The AKDN works in 30 countries around the world. It employs approximately 96,000 people, the majority of whom are based in developing countries. AKDN's leaders (seen below) and its employees are of different faiths, origins and backgrounds.
His Highness the Aga Khan, the founder and chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network, is the 49th hereditary Imam (Spiritual Leader) of the Shia Ismaili Muslims. In Islam’s ethical tradition, religious leaders not only interpret the faith but also have a responsibility to help improve the quality of life in their community and in the societies amongst which they live.
Born on 12 September 1937, Prince Amyn is His Highness the Aga Khan’s younger brother and grandson of the late Sir Sultan Mohamed Shah Aga Khan. After his studies at Harvard University, Prince Amyn worked at the United Nations Secretariat in New York following which he joined the Aga Khan Development Network. He is a member of the Board of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) and the Aga Khan Foundation and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.
Prince Amyn was also deeply involved in the establishment and development of Tourism Promotion Services (TPS), which currently operates the Serena Group of Lodges, Resorts and Hotels, comprising 34 properties in nine countries of Asia and Africa.
Prince Amyn has for many years entertained active relations with various museums, cultural institutions and programmes, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the Foundation for the Development of Chantilly. He was a member of the Acquisitions Committee of the Louvre and is on the Council of the Friends of the Louvre. He is Chairman of the Friends of the Domaine de Chantilly. He has been consistently involved in the work of institutions designed to save heritage and, among other things, has been active in turning heritage buildings into inns and hotels after restoring them. He has been a Trustee of the World Monuments Fund since 1997 and is on their International Advisory Committee. He was, for many years, a Director of the Silk Road Project launched by Yo-Yo Ma. Prince Amyn has always been deeply interested in music too: he studied at the New England Conservatory in parallel with Harvard and has been a juror on various musical prizes such as the Premio Venezia, the Vendôme Prize and the Concours de Genève.
Prince Amyn has been actively involved with the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Canada and with the formation of its collections. He is an art collector himself and has been a frequent lender to leading museums, both French and foreign. He was a juror for the 10th International Architecture Exhibition award at the Venice Biennale in 2006.
Mr. Sultan Ali Allana is a Director of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) and has the oversight responsibilities for AKFED's investments in banking and insurance. Mr Allana is a career banking professional with over 35 years of experience in retail, corporate and investment banking.
Since 1997, Mr Allana has also been serving as a Director of the Tourism Promotion Services Pakistan Limited, the owners and the operators of the Serena Hotels in Pakistan.
Mr Allana holds Undergraduate and Post Graduate degrees from McGill University and the University of Wisconsin in Engineering and Management.
Lutaf Kassam, born in Kenya, began his schooling in Kenya and later attended Loughborough University in England where he attained degrees in Production Engineering and Management. He has over 30 years’ experience working for the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED), in various sectors including food and agro-industry, printing and packaging, pharmaceuticals, leather, specialised textiles and infrastructure (power, telecommunication, rail, road, aviation and ports).
Mr Kassam, a member of the AKFED Executive Committee, is responsible for AKFED’s global portfolio on Industry and Infrastructure and overseas operations in East Africa, West Africa, Asia and Canada.
In addition to his directorships in AKFED companies globally, he is a Director on the Board of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, the East African Business Council and the immediate past Vice Chairman of the Nairobi Stock Exchange and has served as a member of the National Economic Social Council in Kenya (Advisory Body to the President of Kenya) and a Member of the Presidential Investors’ Round Table (Advisory Body to the President of Uganda). He is an Advisory Board member of the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative under the UN Secretary-General and the World Bank Group president.
Michael Kocher has been the General Manager of the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), based in Geneva, since 2013.
Before joining AKF, Mr Kocher was the Vice President of International Programmes at the International Rescue Committee in New York City, where he led efforts in its multi-sector development, emergency response, and support for refugees and internally displaced persons. His field assignments have been extensive, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Indonesia, Kenya, South Sudan, Haiti, Bosnia and other places.
He received his B.A. in Literature from Kalamazoo College and J.D. from the University of Notre Dame Law School.
Luis Monreal is the General Manager of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Geneva (Switzerland). He is a conservation specialist, art historian and archeologist. He has held positions in many institutions. He has been the Curator Barcelona Museums (1965-1974) and Secretary General of the International Council of Museums ICOM (1974–1985).
Prof. Dr S. Sohail H. Naqvi is the Rector of the University of Central Asia (UCA). Prior to joining UCA in August 2018, Dr Naqvi served as Vice Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) for five years where he had spearheaded the transition of this prestigious, primarily undergraduate, institution into the top ranked research universities of the country.
Prior to LUMS, he was the Executive Director of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for eight years. He oversaw the implementation of an ambitious portfolio of programmes which resulted in significant growth of research in Pakistan’s universities, the quadrupling of student enrolment, standardisation of programmes at the undergraduate and postgraduate level with clear quality related benchmarks along with the implementation of a comprehensive higher education quality assurance regime. He has extensive teaching, research and entrepreneurial experience both in the US and Pakistan, and has also been a consultant on higher education for the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. He was awarded Order of the ‘Palmes Académiques’ with rank of Chevalier, by the French Government, and the Sitar-e-Imtiaz by the Government of Pakistan for his services to higher education.
Dr Naqvi earned his BSc (with highest distinction), MSc and PhD degrees (all in Electrical Engineering) from Purdue University, USA. He served as an Assistant and Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA, before returning to Pakistan in 1995 to join the Faculty of Electronics at the GIK Institute of Technology. Dr. Naqvi also has a number of patents to his credit and co-developed scatterometry as a metrology technique and process sensor for micro-electronic and opto-electronic fabrication.
As President of the Aga Khan University (AKU), Sulaiman Shahabuddin leads an institution with 3,200 students on three continents, seven hospitals that treat two million patients in a typical year and a record of research excellence that has led to it being ranked amongst the top 100 universities in the world in several fields.
Mr Shahabuddin grew up in Karachi. He attended the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi, earning a Bachelor of Business Administration and an MBA. He later earned an MSc in Sustainable Development at Imperial College London/SOAS University of London and is currently finishing a Doctorate in Health Administration from Central Michigan University.
Onno Ruhl is the General Manager of the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat (AKAH). Mr Ruhl held positions in the World Bank, as Country Director for Nigeria, and more recently as Country Director for India. He has a longstanding reputation for driving organisational change, building partnerships, as well as experience in emergency response and natural disaster reconstruction.
Gijs Walraven, MD MPH PhD, is Director for Health of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), and is based in Geneva. In this role, he has direct management responsibility for the Aga Khan Health Service Companies which are located in South and Central Asia, East Africa and the Middle East. Dr Walraven is also Honorary Professor in Community Health Sciences at the Aga Khan University.
The AKDN health system includes 180 health centres that provide primary healthcare, as well as 13 health centres and 13 hospitals that provide for secondary/tertiary healthcare. Increasingly, health service delivery takes place in public-private partnership agreements. AKDN also has a large and growing portfolio in technical assistance to governments, in training and education, as well as (implementation) research. Dr. Walraven has been on several occasions technical advisor to the World Health Organization, and most recently chaired the global expert committee on recommendations for optimising health workers' roles to improve access to key maternal and newborn health through task shifting.
