Muppies Career Series

Zara Merchant

Director of Corporate Partnerships

Zara Merchant is an Australian lawyer and has spent the last 7 years working for leading global investment banks including Wall Street in Risk Management, Compliance. She moved to New York in 2018 and also served the Muppies NY Board for 2 years. She is currently a Manager at Macquarie Group. Zara’s passion lies in creating and supporting a platform for Muslim professionals, providing them an avenue for networking, ideas and thought leadership.

Education

Bachelors of Commerce (major in finance)/Bachelor of Laws at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia)

Carmille Lim

Senior Consultant

Carmille Lim is a managing director and communications professional in the social impact space. Based in California, she most recently served as the Vice President / Managing Director of Pacific Council on International Policy– the West Coast’s largest international affairs membership organization– where she oversaw the organization’s thought leadership departments and built up its Public Diplomacy programs. Before this, Carmille served as Executive Director of Common Cause Hawaii, overseeing the state chapter’s lobbying, fundraising, and community outreach activities, and leading advocacy efforts to pass Election Day Registration and Vote-by-Mail in Hawaii.

Carmille offers management and communication services to nonprofits and mission-driven businesses through Brooks Pacific Consulting. She previously called Honolulu and Seattle home.

Education

Master of Public Policy from the University of Michigan

Ayesha Kalsoom

Marketing Consultant

Ayesha is a Marketing Strategist enabling brands to enhance their value. Experienced in establishing firms through brand awareness, community building, and implementing digital marketing strategies. Capable of evaluating the needs of consumer market, providing valuable content, and drive prospects to conversions. Ayesha also has experience in business management and helps organization accomplishing goals by accepting ownership for accomplishing new and different requests and exploring opportunities to add value to the organization.

Education

Bachelors of Computer Science

Amal Shaista

Community Engagement Consultant

Amal is an experienced Project Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the scrum industry. Skilled in Client Engagement, Strategic planning, Managing scrum activities and Product enhancement. She has a diverse professional background in healthcare, IT, and 3D simulation. ⁠

Education

BSc (Hons) Microbiology, MA English Literature

Ismail Ali

Director of Programming and Local Engagement

Ismail Ali is a product manager in the payments industry. Before this, he worked in analytics and project management in healthcare technology. Outside of work, Ismail enjoys rowing, vegetarian cooking, and sharing Midwest trivia while giving friends tours of Chicago.

Education

BS Economics, University of Michigan

Ali Khan

Director of Growth

Ali Khan currently works as a Sr.Program Manager at Microsoft and is working within Azure Customer Experience.

Ali joined Muppies in 2016 as the Co-President of the Seattle Committee and considers it an honor to be part of a community of Muslim leaders, innovators and professionals. Ali is very passionate about promoting the Muppies vision and mission by serving the members and stakeholders, and also expanding the Muppies community, nationally and globally.

Education

BE, Mechanical Engineering, Stony Brook University
MBA, University of Washington

Naiel Iqbal

President

Naiel is an investment professional at Tiger Global Management, a New York based investment firm. He was previously an Analyst at Caxton Associates, a macro hedge fund. Prior to this, he worked as a Portfolio Manager in Proprietary Trading at J.P. Morgan in New York. He started his career in the Special Situations group at Deutsche Bank.

He has been involved with Muppies since its inception. He serves on the Board of Muslim Advocates, a national legal advocacy and educational organization that works on the front-lines of civil rights to guarantee freedom and justice for Americans of all faiths. He also serves on the board of Penny Appeal USA, an organization committed to breaking the cycles of need and poverty for good. Finally, he is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Education

BS, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Nabeel Ali

Director of Member Engagement

Nabeel is a technology professional based in New York City. He currently serves as Head of Global Sales Strategy for mParticle, a hyper-growth enterprise software startup backed by blue-chip investors. He previously worked at MongoDB, where he helped drive one of NYC’s most successful tech IPOs (Nasdaq: MDB). Nabeel is an engineer by background and has received multiple national awards for leadership in technology innovation.

Education

B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Saima Akhter

Director of Community Partnerships

Saima is a data analyst at Facebook where she combines her data skills with her passion for community building. Previously, she has worked for Shutterstock, Intuit, and United Airlines in data analytics across a variety of areas including cybersecurity, marketing, and operations.

Saima is passionate about community building and community service. Before her recent move to NYC, she was serving on the board of her mosque and the board of Interfaith Community Services in San Diego. She co-leads the NYC chapter of Muslim Women in Tech and continues to be an active volunteer with several community organizations. She loves traveling (35 countries and counting), exploring the city, and bringing people together.

Education

BS, North Carolina University; MS North Carolina State University, Institute For Advanced Analytics

Zain Bhayani

Investment Banking Program

Zain Bhayani is Lead of Muppies’ Investment Banking Program. Zain is Vice President at Societe Generale Corporate Investment Banking (Leverage Finance).

Education

B.S. in Finance and International Business (2008)

Anum Khan

Digest Lead

Anum is a Media & Entertainment professional who thrives working with creatives and creating unforgettable experiences. Originally from Los Angeles, Anum got her start working at Live Nation in the editorial department of Insomniac Events. There, she worked as a music journalist, crafting digital content around music festivals. She then took a leap of faith and moved to Doha, Qatar to work at Trimoo Parks. As a Brand Specialist, Anum worked on the launch of the country’s first theme parks.

Education

MBA Candidate, Columbia University

Saddmun Ahsan

Lead of Consulting Program

I chose to volunteer w/ Muppies to be a part of and give back to the community. I currently work at McKinsey & Company as a Business Analyst.

Education

B.Sc. and M.Eng in Chemical Engineering, Cornell University

Linda Amrou

Global Events Consultant

Linda is currently a Program Officer for Columbia University’s Global Centers in New York. She is responsible for establishing research and education-based programming and partnerships that deepen engagement and foster a dynamic atmosphere of global intellectual inquiry, creativity, and impact both on campus and cross-collaboratively with the Centers worldwide.

After earning her JD, she practiced at an immigration law firm where she focused on family reunification and human rights-based litigation. She previously served as President of the International Law Students Association (ILSA) where she lectured internationally, contributed to academic articles, and organized programming that served thousands of students from more than 500 institutions and over 80 countries across the globe. Linda also served as a human rights observer at the 9/11 Commission Hearings in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She is a U.S. Department of State Gilman Scholar, recipient of the Jefferson Award for Public Service, and was also awarded a full-ride scholarship through the Center for Global Understanding and the Washington Center to serve at the United Nations World Health Organization.

Education

JD, concentration in international law, the University of Toledo

Mahreen Qureshi

Website Lead

Mahreen is a management consultant by profession based out of Houston, Texas. Her expertise includes evaluating and designing marketing strategies to facilitate the exchange between companies and their consumers. She currently works at Cimbria Consulting specializing in branding, marketing, and research strategies for international clients.

Education

MBA, Bauer College of Business – University of Houston.

Amy Weber

Marketing Consultant

Amy is a Marketing and Communications Consultant who believes in the transformative power of thoughtfully-written copy and quality design to clarify communications, elevate reader experiences, and engage and inspire constituents. Her focus is on overall branding and marketing strategy, digital content, and social media. She is based in Santa Fe, NM, where she acts as Director of Communication for a Japanese art gallery. When she’s not online, she enjoys hiking, skiing, and kayaking.

Education

MA, Columbia University

Shamsa Hidayat

Director of Local Engagement

Shamsa currently works with Cushman and Wakefield as a Project Manager where she delivers complex commercial real-estate projects for mid to large size companies.

Shamsa has experience working as a consulting engineer and project manager across many sectors, including corporate, government and institutional. In her career prior to joining Cushman, Shamsa delivered a mix of highly technical projects for the Canadian Federal Government aligned with her expertise as a mechanical engineer.

Shamsa has been a part of Muppies since 2016. She has been actively engaged with community service including helping organize the Muppies Annual Conference 2019 in Chicago. Outside of Muppies, she managed a girls’ mentorship program in 2018 to help empower girls from immigrant families that had newly arrived in Canada.

Education

Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta in Canada

Haseeb Choudhary

Director of Partnerships

Haseeb is currently Director of Corporate Development at Choice Hotels International. Previously, he served as Vice President of Wall Street Prep’s newly formed financial consulting practice. He advises firms on valuation, provides transaction support, develops complex financial model and business analytics.

Through his own consulting practice, Trivium Global, Haseeb has advised publicly traded and private companies across real estate, transportation, fintech, retail, and education technology sectors on capital raising, strategic planning, M&A and restructuring initiatives.

Prior to joining Wall Street Prep, Haseeb was an Assistant Vice President in the Strategic Analytics team at Barclays Wealth focused on streamlining operations and increasing profitability for various fee-based and transactional asset management businesses. Prior to Barclays, he served as a Senior Investment Banking Analyst at Jefferies focusing on maritime transportation companies, developing an expertise in unique LBO and capital raising structures. Immediately after graduation, Haseeb helped establish a Shariah-compliant financing subsidiary for Edible Arrangements International, Inc.

Education

BS, Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University

Muppies Career Series

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