TEDxKinnaird is throwing their TEDx event in Pakistan on February 19, 2011 – take a look at the speaker line up below.
Jazib Zahir
Jazib has graduated from Stanford and LUMS and has worked with technology companies in Pakistan and the United States. He is presently Chief Operations Officer of Tintash, a Lahore based startup that develops games and applications for platforms like Facebook and the iPhone. He remains involved in teaching at LUMS and Lahore Grammar School and freelances for The News. A recent passion has been social entrepreneurship though involvement with the Association for Development of Pakistan, Bags for Bliss, EcoEnergy Finance and the International College of American Nursing in Sri Lanka.
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Natasha Noorani
Natasha is a multi-talented individual with a diverse set of interests including music, debates and photography. She created a photography website called ‘Snapistan’ with the intent to better the image of Pakistan via images by working with photographers from all over Pakistan. During the flood crisis she spearheaded flood relief efforts for the NGO, READ (Rural Education and Area Development) as head volunteer, collecting over Rs. 1 million and visiting over 4 different flood affected areas to help with packet distribution and documentation.
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Faisal Mahmood
Faisal Mahmood is a student of Electronics Engineering at Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (GIKI). He is also the Vice Chair of IEEE – GIKI and member of ACM, IET, WAYS and numerous other IEEE sister societies. He is a young researcher and a great supporter of Research & Development trends in Pakistan. He already has several research publications and, an upcoming book and an international patent in line at the age of 23. He sees research trends from a very different angle and has been involved in a number of research projects during the past two years. In his opinion, there are no borders to thought and mental approach towards millions of problems we face today.
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Sonya Rehman
After writing vociferously for six years, Sonya did a Masters in Journalism from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Although she was awarded the Fulbright Scholarship, she was also awarded the Pulitzer Moore Fellowship at Columbia. Sonya had the privilege of being selected for an internship with CNN (New York) for the ‘Amanpour’ show during her last semester at Columbia.
Sonya has focused extensively on bringing all things related to Pakistani arts, to print. She currently writes for mainstay publications in Pakistan (The Friday Times, Express Tribune, Newsline, etc). Along with her writing, Sonya taught Print, Radio and Television at the Lahore School of Economics as a Visiting Faculty member in the winter of 2010.
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Younas Chowdry
Younas is currently majoring in General Management from Imperial College of Business Studies. He is the founder and director of LAAL Theatre; a community service organization that trains underprivileged children and adults to use theatre (mostly street theatre) as a medium for raising awareness about social issues. His interest in theatre is vast and other than directing plays he has also acted in several stage plays. Younas is also involved with the Curtain Call Society as it’s Project Manager and Board Member, helping produce entertainment related events such as plays, concerts, and fashion shows. He has written several articles on a freelance basis for magazines, newspapers and journals including Tehelka (Indian Magazine).
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Mehreen Kasana
Mehreen Kasana is an American Pakistani Media student based in Lahore. She is currently pursuing her Bachelors Degree in Media and Political Science from Forman Christian College, Lahore. She enjoys writing humorously about society, politics, art and feminism. Her blog is replete with interesting doodles and amusing anecdotes of a life spent here and abroad. She blogs for Dawn and Express Tribune (as a satirist) whenever it’s possible. Mehreen has been an American Presidential Debater and, later on, British Parliamentary Debater. She judges debates on provincial and national levels.
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Zubair Khan
Zubair Khan is CEO at Tranchulas. He has been researching mainly on cyber warfare and on various other facets of information security for the past seven years. He has conducted large enterprise security assessments and given information security consultancy to top organizations of Pakistan as well as security trainings at various forums in Pakistan and abroad. He has previously presented at renowned security conferences including Hack.lu Luxembourg, Hack In The Box Malaysia and Infosek Slovenia. Chairman of Pakistan Engineering Development Board and Chairman of Pakistan Engineering Council recognize his research and work. Zubair holds a bachelor’s degree in Business IT from Curtin University of Technology, Australia. He is CISA (Certified Information Systems Auditor), CISM (Certified Information Security Manager) and also ISO27001 ISMS (Information Security Management System) Auditor.
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Akber Ali Khan [Naked Tyrant Productions]
Naked Tyrant Productions was formed by three young like-minded individuals in the summer of 2009. Akber Ali Khan, Haroon Monnoo and Abdul Nusrat (also referred to as Hackbah, Hroon D’boy Monnoo and Nusrated-R) took it upon themselves to dedicate an otherwise empty and unproductive summer to creating satirical skits and funny music videos. What started as a bunch of poorly produced comedy music videos turned into somewhat of an online movement, with the Naked Tyrants pumping out one hysterical video after another it was only a short while till they ended up smack in the center of controversy and criticism.
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Asim Fayaz
Asim is currently working as a Solutions Architect at Softman with focus on software development, business development, branding and marketing. He’s also working part-time as Project Coordinator for Pakistan Urban Link and Support Network (PULS), a project of NRSP-SHPP. He also serves as the Curator for TEDxLahore, the first and biggest TEDx in Pakistan. Asim 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.
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
