About

About Me

Thanks for dropping by. I’m going to try to use this to highlight a bit about myself, seeing as you don’t know me really.

I was born in New York (Queens to be more precise) in July of 1979. I lived in New York for about 10 years, in a period noted by awkwardness and tube socks that went up to my knees. At the age of 11 I moved to Karachi, Pakistan with a major case of culture shock. Although an odd fish at first, I soon fit in (after I shaved). Also, I automatically fell into the class of social elites, merely due to my American accent. Whereas other individuals had palatial houses, I lived in an apartment, yet my accent was more than enough to get me to fit in.

Another 5 years passed, and my family and I found ourselves moving to London, England. My father was not a vagabond, or in the military. Rather, he worked for Pakistan International Airlines, and they would transfer him rather often. London was not as easy to break into. The famous British reserve, combined with the fact that all my classmates had grown up together did not help me in settling in with the greatest of ease.

It was due to this feeling of not really fitting in that I decided to forego my interview at Cambridge, and instead took the SAT’s and opted to go to NYU. It may sound bizarre to most, to choose NYU over other more prestigious universities, but that is the kind of person I have always been. In Pakistan, I chose to go to City School instead of the prestigious Karachi Grammar as I felt that by becoming a Grammarian I would become a snob, and lose touch.

But it wasn’t only because of that, it was more so because I wanted to be in New York. In the center of it all. And with NYU, it wasn’t just the education inside of the four walls, but the education the city afforded.

I originally wanted to go into Politics and Law, and so I majored in Political Science and Sociology. After graduating, I started working for Senator HIllary Rodham Clinton, which was in all honesty, one of the best positions I have ever held. Sadly, the reason I left was because a Junior Senator does not have much of a budget, and as the only member of my family living in America, with a lot of expenses and student loans, I could not survive on that salary. Hence, I moved on to working at a law firm.

Shortly after starting in the legal field, I realized that law was not for me. And from here I transitioned into the entertainment industry and marketing. While working, I realized I needed to take the next step in my education and decided to pursue an MBA.

It was originally a part time program, but then my desire to finish and start my career became overwhelming and so I switched to full time. The reason I chose Baruch over the other more renowned schools in New York was simply financial, and made more sense upon a cost benefit analysis. Although I love NYU, the loans and additional costs I would have incurred in order to continue my education would have been too much. When I looked at Baruch, I realized that the average salary of a Baruch grad was less than NYU graduated, yet, the cost of attending Baruch was far less. Which in turn meant that I would pay off these costs far quicker, and would be better off in the long run, albeit in the short term I would have not an easy door to open into careers.

After graduating, I took a job with Island Def Jam, a part of Universal Music Group. During my short time at Island Def Jam, I worked on several new initiatives. I conceived, planned, and developed the first set of Universal Music Group’s iPhone applications, starting off with Fall Out Boy’s All Access. I planned a series of interactive games as a means of generating new revenue from our assets. It was also my initiative to make Island Def Jam new media operate more effectively, not just efficiently. Sadly, I was let go in early 2009.

However, I took upon several consulting roles to add to my experience and skill set. One of the positions I took up was working with an independent film distribution company called B-Side entertainment. While at B-side, I helped in not only setting up their online presence, but also of some of their upcoming releases such as Visioneers (starring Zach Galifianakis) and Nerdcore Rising (centering around Nerdcore Hip Hop pioneer MC Frontalot).  During my the time there, I was able to successfully market each of their releases by targeting the audiences and niches that they would appeal to.

After B-Side I moved to National Cinemedia to be the first consumer facing marketing manager that the company has ever hired. I was tasked primarily to build awareness for NCM.com and create a new revenue channel. Shortly after starting the job, however, my role has expanded to not only generating awareness, but to redefine what NCM is in the interactive space. I have started to develop (and eventually market) several mobile initiatives, including applications, as well as introduce mobile and email marketing initiatives.