Mirza Majid
This past April, Muppies member Majid Mirza won first prize at Concept’s Graduate Student Start-up Fund, an entrepreneurship and pre-incubator program at the University of Waterloo.
As part of his PhD research, Majid is building a cloud-based system called ESG Tree , a software as a service (SaaS) company for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data management. With Sustainability and ESG being top of mind, and major ESG Funds outperforming the S&P 500 during the COVID-19 crisis, investment managers are looking to go deeper into ESG.
As Founder of ESG Tree, Majid is building his start-up from customer discovery to team building, sales, customer support, and managing intellectual property.
Majid Mirza grew up in Karachi, Pakistan and moved to Canada in 2003. He completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Waterloo and was introduced to the world of social innovation and sustainability at the tail end of his time there. He spent the next 10 years working in corporate sustainability, international development and impact investing with projects in over 20 countries across Africa, Latin America, and Asia. During this time, he also had a chance to serve as a Board Member at the Canada Forum for Impact Investment and Development. In 2019, he quit his job in order to work towards a PhD in Sustainability Management at the University of Waterloo while consulting part-time and building his start-up.
Majid has been a Muppies member for around two years and has attended events in Toronto, where he lives. He enjoys connecting with Muppies members on a personal level, and the Muppies network was instrumental during the ideation stage of his start-up, including allowing him to connect with target clients who gave invaluable feedback.
With Majid’s decade of experience in the sustainable development space, he is an expert when it comes to corporate sustainability, non-profit management, international development, and impact investing. Majid invites anyone looking to create sustainability frameworks, strategy, or reporting to reach out.
And, as if Majid wasn’t busy enough with grad school, consulting, and his start-up, he also launched an e-book titled ‘LIFE – 30 Everyday Anecdotes Which went Viral on LinkedIn,’ which he wishes to share with the Muppies network. Enjoy!
Congratulations, Majid!
