Kalsoom Lakhani, Founder/CEO – Prior to i2i, Kalsoom was the director of Social Vision, the venture philanthropy arm of ML Resources, LLC, which provided seed grants and hands-on support for social enterprises and innovative initiatives in their start-up stages, mainly in Pakistan.
Kalsoom is a Washington, D.C. co-ambassador for Sandbox, a global network of innovators under 30, and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers. She was featured in Diplomatic Courier‘s Top 99 Foreign Policy Leaders under 33 in 2012, and is an Ashoka Changemakers/American Express Emerging Innovator for 2013. Kalsoom founded and runs the popular blog, CHUP, or Changing Up Pakistan, which was established in January 2008 and aims to raise awareness on the issues affecting Pakistan. She has written for the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, Foreign Policy, and Pakistan’s Dawn Newspaper.
Kalsoom has a B.A. from the University of Virginia in Foreign Affairs and Middle East Studies, and an M.A. from The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs in International Affairs/Conflict Resolution. She is from Islamabad, Pakistan.
Uzair Khan, Innovation Manager - Uzair brings both public and private sector expertise to the i2i stage. Previously, he served as a Program Officer at the United States Educational Foundation in Pakistan. He has also been a consultant in the realm of Corporate Social Responsibility, particularly focusing on fair wages. Uzair was one of the core leaders of Youth Initiative for Peace (YIP), a student-led South Asian peace movement. He has written on a range of social and political topics for Pakistan’s The Friday Times and The Green Kaleidoscope (TGK), an e-zine that he co-founded and edited. Uzair is also a passionate theatre-actor who has been a part of several productions in Pakistan and abroad.
Uzair holds a B.A from Stanford University in International Relations and an M.P.A from Sciences Po (Institut d’études politiques), Paris. While he has traveled extensively, he calls Islamabad, Pakistan home.
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Usman Gul, i2i Biz Dev Fellow – Usman is a senior economics major at Denison University, a small private liberal arts institution near Columbus, Ohio. At Denison, Usman has found the Denison Consulting Group where he leads a team of students to consult for administrative bodies and student organizations on campus. Currently, he works as a strategy and operations consultant for Trading Concepts, a stocks and options trading startup near Columbus. After graduation, Usman is scheduled to join MasterCard’s associate analyst program at the company’s global headquarters in New York. As an aspiring entrepreneur, Usman is most passionate about building organizations and networks. He recently made his debut as an entrepreneur by co-founding the National Pakistani Students Association in New York. Usman grew up in Lahore, Pakistan.