Keynote & Co-Chairs
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Dr. Beverly Dawn Metcalfe
Associate Professor in International Management and Development, Olayan School of Business, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Beverly Dawn Metcalfe is Visiting Associate Professor in International Management and HRD at the American University of Beirut. Dr Metcalfe has worked at the University of Manchester, Liverpool, Hull and Staffordshire Universities in England. Her research and teaching expertise include inter alia: Leadership Development, Leadership and Ethics, International Development; Developing Women's Leadership Capabilities in the Middle East; National and Comparative HRD, especially in the Middle East; Feminism, Social Movements and Globalization. She has published extensively in leading journals such as Gender, Work and Organization, JOBE, HRDI, and International Journal of HRM. Dr Metcalfe has had the honour to work globally in education, research and consultancy roles including Australia, Bahrain, Egypt, Oman, Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and the UAE. She has been a Visiting Professor in Griffith University and Monash University in Australia, and at AUC and Helwan Universties in Egypt. Dr. Metcalfe is internationally recognised for translating social science into work policies and practices that promote sustainable business, especially staff development and capability. Her record demonstrates a wealth of experience and innovations in uncovering ways to improve work processes and conditions to enhance decision-making. She has twice received the Academy of International Business Award for supporting gender awareness in international business (by Swedish School of Economics) and for her work on Middle Eastern women’s role in international development. Her text ‘Leadership Development in the Middle East’ (2011, 2012 Edward Elgar) is the core text for the majority of the undergraduate programmes in the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Dr. Kamran Asdar Ali
Dean, Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Lahore University of Management Sciences
Dr. Ali is the Dean of the Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences (MGSHSS) at LUMS. Before joining LUMS, Dr. Ali was a professor of Anthropology, Middle East Studies and Asian Studies at the University of Texas, Austin. He has previously taught at the University of Rochester (NY), has been a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (1998-99), ISIM, University of Leiden (2005) and a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study Berlin (2010-2011). He has conducted field research in Mexico, Egypt and in Pakistan on issues pertaining to health and gender, ethnicity, class politics, sexuality and popular culture. Among his other publications, he is also the author of Planning the Family in Egypt: New Bodies, New Selves (2002) and the co-editor of Gendering Urban Space in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa (2008), Comparing Cities: Middle East and South Asia (2009) and Gender, Politics, and Performance in South Asia (2015). His most recent book is Communism in Pakistan: Politics and Class Activism 1947-1972 (2015).
CO-CHAIRS
Dr. Muhammad Azfar Nisar
Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan
Dr. Nisar obtained his PhD in Public Administration and Policy from Arizona State University, USA in 2016. Employing critical theoretical perspectives, his research focuses on the citizen-state relationship especially in relation to social policy, collaborative networks, and democratic governance. In his previous research, he has studied issues related to Khawaja Sira citizenship, identity management, administrative burden, social networks, and higher education governance. He plans to focus his future research on social equity, critical management studies and collaborative networks.
Dr Nisar has a trans-disciplinary educational background. He completed his Master of Public Policy and Master of Arts in International Area Studies from University of California, Berkeley in 2010. He also holds a Master of Arts in Economics from University of the Punjab and an MBBS degree from King Edward Medical College. Prior to joining LUMS, he has worked with the People’s Primary Healthcare Initiative, Gilgit Baltistan as Program Director. His research interests include social policy, critical management studies and street-level bureaucracy.
Dr. Ahsan Rana
Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan
Dr. Ahsan Rana is an Associate Professor in the Suleman Dawood School of Business, Lahore University of Management Sciences. He holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne in Development Studies.
He started his career in 1990 as an officer of the Pakistan Administrative Service. He served in various parts of Pakistan in different policy formulation and implementation positions. Since 1999, he has pursued his interests in development and research. During this period, he has held key positions in several leading Pakistani NGOs, think tanks and academic institutions. He has also worked as a consultant with leading Pakistani and international organisations. His core areas of interest are social policy and agricultural policy.
Dr. Mohsin Bashir
Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan
Dr. Mohsin Bashir is an Assistant Professor at the Suleman Dawood School of Business, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). He has authored research articles, book chapters and industry reports on Leadership and Effectiveness of Organizational Networks, Performance Management including Monitoring and Evaluation, Public Private Partnerships, Organizational Power and Politics, and Nonprofit Leadership and Management. He received his training in Participant Centered Learning (Case Method) from Harvard Business School. Prior to that, he completed his PhD in Public Administration and Policy from Arizona State University where he was a Fulbright Scholar. He also holds an MBA degree from LUMS and an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from FAST-NU. Dr. Bashir is currently assisting the Planning and Development Department of the Government of Punjab in various aspects of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) including Organizational Design, Job and Workload Analysis, Talent Management and so on. His other consulting assignments have been in the areas of Monitoring and Evaluation, Organizational and Managerial Effectiveness, Decentralization/Devolution, Corporate Social Responsibility and Information and Communication Technologies. The client organizations such have included Nike Inc., Engro Corp., Government of the Punjab, USAID, CIDA, GIZ, SDC, various RSPs and other for-profit and nonprofit organizations. He is a member of the North American Case Research Association (NACRA) and the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) and sits on various boards and committees in the public and development sector institutions.