Dr. Umar Saif, a computer scientist, has been named the interim federal minister for information technology and telecom by caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar.
Dr. Saif has a wealth of expertise in the IT industry as well as in management, consulting, and academia.
In addition to being the founder and CEO of aiSight.ai, he also serves as the Jang Group’s chief digital officer and the CEO of Khudi Ventures, Pakistan’s largest venture capital firm.
He also works as a consultant for the Pakistan office of the United Nations Development Program.
Dr. Umar Saif’s Background
Dr. Saif attended LUMS, Cambridge, and MIT for his academic training. He earned his BSc (Hons) from LUMS in 1998, his PhD from Cambridge University in 2001, and his post-doctoral degree from MIT in 2002.
In 2013, Umar Saif attended executive education in global leadership and public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.
He has held a number of significant positions in the nation’s IT industry. He has held the positions of vice chancellor at the Information Technology University and chairman of the Punjab Information Technology Board.
He received Sitara-i-Imtiaz (SI), one of Pakistan’s highest civil awards, in 2014 as thanks for his contributions to the country.
He was the first Pakistani to be recognized in 2011 by MIT Technology Review as one of the world’s top 35 young innovators (TR35). In 2011, he became the first person from Pakistan to win the esteemed Google Faculty Research Award.
He was chosen by the World Economic Forum to be a Young Global Leader (YGL) in 2010.
The IDG CIO Technology Pioneer Award, the Mark Weiser Award, the MIT Technovator Award, and the Microsoft Research Digital Inclusion Award were all given to Dr. Umar Saif in 2008.
Achievements of Dr. Umar Saif
His papers have won best paper prizes at IEEE Percom 2008 and ACM CHI 2013.
Saif was a Trinity College Overseas Scholar and a Commonwealth Scholar at the University of Cambridge while pursuing his doctorate.
He graduated from the University of Cambridge with a PhD in computer science at the age of 23, being the first Pakistani to do so.
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