Charter Members
Kashif Aftab
Kashif Aftab is the Founder and CEO of Saga Consulting Services, the world’s largest full service IT integration Network and the Founder and CEO of NursesPro, a Nurse Staffing company.
Shahzad Bashir
Manish DesaiBrian Ferry March 2012
Manish Desai is a Houston-based technology entrepreneur and a pioneer in wireless M2M applications. He is presently serving as President of Geometris LP, a telematics and asset tracking company whose products are deployed in over 250,000 vehicles worldwide.
Zubair Faiz
Zubair Faiz is a seasoned senior IT executive with 15 years of experience spanning the Telocom, IT Services and HealthCare Industry. He has a very strong background in establishing IT organizations starting from Strategy to implementation. Strong focus has been on Alignment of IT and Business Strategy, establishing Competency centers to deliver maximum value for the business.
Mubashar Hameed
Mubashar Hameed is Chairman and CEO of FuzionOne, Inc., an information technology products and services company. Until most recently, he served as Sr. Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Fiserv Output Solutions, a leading provider of business to consumer communications to the financial services, healthcare, communications, investment services and retail markets.
Jazib Hasan
Mr. Hassan is Head of Energy Asset Finance for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he is responsible for building and growing a multi-faceted commodities, energy financing, and risk management business across upstream, midstream and downstream spaces.
Imran Iqbal
Brian Ferry March 2012
Imran Iqbal is the founder and CEO of Rico’s Restaurants, a chain of full service Mexican restaurants. Over the past five years, Rico’s has grown from a single location to ten locations throughout the Houston area. The concept enjoys a staunchly loyal fan following and is one of the fastest growing restaurant chains in Texas.
Shahid Javed
Brian Ferry March 2012
Shahid Javed joined BP Global PSCM in June 2007, and moved to North America Gas as Head of PSCM in January, 2008. Mr. Javed is responsible for managing $3 billion dollars in 3rd party spend, pursuing rigorous category management including creation of robust sector strategies, leading negotiations with strategic suppliers, and proactively addressing business demand and market conditions to deliver significant bottom line savings. Mr. Javed is also a member of the Global PSCM Leadership Team.
Riaz Karamali
Brian Ferry March 2012
Mr. Karamali is a partner in the Corporate & Securities – Technology practice in the firm's Silicon Valley and San Francisco offices. Mr. Karamali has extensive experience in corporate law, venture finance, private equity, strategic mergers and acquisitions and technology transactions. Mr. Karamali has worked with hundreds of start-up and emerging companies, guiding them from their pre-founding stages through their angel and venture capital financing rounds, significant commercial contracts and strategic alliances to their ultimate exit transactions. He has acted as outside general counsel to many such privately held companies in a wide range of industries including the video game, cloud computing, mobile, biotechnology, semiconductor and medical device sectors. Mr. Karamali has significant experience with cross-border transactions involving numerous countries.
Arshad Matin
Brian Ferry March 2012
Benny Pace
Brian Ferry March 2012
Ahmad Kamran Saleemi
Brian Ferry March 2012
Mr. Saleemi is the Founder and CEO at 360 View Technologies, Inc, an IT solutions provider based in Houston. Mr. Saleemi has over 15 years of experience in architecting custom-built, large-scale IT solutions. In this capacity, he has worked with some of the largest global companies and led geographically dispersed teams of varying sizes. His diverse enterprise experience ranges from leading efforts to create next-gen ecommerce platforms (HP), commercial products that enable large hospital systems optimize their drug costs (CardinalHealth), and providing technical leadership on large-scale enterprise software projects (EPCO).
Aamir Shah
Aamir is a Vice President in the Middle Market Financial Services at Comerica Bank Texas. In this role he focuses on financing transactions sponsored by the Private Equity and Institutional Investors.
Celina Charania Shariff
Celina is President of Pak Petroleum Marketing, Inc., a wholesale fuel products marketing company with a wide portfolio of downstream fuel brands. Until recently Celina was an attorney at Baker Botts L.L.P. in the firm's Houston office.
Shahid Ullah
Brian Ferry March 2012
Mr. Shahid Ullah is the Chief Operating Officer and member of the Executive Board at Afren Plc, an independent oil and gas exploration and production company forecast to become the premier pan-African independent exploration and production company. He is also a highly involved member of the Engineering Advisory Board at the University of Texas at Austin. Mr. Ullah has over 30 years of experience in the energy sector and investment banking.
Sami Ahmad
Sami Ahmad is CFO and Board Member of Armada Water Assets, Inc. Armada Water is a high-growth, privately-owned, oil-field services company, based in Houston, Texas. Armada is a leader in water and wastewater solutions for the oil and gas industry. Mr. Ahmad has over thirty years of experience in a variety of roles in the Water, Energy and Chemicals industries. He has deep and extensive experience in capital markets, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions and strategic planning as well as engineering and manufacturing.
Faisal Bhutto
Faisal Bhutto is the Chief Operating Officer and a part owner of ENETsolutions LLC, responsible for managing all hands-on operational aspects of the company with primary focus on the technical and engineering operations. As a COO of ENET, Faisal assists the CEO in aggressive and successful growth of the company. Through a respectful, energetic and constructive style guided by the objectives of the company, Faisal provides the leadership, management and vision necessary to ensure the company has proper operational controls, standards and methodologies in place to deliver technology solutions for ENET’s customers.
Aly Dossa
Aly Dossa's practice focuses on intellectual property counseling, patent portfolio management, and domestic and foreign patent prosecution. He practices in the areas of patent prosecution, trademark, IP counseling, copyright, and litigation in the financial, software and telecommunications industries.
Kemal Farid
Brian Ferry March 2012
Kemal Farid is Co-Founder, President and CEO of Merrick, a leading global provider of industrial information technologies and professional services to the oil and gas industry. A leading energy and technology entrepreneur in Houston and winner of the 2011 Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Awards program, Kemal co-founded Merrick Systems in 1989, along with his aunt, Samina Farid. Directing the strategy, technology development and global expansion of the business, Kemal grew Merrick to become one of the largest software development companies headquartered in Houston.
Muhammad HasanBrian Ferry March 2012
Hasan is a strategic leader and seasoned executive, with comprehensive and international experience in banking and finance. In-depth expertise in structuring & arranging financings and derivative transactions, due diligence, negotiations and risk management. Expert at utilizing exceptional leadership abilities in handling and accomplishing responsibilities of diverse and increasing levels. Equipped with sound decision-making and well-honed analytical skills in managing financial & business risks and providing innovative solutions to problems. Adept at establishing and maintaining constructive client and product-partner relationships.
S. Anwer Hussain
Brian Ferry March 2012
Anwer Hussain has served as the past President of OPEN Houston and currently serves on the OPEN Houston Board. He gradauated from MIT in 1976 and did his MBA from Stanford University in 1979. Anwer is the Managing Director at Chaparral Place LLC and Accel Ventures LLC with focus on real estate development in the Eagle Ford Shale drilling area.
Uzma Iqbal, MD
Brian Ferry March 2012
Uzma is a Medical Oncologist and Hematologist who is licensed to practice in Texas and New York. She is heavily engaged in leadership development, team building and has successfully served as President of Medical Staff, Chairperson of Department of Medicine and Chair of Council Of Chief's of Staff at Harris County Medical Society. Dr.Iqbal is currently the Medical Director of Hematology and Oncology at Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center. zma serves on the Board of OPEN Houston and is a very active force behind women leadership initiatives and is leading the Healthcare initiative.
Farooq Jawaid
Farooq is currently Global Head of IT for Investment Operations at Invesco (NYSE: IVZ). Invesco PLC operates as an independent investment management group.
Faiza Khoja
Faiza Khoja is an associate professor of strategic management at University of Houston- Downtown. Her research interests are in the areas of social intra-firm networks, intra-firm competition, buyer-supplier relationships, developmental economics, and sustainability. She also currently serves on the board of a faith-based credit union as the vice-chair.
Ahmad Mian
Ahmad Mian is the founder, President and CEO of FileControl Partners, Inc., a leader in litigation management products, solutions and services. Ahmad is the visionary behind FileControl's technology development, an expert in strategic planning and developing key business relationships. His commitment to integrity, great work ethics, excellence and innovation are also mirrored in his personal journey from being an immigrant 18 years ago, to the CEO of one of the fastest growing technology companies. FileControl today is recognized by Microsoft as one of the most innovative companies when it comes to using their enterprise level database software.
Sohail Qadir
Sohail is the Founder & CEO of INTECH Process Automation Inc., an industrial automation solutions and services provider to the global oil & gas and energy markets since 1991.
Tauseef Salma
Dr. Tauseef Salma, Ph.D. - is the Chief Engineer at Baker Hughes – a leading global oilfield service company with operations in over 90 countries worldwide. She has over 14 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, has authored 18 technical publications. She holds 2 US Patents and has 4 patent applications pending approval. She is a member of Society of Petroleum Engineers and American Chemical Society. She is also a Charter member of the Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs (OPEN) Houston Chapter and President of Houston Chapter for Developments in Literacy, (DIL) – a non-profit to educate and empower underprivileged students, especially girls in rural areas of Pakistan. Dr. Salma received her B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from University of Engineering and Technology Lahore, Pakistan and her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Rice University in Houston, Texas.
Qasim Sharif
Chairman, CEO, and majority shareholder of Stratum Energy since 2006 to present. The Stratum Energy companies have engaged in E & P activities in Turkey and Romania. President of Niko Resources – Bangladesh & Vice President – South Asia of Niko Resources Ltd - Canada. Initiated and developed Niko’s business in Bangladesh and India over a period of five years. Area Manager for BJ Services/Baker Hughes in several countries in the Middle East and Asia Pacific over a period of twelve years. Registered Petroleum Engineer with Texas State Board, Texas, USA.
Brian Ferry March 2012
Riaz Siddiqi
Brian Ferry March 2012
Riaz Siddiqi is a Founder and Managing Partner of Denham Capital, and brings over 30 years of experience to the firm in the energy and asset management fields. He is responsible for the Portfolio Services Group and heads up the firm’s Asia office.. In addition to his responsibilities as Managing Partner, he is a member of the Executive Committee, Management Committee, Investment Committee, and Valuation Committee.
Bandula Wijay
Brian Ferry March 2012
Dr. Bandula Wijay, CEO of LeoMed LLC and BinLab, Inc, (a Houston, Texas based Cardiovascular Device development company) is one of the most eminent inventors of medical devices in the United States. He is a scientist, engineer and a businessman who has developed a variety of interventional cardiovascular devices, such as balloon angioplasty, vascular stents, local drug therapy procedures and other concepts. He founded four medical device companies since 1984, Poly-Tech, Leocor Inc., BinLab, Inc. and LeoMed LLC for research, development and manufacturing of cardiovascular devices.