ISLAMABAD: As part of his efforts to include top experts from the private sector into economic decision-making, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has included former McKinsey Pakistan Managing Director Salman Ahmad into key economic bodies. Three different notifications have been issued announcing Ahmad’s appointment as a member of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit (PMDU) for matters related to the Board of Investment and Ease of Doing Business, as a member of the Economic Advisory Council (EAC), and as ambassador-at-large for Investment in an honorary capacity.
Ahmad has been appointed member of the PMDU and EAC with immediate effect on May 17, while his appointment as ambassador-at-large was dated May 14.
Salman Ahmad was a senior partner at McKinsey and Company, the world’s leading management consulting firm, where he spent 23 years in their New York, Dubai and Karachi offices. In 2012, he founded McKinsey’s office in Pakistan and served as its managing director.
In this capacity, his work had a transformative impact -- serving the government in areas including education, healthcare, technology, and skills development, while his services for private-sector clients focused on telecom, banking and manufacturing.
During the span of his career, Ahmad used his expertise in strategy and corporate finance in a significant way to serve client boards and CEOs across a broad range of industries, on mergers and acquisitions and growth-related topics as well as on building technology and HR enablers for success.
He has also shown interest in and commitment to economic development, and has advised governments and large public-sector companies on gaining competitiveness via growth, HR/capability building and cost efficiency.
Ahmad holds Bachelor’s (Honours) and Master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with a concentration in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he also received the Tucker Medal for excellence in teaching. He also received a Master’s degree in Business Administration with high distinction (Baker Scholar) from the Harvard Business School.