Professor Hamidullah Farooqi, an economist and political activist, has been appointed the Chancellor of Kabul University on 4th Aug 2016, and Advisor Minister to President Ashraf Ghani for Higher Education on 11th Aug 2016.Son of the late Habibullah Farooqi, Prof. Hamidullah Farooqi was born in 1954 in an educated and intellectual family in Herat Province. He received his BA in National Economy from Kabul University in 1976, and MA in Economics from Queens College, City University of New York, in 1995.
After the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, he resigned from public service and instead turned to private business. Eventually, like many other Afghans, Prof. Farooqi was forced to migrate to Pakistan and later the United States of America as a consequence of supporting the Afghan resistance to the Soviet invasion.
Professor Farooqi returned from exile to his home after the fall of the Taliban and formation of the Afghan Interim Government in 2002. He joined the Economics Faculty of Kabul University as an academic lecturer in 2003 and since then has been part of the prestigious educational body of the country. Since his return to Afghanistan, Prof. Farooqi has established private schools and universities, business communities and private sector institutions, Academic Institutions and associations, and Social Councils.
He has written many academic articles published in national and international academic journals and publications mainly about economy and politics. He has actively participated in many national, regional, and international conferences, seminars, and other events representing Afghanistan.
He has played an active role in peace conferences and national events. In recent years, besides his occupation as a professor, he has served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Afghanistan International Chamber of Commerce (AICC), Chairman of Board of Directors of Bank-e-Millie Afghan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Khana-e-Noor Private Schools and University, Elected President of Logar Province People’s Council, Elected Chairman and member of the academic association of Breshna Think Tank.
After getting the vote of confidence from the parliament of Afghanistan in March 2009, he was inducted to the cabinet as Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation of Afghanistan.
In his recent national engagements, Prof. Hamidullah Farooqi hassled the Oversight Commission for Ministry of Defense Logistic Contracts that was based on a Presidential Decree. In addition to that, Prof. Farooqi has led several reforming agendas of the National Unity Government namely as High Delegation for Comprehensive Evaluation and Reform of Herat Province, Kabul Bank Case Evaluation, Reduction of Parallel Administrations in Sartorial Ministries, and several other national and public events.
Prof. Farooqi is married and has four children. He is a fluent speaker and writer in Pashto, Dari, and English languages. (August 2019)
Dr. Mohammad Aref Naimzad was born in 1352 in Ghazni province. He completed his high school in AIT. After that, he enrolled to the Engineering Faculty of Kabul University and graduated from the Faculty of Engineering of Kabul University during 1996 with a B.Sc. degree and subsequently became Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Engineering of Kabul University.
He traveled to Japan in 2003 using the Japanese government scholarship and in the summer of 2005 obtained his master degree in computer engineering from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. He received his Ph.D. degree from Tarbiat Modares University in 2014 in Mechatronics Engineering and began work at Kabul University again after returning to the country.
Dr. Naimzad has participated in 16 international scientific conferences in Germany, Singapore, China, Russia, Japan, Turkey, China and Iran.He has published 14 papers in domestic journals and 8 articles in internationally recognized scientific journals. .
He has about 10 years of experiences of Monitoring and Evaluation Expert with the UNOPS office in Kabul and the GTZ International NGO.
He is married and father of four sons.
He has the full capability to speak and write Dari, Pashtu and English languages .
Dr. Mohammad Wasim Iqbal is currently working as advisor to minster at ministry of higher education of Afghanistan. He obtained his doctorate in Water Engineering and Management from Kasetsart University, Thailand in 2018. His Doctoral is focused on studying climate change impacts and drought analysis and forecasting for agricultural water management. Parallel to his doctoral studies, he was also honored with a two-year research fellowship in University of Central Asia and the CAREC Student Research Competition Grant. Currently, he is serving as research training specialist, university advisor and journal editor and reviewer. Dr. Iqbal is the author of several research papers in the journals of international repute and multiple scientific project reports.
Dr. Orzala Nemat is an Afghan scholar and civil society activist. Dr Nemat holds PhD in Development studies from School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), MSc from University College London (UCL) and has been a Yale World Fellow class of 2008. As an expert in political ethnography, her research interest includes development and conflict, gender, governance and borderlands studies. Her PhD thesis in Development Studies focused on local governance relations that results from external interventions. Dr Nemat born, lived and worked in Afghanistan (and for fourteen years in Pakistan as refugee), she experienced different aspect of life in varying environments. Following to completion of her Doctorate studies and two years of teaching at SOAS (UK), Nemat moved back to her home country, serving briefly as the Afghan president’s advisor on local governance and then leading Afghan Think Tank Afghanistan Research & Evaluation Unit (AREU). As an Afghan scholar with over 16 years of experience in development practice, activism and women’s rights, Nemat brings an enriching experience into her new career path, leading Afghanistan Research & Evaluation Unit (AREU), one of the top research think-tanks in Central Asia region & Afghanistan. Dr Nemat provides regular analysis through her writings, talks, media appearance and scholarly work on conflict, development, gender and the way local power relations affected by global interventions.
Mohammad Ajmal Shinwari, son of Naqibullah Shinwari, was born in 1978 in Deh Bala district of Nangarhar Province. He graduated from Al-taqwa High School in 1997 and has completed his undergraduate program from Global Technology College of Pakistan in 2006.
Mr. Shinwari has completed a master’s degree in general management from Atlantic International University USA in 2009. He has also completed his 2nd Masters from Kardan University Afghanistan in 2017, besides he has done the Post Graduate Diploma on Sustainable Rural Development from NIRD Hyderabad India. Mr. Ajmal Shinwari has more than 18 years’ of experiences in various fields for instance, Finance, Management and Program level in national and international institutions.
Worked as Finance Officer (operational budgeting) Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Finance Consultant, Head of Finance, Acting Program Manager of National Area Based Development Program (NABDP) at MRRD, and currently working as Executive Director of Afghanistan sustainable energy for rural development (ASERD) program at MRRD. Furthermore, to his academic achievements mentioned, since 1998 he has been participating in different trainings and workshops nationally and internationally in Australia, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Canada, China, Bangladesh, Thailand, Pakistan and UAE. He has native and working proficiencies in Pashto, Dari, English and Urdu languages.
Assistant Professor Najib Rahman Sabory graduated from Electrical and Electronics department of engineering school at Kabul University in 2001. Since then he has been teaching in this department. From 2009-2011, he served as the deputy dean for the Engineering school at Kabul University. After a Fulbright scholarship was awarded to him in 2011, he completed a master’s degree in Sustainable Energy and a graduate certificate in Project Management from A.James Clark School of Engineering at University of Maryland College Park. He has also earned an MBA in 2014 from World Wide Science Academy in Malaysia.
Mr.Sabory was awarded a UNITAR (United Nations Institute for Training and Research) fellowship in 2007 for a period of seven months. He learned many advanced concepts in project management, leadership and change management. He later remained in this program for 2008 and 2009 cycles as coach and resource person. Mr.Sabory has participated in a series of workshops and symposiums about leadership and entrepreneurship back in US. In 2011, Mr.Sabory led an Inter-ministerial Commission for Energy (ICE) committee for preparing capacity building strategy for energy sector of Afghanistan.
Currently Mr.Sabory serves as Associate professor and head of the Energy Department of engineering school at Kabul University. He is also the deputy chairman of Afghanistan Renewable Energy Union ( AREU) since early 2017. Moreover, he is the rotating chairman of Afghanistan Awareness and Analysis ( A3), a Kabul based Think-Tank.
Mir Sayed Shah Danish (Dr. Eng., MBA, CEng., SMIEEE, MIET) has been an engineering and technology expert and an academician for several years. He demonstrates a simple, in-depth narration style, turning concepts into measurable endeavors and systematically exploring interdisciplinary coverage. Apart from being a scientific scholar, he brings together multidisciplinary skills and expertise (energy, environment, business, and management), providing integrated solutions. He is the author of several academic and technical textbooks, guidebooks, training manuals, and other books in English and Dari (Persian) Languages. These publications have enabled him to link industry with academia, and he has achieved recognition with several awards and expressions of appreciation.
Since 2004, Dr. Danish has been involved in multidisciplinary engineering and technology by leading several projects in those fields while continuing as an active scholar and educator. He is an assistant professor; founder and chair of the IEEE-Sustainable Energy and Intelligent Engineering Society (SEIES-PES & FRID joint chapter, Fukuoka Chapter); founder and facilitator of several academic branches of IET, ACM; and member of the board of directors, REPA – Research and Education Promotion Association. In addition, Dr. Danish has worked with national and international organizations and companies as an urban electric power planner, team leader, technical advisor, department head, educational manager, and director. He is a chartered engineer, UK (CEng.), senior member of IEEE, member of IET (MIET), and holds membership in many other academic societies. He received his bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronic engineering (B.Sc.) in 2009 from Kabul University, Afghanistan); two master’s degrees, one in energy and electrical engineering (M.Sc.) in 2015 from the University of the Ryukyus, Japan; the other in business administration (MBA) in 2016 from the National Institute of Business Management, India); and a doctorate in sustainable energy (Ph.D.) in 2018 from the University of the Ryukyus. He chaired and has been a committee member of several conferences and symposiums and has more than 100 publications. His main research interest is sustainable energy (policy, economics, market, environment, and management), hydrogen energy, smart cities and housing, storage systems, aquaponics and aquaculture, voltage stability, and related areas.
Abdul Ehsan Mohmand has more than 15 years of experience, he has held several positions like; President & CEO of Dynamic Vision (DV), Program Director TAPI FEED Project (ESIA & LARP), Operations Manager the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock of Afghanistan, Chief Executive Director of Pakistan Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Program Director of Development Alternative International (DAI), Country Operations Director International City/County Management Association (ICMA), Senior Program Operations Coordinator with the Louis Berger Group/Black & Veatch, Vice Chairman of Afghanistan Consultancy Companies Association. During his career, he has implemented more than 300 projects of different scales. He has been honored to be the among the key speakers at the following Afghanistan National Events; Private Investments for Development of Sustainable Energy in Afghanistan and Orientation of Emerging Entrepreneurs in the Energy Sector Conference, Future Youth Leaders Forum 2018, Future Business Leaders 2018, AIESEC Afghanistan Youth to Business Forum, AIESEC Afghanistan T4D (training for development) Session at Kabul University, Kabul University International Model United Nations (KUIMUN), Kabul Poly Technic University (KPU) to be the Mentor for the Hult Prize 2017 team of KPU to present Afghanistan at the Global competition. Internationally he has been also selected as a speaker at World Edu Summit 2018.
Dr. Aziz Azimi (President of TI)
Current Duties
- Founder and CEO of U.S.-based engineering, construction, and management firm with largest corporate footprint in Afghanistan
- Core responsibilities include corporate strategic planning, setting business objectives, determining financial investment plans
Professional Experience
- More than 40 years of experience as an engineer, entrepreneur, and corporate executive
- Extensive knowledge of energy, power, infrastructure, and information-technology sectors
- Successful long-standing relationships with public- and private-sector clients and partners in the United States and Afghanistan
Education
- S. degree in Energy and Power, George Washington University
- S. degree in Mechanical Engineering, George Washington University
- B.A. Studies in Finance, George Washington University
Recent Seminars:
- Wastewater Treatment at A Glance, March 7th, 2018, Kabul.
- Energy an Introduction to the Energy World, its Production and Consumption, July 25, 2018, Kabul.
- Ground Water an Existential Issue for Kabul, August 12th, 2018, Kabul.
- A Guide to Successful Management, October 2019, Kabul.