PM appoints Khurram Schehzad as adviser on financial reforms

KARACHI: Seasoned investment banker Khurram Schehzad has been appointed adviser to Finance Minister Mohammad Aurangzeb on financial reforms, as the government steps up efforts to implement radical changes across various sectors of the economy to steer the country towards sustainable growth, Geo.tv reports.

“The prime minister has been pleased to appoint Khurram Schehzad, as adviser to finance minister on economic & financial reforms (SPPS-I) in the Finance Division on a contract basis, for a period of two years, under standard terms and conditions, with immediate effect and until further orders,” read a notification issued by the Finance Division on Thursday.

Schehzad has served in various leadership roles across key financial disciplines ie investment banking, equity strategy, corporate finance advisory, discretionary/non-discretionary portfolio advisory and asset management.

He previously worked as CCO and Executive Vice President Investment Banking with JS Group and has also served as EVP –Director, Investment Strategy, Research and Sales at Arif Habib Group.

Before Arif Habib, he served at Lakson Group’s Lakson Investments with AUMs at $150 million (amongst top-10) where he served as the SVP – Chief Investment Officer where funds’ performance under his supervision remained in the top quartiles while the listed equity fund achieved top position first time since its inception.

He was ranked as one of the top analysts in Pakistan (by CFA Society) consecutively for 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2011-12. He also received extensive credits from ‘ASIAMONEY’ for valuable research- backing the Best Debt House 2010 award to his employer.

He has been appointed by the government of Pakistan as the youngest member of the board of the Privatisation Commission where he has actively contributed to the recent successful privatisation deals.

He has also been appointed as one of the youngest executive committee members of the Board of Investment where he’s actively contributed to the country’s investment policy making.

Schehzad is an independent evaluator of the HEC/WB Technology Fund, and also part of the panel experts of the Special Technology Zones Authority (STZA).He is also a certified director from the Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance. He is also a member of the Global Advisory Council of the Harvard Business Review (HBR) in addition to being a member of the South Asian Corporate Advisory Council.