Fouad Riaz Bajwa – Head of Incubation Center

Fouad Riaz is a public policy entrepreneur and has been engaged with start-ups and policy initiatives across national, regional and global settings that are helping shape the future of innovation, industrialisation and future economic growth. Fouad’s notable initiatives and contributions have been aimed at developing and introducing low-cost affordable technologies in Pakistan and across the world especially in the areas of information and communication technologies for development, artificial intelligence, biomedical and agriculture. He has contributed to various multilateral, bilateral, government, private sector, research, academic and civil society programs across the globe in various capacities. He served as a member of the United Nations Secretary General’s advisory group. Fouad advises on academia and industry linkages, 4IR, entrepreneurship, Internet developments, innovation, technology and commercialisation initiatives at UCP and Takhleeq.

Mr. Uzair Shahid – Senior Manager Incubation

Uzair has over 10 years of rigorous industry experience in both Public and Private sector, having ample experience of Business Process Reengineering, Designing, Developing, Deploying and giving support for the Management Systems and IT solutions by working in some of the top brands in the country like Shapes Health Club and Beaconhouse Group. He has helped startups achieve their dreams by heading the pioneer Technology Business Incubation program (Plan9) under the aegis of Punjab Government, Pakistan. Plan9 is now the largest tech incubator of the country with thousands of aspiring young entrepreneurs looking up to it for getting the initial support and mentor-ship for their startups. He has also lead and executed several E-Government Initiatives by Punjab IT Board over the past 2 years including direct agriculture subsidy programs and a digital payment platform for the government.

Uzair was also nominated in the pioneer IVLP (International Visitors Leadership Program) in Entrepreneurship by US Department of State, for the work and contribution in promoting entrepreneurship at a national level. Only 4 individuals from the country were directly nominated in the coveted program which gave in-depth insights into how the Incubation Centers across US have laid a strong base for the startup ecosystem.

He holds a Bachelors in Computer Science from FAST National University Lahore and is also a certified Project Management Professional from Project Management Institute (USA).

Urooj Fatima is a bachelors in Business Administration from University of Central Punjab. During her academic tenure at UCP, Urooj served several societies and social causes; for that, she organized various events like Women&Hygiene, Women&Family, Subh e Nau, Breast Cancer Fundraisers for PinkRibbon Organization and Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital and more.  In regards to her extraordinary volunteer services, she received the Award of Excellence from the University of Central Punjab.

She has worked as a Project Intern with the International School of Choueifat. Furthermore, she worked as an HR intern at Etimaad Engineering (Pvt) ltd. She is also a Certified Trainer from School of Leadership.

Urooj joined Takhleeq Business Incubator under the fellowship program where she assisted the team with Marketing, managing the Incubation Program and streamlining the Operations. Later, she progressed to Operations Executive and handles all the administrative and operational tasks.