzhat Saadia Siddiqui
Strategic Partnerships & Public Relations
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a person in search of a higher meaning in everyday situations must be in want of a purposeful life. How exactly such a lofty goal is achieved is anyone’s guess. Nuzhat guesses that it must be by devoting herself to volunteering, idolizing working class heroes, rejecting false icons, making friends with nature, creating environmental awareness and being an eternal optimist.
A former student of Mass Communication at Kinnaird College for Women, Nuzhat now wears the mantle of an eco-warrior with brazen pride and has found constant inspiration through TED. With the ambition of keeping a ‘green check’ on this year’s TEDxLahore, she hopes the event will set a benchmark for other TEDx events in the country, and apart from seeing ‘TED red’, we will also see some green thrown in for good measure.
Her inconclusive observations about the state and shape of things in her sphere of life can be found at her apostrophe challenged blog: It’s a Hit
Nuzhat can be reached at nuzhat@tedxlahore.com.
Bilal Rashid
Media Coordination & Strategic Partnership
An entrepreneur, public relations guru, media savvy talent manager and all around nice guy, Bilal Rashid has been there, done that, and will consider doing it again if he finds the right kind of opportunity and the time to do it as well. Enthusiastic about music, passionate about photography and keen about design, Bilal has worked since age 19 and has the experience and the expertise to make things happen. He is a self-made man and proud of it. He joined the TEDxLahore Team as a volunteer to help change happen with brilliant input and PR strategies.
He aims to achieve this goal and then angle for more.
Omer Khalid
Event Logistics & Attendee Manangement
How dull could an Engineer from GIKI get? From a low waged article writer that sang for his own supper at a young age, to an executive liaison director of many of the most talked about happenings in the pupil community, Omer Khalid has had staunch hands on approach to whatever comes his way. Never contented with his full plate, he’s smothered his life with the infatuation of adrenaline rushes. His musing instincts and dexterous characteristics have led him to a cornucopia of experiences to share with his milieu. TEDx has intrigued Omer to the extent where he feels an obligation to impart his skills amongst his contemporaries, alongside augmenting his knowledge in the field of management.
Minahil Zafar
Registration & Logistics
Minahil is a senior at LUMS, majoring in Economics. She is perhaps the only one in the team who knows the least about TEDx, but more than makes up for it with her enthusiasm and dedication. A true social chameleon, she easily adapts to different situations and her interests vary with the people she hangs out with. She likes to observe more than converse, and that remains her true strength. Beware!
Minahil can be reached at minahil@tedxlahore.com.
Abdul Rehman Khawar
Creative & Graphic Design Lead
Abdul Rehman Khawar was Born in Doha, Qatar in 1982. After obtaining a Bachelors of Business and Information Technology from Curtin University of Technology Australia he moved to Canada where he worked towards a Diploma in Digital Design from Vancouver Film School. He currently is the Web Designer and Developer of Adbusters Media Foundation and runs the freelance web design collective Metathree.
Abdul Rehman volunteered for TEDxLahore with the idea of helping out the team with all design related jobs. He has been responsible for designing all TEDxLahore event collateral in accordance with the vision of the team.
Khurram Siddiqi
Speaker & Talent Management, Program Design
Khurram Siddiqi attended Purdue and the University of Southern California, where he studied Electrical Engineering and the English language. With a varied career background in teaching, entertainment and technology, Khurram recently left a semiconductor product management position in Silicon Valley to get back to working in Pakistan.
His interest in design drives his desire to fuse it with art and technology to produce change that matters on a social scale. TEDxLahore is the perfect platform for him, to help share the best local ideas through.
Khurram currently teaches undergraduate engineering coursework at FAST-NU in Lahore, and is interested in addressing problems with appropriate technologies & interactions for underdeveloped areas.
His personal audiovisual experiences and efforts are frequently shared at www.studiosapuri.com
Khurram can be reached at khurram@tedxlahore.com and is responsible for speaker selection and coordination.
Asad Khalid
Marketing
Asad, a sophomore at LUMS SSE, is probably the youngest member of the TEDx team, a fact which sometimes gets slightly intimidating for him. He is a self-proclaimed anime-enthusiast (read: Otaku) and had nothing productive to do in this summer before working for this brilliant event.
His passions range from reading fiction novels, watching tv all day, being a computer troubleshooter for the technically challenged, coaching O level students on how to debate, coming up with seemingly brilliant ideas only to realize its already been done and trying to be meddlesome/helpful in whatever way he can. Oh and talking about himself in the 3rd person (it’s slightly creepy).
PS: If you got an email about TEDx and how amazing it is, Asad’s probably the one responsible for spamming your inbox.
Asad can be reached at asad@tedxlahore.com.
Mustafa Hussain
Graphic Design
With an uncanny ability to control his facial expressions at will and an even uncannier ability to imitate people, accents and animals, this boy is a complete entertainment package. If only he wasn’t so shy all the time. Or hungry. Apart from this, Mustafa spews forth sixth-generation creativity, combining his tasteful sense of aesthetics with his command over technology. A member of the LUMS Media Arts Society and LUMUN, Mustafa has been selected Creativity Director four times during his three year tenure at LUMS, designing newspapers, websites, posters, booklets, folders, standees, trophies etc. A perfectionist by nature, be warned: Mustafa must be assigned work well in advance as he labors ‘ceaselessly’ over his projects, making sure every pixel and byte is perfect, while taking numerous sleeping/eating/g-talking/watching seasons breaks in between. Even though he is currently a Senior at LUMS, pursuing a degree in Computer Science, when he will meet you he will quiz you on chow related vocabulary. His passion lies in making computer games in the future, or getting hired as a food taster at the best restaurant in the world.
Mustafa can be reached at mustafa@tedxlahore.com.
Zeerak Ahmed
Event Logistics
Zeerak is an undergraduate student and has found little better to do that help start off TEDxLahore last year and join again this year. WHile technology remains his only academic ability, Zeerak has a thing for prose, music and photography. He is currently working on helping study and establish a stronger Pakistani identity through art and culture both inside and outside the country. His musings are available at his blog, titled “Beggar at Ghazi Chowk”.
Zeerak can be reached at zeerak@tedxlahore.com.
The team leads are assisted by the following brilliant minds:
Maydda Nabeel
Amna Farrukh
Amna Shehzad Malik
Hafsa Shorish
Qasim Maqbool
Umer Tariq
Anym Raza Hasan
Fahad Sadiq
Hira Mehboob
Waleed Ali Khan
Abdus Salam
Aizaz Ahsan
Rai Muhammad Azlan
Fazail Aslam
Faizaan Qureshi
Aamna Saleem
Muhammad Bilal
Wasif Malik
Jazib Zahir
Naqsh Haque
Mashood Khan
Ameer Hamza