Imran Ahmad – Biography

Imran Ahmad was born in Pakistan and moved to England in the early 1960s at the age of one, growing up in Putney and Hampton. He was lucky enough to attend a boy’s grammar school, but too lazy to get the grades he needed to get into medical school. Instead he ended up at Stirling University in Scotland, studying Chemistry, learning about Islam, and trying to impress girls. Ultimately he was quite successful in Chemistry and became quite knowledgeable about Islam as well.

Halfway through a PhD in Chemistry, Imran realised that there was more to life than test tubes in a laboratory.  This happened because he spent too much time staring out of the window, looking at what other people were doing. Rather like going to a travel agent, he went to the University Careers Office and started reading recruitment brochures.  Some of these had pictures of people in business suits, travelling around the world having meetings (and lunches).  This looked like fun to him, but he wasn't sure what they actually did.

He persuaded one of those big global corporations to hire him into their graduate management development scheme in London.  Imran’s career began in Finance and transitioned to Information Systems. Fortunately, no one has realised that he knows little about computers. (He is also a qualified accountant, but he prefers not to talk about this.)

Imran’s business career has taken him all over the world, and he spent five years living in Minneapolis USA, becoming a senior manager in one of the ‘Big Five’ global consulting firms.

In 2000, a new position with General Electric brought Imran back to London, where he has since worked, operating seamlessly between Europe, the US and India.

Imran is on the Board of British Muslims for Secular Democracy, a diverse organisation which has the goal of dissolving the myth that all Muslims can be grouped together to fit a single stereotype, as well as opposing the imposition of theocratic and regressive cultural values on any individual, group or gender.

Imran likes to drink coffee (currently decaffeinated) in Starbucks and sometimes (when he’s really lucky) he can be found on the Appalachian Trail somewhere between Georgia and Connecticut, or on a mountain in Scotland. He also enjoys reading, music, and walking around both strange and familiar cities. Imran is a social rebel; he opens the window when on a London commuter train.