2008 Class Notes for BSc 1999

[Note: The deadline for editing this page has passed and our class notes have been submitted to the LUMS Alumni Office. Thanks to everyone who helped compile them. - Ameel]

It's 2008, which means there is one year to go before our 10-year reunion. Where will we be, what will we be doing, and will any of us manage to get together to celebrate a decade since we graduated? I guess we'll find out next year. Meanwhile, here's what everyone is up to now.

Abdul Mannan Abbasi is working in London with Morgan Stanley. He is happily married and is missing New York.

Adeel Janeed Meer is working in Jersey City.

Adeel Jamil Siddiqui and Nadia Hussain recently moved to Washington DC with their 2 year old daughter. "Marhoon" has been working on the healthcare side of the computer industry and hopes to finally do something more meaningful than coding at work. After finally putting some weight on his skinny bones, Adeelo now spends much time trying to keep if off (rather unsuccessful so far).

Adil Paracha, who has been working in the UK for the last 3 years, recently joined Kimberly Clark Europe as European Brand Manager on their bath tissue business. He is a proud father of a boy and two girls.

Adnan Bhutta and Naira Latif Chaudhry have a very cute son named Mikail and are expecting another one in late August. Adnan is still working at Microsoft.

Ahmed Hamidani is working in Singapore.

Alefia Lotia and hubbyHuzaifa are sweltering -- constantly! -- in Irving, TX. Chatterbox Zainab (3+) and 6 month old Zahra the Grabber are enjoying school, pool, and naps.

Aliya Salahuddin is workingin London.

Amanullah Jiffrey Kariapper, after spending a couple of years in Grenoble (France), is back in Lahore and back at Strategic Systems International (SSI). He's looking into teaching computer science, especially in public sector institutions, and is working to raise political awareness among the youth (particularly students) of Lahore.

Amber Riaz is doing her PhD from Oxford.

Ambreen Gilani (formerly Iqbal Malik) got married to Adnan, has just moved to New York, and is loving all that the city has to offer.

Ameel Zia Khan finished his MBA from Melbourne Business School and plans to stick around in Melbourne for a few more yearswhile his wife finishes her PhD. He is an active blogger and you can read his professional blog at insanityworks.org/acme and his personal blog at insanityworks.org/randomtangent.

Amir Ali Jafri is working for Microsoft in Seattle.

Aqib Elahi Mehboob is at AKD Securities in Karachi.

Ashab Naeem Iqbal is working for American Express in London. He got married last summer and is planning a move back to Dubai.

Asif Amjad made some big moves this year: he left Saudi Hollandi Bank (ABN Amro) to join Credit Suisse in Riyadh and, during this period, somehow found the time to get hitched to Sana.

Asim Butt is making art in Karachi after graduating from Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in 2006.

Asim Memon and Mariyam Mansur are both working for Microsoft in Seattle.

Assed Jehangir and Tania Tariq are enjoying their stay in Enschede, the Netherlands, where Assed is going to get a doctorate degree this year. He also loves to play with Ayaan (2 year old son) and Alaina (1 year old daughter).

Babar Ghias is rock-steady in NYC with Rabia and his 6 month old baby daughter

Faisal Wahab continues to run his pharma and toiletries business in Karachi. He also recently joined a brokerage house as Head of Brand Development.

Faisal Wasey got married and is (still) loving it.

Farheen Lotia (formerly Alwi) is in Karachi.

Farooq Mustafa Alavi is working for Standard Chartered in Karachi.

Fatima Ashraf still calls Houston home. She keeps busy entertaining four year old Ahmed and one year old Sophia. She is going to start taking piano lessons soon.

Fatima Muzaffar is living in London. She's busy being a full-time mom to her three year old son Mikaeel.

Feroze Gulzar is busy playing polo while runs his family business on the side (i.e. whenever he manages to find the time away from polo). He got married to Hina Khar last December.

Fuad Ghazanfar is working for Nestle in Lahore.

Hassan Ali has joined NASA in San Francisco (in their animal space venture program!). He got influenced by sufiastic Islam and took a recent trip to Mauritania to get blessings from a 100+ year old sufi shaykh!

Hassan Javed is in Redmond.

Hina Khar won her seat in the 2008 elections with a strong majority and is now a special assistant to the PM on economic affairs. Way to go Hina! She got married to Feroze Gulzar in December 2007.

Hina Khawar Aslam is married to Akbar Ahmad and has settled in London. They have a wonderful daughter Zara (3+).

Iftikhar Rafi got married and is currently working for a Swiss bank in Dubai.

Imran Ahmed is working as a Sales Planning Analyst with the handsets division at Motorola Middle East and is doing an evening MBA from the University of Strathclyde.

Junaid Bin Jahangir is probably in Canada.

Khawaja Bashir Uddin is living in Dubai with his wife (Sana) and daughter (Zaynah). He is working as Sales Manager for EMS, which is BlackBerry's Partner in Middle East & Africa.

Khurram Khaliq Khan got married to Fatima Hayat in May 2007 and together they started a new interior design company FK Collezioni. Khurram is still working with his company Quadra Technologies and their international partners Deutsche Telekom, Daktronics, and BMG.

Kiran Nanjiani is probably in the UK.

Maha Ahmed, after a successful career at the World Bank and the UN, decided to pursue an academic life and is working towards her PhD in Holland. However, she is often found jet setting to Marbella or Mallorca.

Mahira Daha and Fareed Zaffar are both in Lahore.

Mahvash Akram has moved to Dubai from London with her husband, Yusuf, and has three kids (a boy and two girls).

Makhmoor-ul-Hassan is working with Shell in London as a Financial consultant for Global Mergers and Acquisitions. Still all of 5 feet tall he is regularly stopped by the Bobbies for random full body searches.

Marium Naeem is currently in London where she is working with Shell as the European Credit Manager for the Aviation Business. She can usually be found in various European cities as she continues to clock air miles. And yes: she, Makhmoor, and Marium still form the BSc '99 power group in Shell London (Sameer left them for sunnier skies).

Mariyam Mansur has a beautiful little girl. She is working in Microsoft with her hubby Asim Memon.

Marukh Aftab is working for Nokia-Siemens Dubai as a telecommunications consultant and recently had a beautiful baby girl.

Mehreen Tanvir Butt just attended her five year graduate school reunion in Boston and is shocked that its been so long since she entered the "real world"! These space scientists should stop wasting their time demoting Pluto and start working on that time machine. Pronto!

Mehwish Zaman is full-time mom in London. Her son Zorane is 15 months old.

Moazzam Ali Khan is working for Unilever in London and has a baby boy.

Mohammed Razal Minhas is still in the US.

Monazza Aslam got her PhD and is now working towards a post-doc in Oxford. She recently had a baby girl, Zara.

Muhammad Amaan Akram is working in London and has two beautiful daughters.

Muhammad Hasan Muzaffar is finally getting to spend more time at home in Dubai with Marukh Aftab and his two month old baby Zaria. There are rumours that he sold his soul to McKinsey and one wonders if he'll ever quit the consulting life.

Muhammad Omer Iqbal is still happily married and working for Microsoft in Seattle.

Muhammad Oosman launched several online services from Silicon Valley. Zavaj.com, a Muslim matrimonial portal, is the oldest service and is free. After starting www.LeLeDesigning.com (a website designing company), he soon launched www.LeLeCart.com (providing hosted e-commerce websites for merchants). Recently he ventured into mobile marketing area by launching website for real estate marketing www.TxtAHouse.com.

Mustafa Zulfiqar Rakla completed his MBA from INSEAD and is now working for McKinsey. He and Marzia recently had a daughter.

Nabeeha Jafar is in Karachi and is very busy, teaching at both the Convent of Jesus & Mary and Le'cole for Advanced Studies. She has a four and a half year old daughter, Iman.

Nasir Masud Khan is currently working at eBay, Inc. as a Senior Software Engineer.

Nauman Akbar is in Lahore.

Neda Mulji is in Dubai with Sameer Anees and their daughter Alesha who is very chatty, just like her dad.

Nirmal Babar is in the US.

Novira Sabir is in London busy being a mom to her two daughters, Alizeh (1) and Manal (6), and running a small business of her own, Rusum (www.rusum.co.uk), which does photography and make-up for brides.

Omer Mehmood Asad is currently working for Network Appliance after rejecting an offer from Google. In a global survey done recently, 100% (up from 99% last year) of respondents refused to believe this claim. He is happily married to Maira and lives in sunny California.

Rida Zaidi is living in London and plans to spend this year being a serial failure at the driving test. Her husband who took three times to pass is prepping her so hopefully she's in safe hands! She is now with Fitch and is the primary reason behind the sub-prime crisis.

Runaas Deheem is happily married, living in Jeddah, and managing Pantene for the Arabian Peninsula region. He has left the party lifestyle and is working hard to adopt a religious one (with limited success). He can be found in Makkah praying hard for his next assignment to be in Beirut. Rumors are abound that he has started exercising for the first time in his life and has vowed to overtake Salman Ahmed as the second-least-muscular guy in the batch.

Saara Salim is busy being a mom in London.

Salman Ahmed works for Goldman Sachs in London. He recently got his US visa after a two year wait and also recently failed his driving test!

Salman Khalid is working in a cube for Microsoft in Seattle like many other BSc '99 folk.

Salman Mahbub is based in DC and helped get the BSc '99 crowd to hold several re-union parties in London.

Salman Mahmood is happily married and living in Texas.

Saman Sheikh is working for PBS in Chicago -- that too in the most dangerous neighbourhood in America! She shuttles between Pakistan (which she can't ever have enough of) and the US to work on exciting/life threatening journalistic projects in both countries to compensate for not having become the first Pakistani Formula 1 driver. Her future plans include breaking barriers and promoting love and tolerance for humanity at large. If she's ever lucky enough, the only person she'll run over with her Ferrari will be Razal.

Sameer Mohammad Anees recently left the Royal Dutch Shell Group in London and is now a Dubai-based strategy consultant with Arthur D. Little. Happily married to Neda Mulji with a soon to be three year old daughter Alesha (pronounced Ali-Sha), he continues to love the sound of his own voice and offend people with his strong views on just about every topic under the sun. He is proud of the fact that his waist line is exactly the same as it was in college. In fact, nothing much has changed except that his hair just a little greyer in certain places and his attitude just just a little tamer than it used to be.

Samir Zahid is married and back in Australia with his wife Saira.

Sarah Fatima Zaka is working as a development economist and consultant in Lahore. She has two daughters.

Sarah Naeem Qureshi has two boys and is working as a realtor in the DC/Virginia area.

Sehr Sheikh is busy with her son Zayaan and excels at making fantastic birthday cakes.

Sheikh Mohammad Ali manages Hilal Technologies in Lahore.

Shahzad Hasan is currently trading Latin America credit derivatives at Merrill Lynch in New York city, where he spends most of his time worrying about the vagaries of the Latin debt markets. There is still no desi girl in his life (please note the "desi" part of that last sentence).

Shazia Farooq Rahim is in Karachi.

Shayan Mehdi Zaidi has continued to maintain his position at the top of BSc '99ers Most Eligible Bachelors list -- all those wild pictures on his Facebook profile do tell tales, after all. Still based in Chicago, he has racked up a few million miles travelling coast-to-coast within the continental United States while working on various projects. His current goal in life is to acquire double platinum status with all the major US airlines before they go bankrupt or shut down their operations altogether. The best place to catch him is at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

Syed Mustafa Bilal is in Seattle and is also working for Microsoft. He got married in December 2007.

Syed Salman Zaidi is on the trading floor at Deutsche in Singapore. Salman tries balancing his time between getting his butt kicked by his boss at work and by Samreen at home.

Tayyab Rafiq Balagamwala is working for his family business in Karachi.

Umair Jalil is an entrepreneur who launched Web and Mobile (WAM), a software development/consulting business headquartered in Dubai. WAM has developed software solutions used by 4500+ companies in 90 countries in 18 languages. Umair is happily married and has 2 beautiful babies: Abdullah (3.5 years old and currently undergoing cancer treatment at SickKids hospital in Toronto for stage 4 neuroblastoma -- may Allah cure him completely and give him a long, healthy and blessed life in this world; please pray for him) and Aayan (2 years old). www.umairjalil.com

Usman Waheed is working as a Brand Manager at Nestle for Children Health & Nutrition (Nestle NIDO). He is happily married and has a two and a half year old daughter named Reem. Usman is happy to touch base with you on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Yasir Ali is still planning on how to get his children into Harvard.

Zeeshan Mansoor is working for his family business in Karachi.

Classmates not included in these notes: Aisha Hassan (formerly Masood Rashid), Anita Manzoor Chaudhry, Hasanat Ahmed Haider, Laila Bushra, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Zakria Khan, Muhammad Rashid, Muhammad Umer Farooq, Nadia Rehman, Rana Sajjad Ahmad, Sabeen Pirzada, Shama Saeed, Syed Hasan Hasnat, Syeda Shehrbano Kazim, Waqas Ahmed, Haseeb Hadi, and Wasif Tanvir.

This is the second year we have successfully compiled our class notes online. If you weren't aware that this compilation was happening, you're probably not in touch with the rest of us on MyFamily.com or on Facebook. Please do get in touch with us because we really would like to know what you're up to, even if all you give us is a one-sentence update on your life.