Saad, a graduate of Harvard Business School and Brown University, has over 19 years of PE, investment banking, deal structuring and entrepreneurship experience at blue chip firms in the west and frontier markets.
Mr. Ahsanuddin started his professional career as an analyst with Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), New York, where he advised and closed several billion dollars of M&A transactions and privatizations. While at CSFB he moved to Pakistan as CSFB’s Country Representative in Pakistan and supporting regional transactions and helped strengthen the firms franchise generating over USD 13m of advisory fees from Pakistan alone during his year in Pakistan.
In 1999 he joined Emerging Markets Partnership (EMP) a Washington DC based global private equity firm with approximately USD 6.5 billion of assets under management. He is considered a pioneer of private equity in the Middle East and was part of a three member founding team, and member of the Board of Directors that raised a USD 730 million private equity fund focusing on regional investments under the EMP umbrella based in Bahrain, and structured the first investments for the fund. The fund generated over a 50% IRR for its investors.
Mr. Ahsanuddin has co-founded several successful companies in Pakistan including the first branded entertainment multiplex chain (Cinepax), a national entertainment content company (Footprint) representing blue chip international brands, a national countrywide security technology company (Star Technologies), an international consumer electronic company (Jawbone) as well as a successful real estate development company.
He has been a member of the Privatization Commission of Pakistan from 2003-2008. During this time the Privatization Commission concluded 35 transactions worth USD 6.3 billion in a transparent manner in the banking, energy, manufacturing, telecom and industrial sectors for the Government of Pakistan. He is one of the few professionals who understand complex privatization/project finance transactions having worked on all aspects of a transaction from buy side, sell side and as a principal. He has twice served as a Director of the Lahore Stock Exchange and the Board of the National Commodities Exchange of Pakistan.
Mr. Ahsanuddin was part of the core team that opened New Silk Route’s (NSR) regional office in Dubai, focusing on private equity opportunities across the Middle East and Asia out of the Dubai office. NSR is a New York headquartered USD 1.4bn private equity fund. While at NSR he sourced key investments in Malaysia, Pakistan, Turkey, Middle East, Bangladesh and helped deploy over USD 120m of the firm’s capital.
H also had the responsibility of the Vice Chairman of Punjab Board of Investment & Trade (PBIT), an institution he founded and established. He has built a world class team recruiting world class professionals both domestically and attracting international talent back to Pakistan. While at this post he led the Investment Promotion Agency according to international best practices and PBIT acquired the Steering Committee Membership and was nominated Director for South Asia by the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA). Under his leadership PBIT facilitated agreements worth over USD 2 billion in the province of Punjab for that year and held International Conferences inviting donors, venture capitalists and government departments on one platform and is credited in creating structural integration for the organization.
Mr. Ahsanuddin currently serves on the BOD of leading national companies, and has professionally run family businesses; covering business verticals of entertainment, real estate development, engineering, agriculture, construction, and railroad transportation/logistics.
Mr. Ahsanuddin graduated Magna Cum Laude from Brown University with a dual degree in B.Sc. (Honors) Engineering and a B.A. (Honors) Business Economics. He also has a MBA from Harvard University.
LinkedIn: http://pk.linkedin.com/pub/pir-saad-ahsanuddin/1/543/324