Moin Mohammed Fudda was born in 1954 in Karachi. His ancestors were originally from Thatta. Sind and later moved to Junagadh. His father, the late Haji Ismail Fudda, had a background in finance and started his business in Mozambique before coming to Pakistan after partition . Haji Ismail Fudda had four sons of which Moin is the youngest . He completed his early primary education at Kutiyana Memon School Kharadar and matriculated from Husaini Public School Nazimabad.
At an early age of nine years and fortunate to have realized the value of life in early childhood, he started selling garments after attending the primary school in mornings. After matriculation, with a desire to attend a morning college, unlike his brothers who attended evening colleges, he took a bold step by financing his own education by starting a General Store in partnership with one of his uncles acting as an investor and silent partner. During this period, his grandfather shared his burden by looking after the business from 8:00 a.m. till 2:00 p.m.
With an urge and desire to acquire higher education, he saw an advertisement in a newspaper for grant of scholarship towards B.S. in Insurance and Economics at the RCD College of Insurance and Economics in Tehran, Iran. Fortunately, he was one of the three students selected for this scholarship from Pakistan. On 29th January, 1975, he stepped out of the country for the first time with a meager $30 in his pocket.
In Iran, the first challenge for Fudda was to learn Persian. While his academic pursuits took place in English, he hoped to gain more from his experience by learning Persian and enjoying the world outside his school. After six months of intensive Persian as well as taking compulsory morning classes in other subjects, he had the choice of attending evening classes. Thus he decided to work in the morning and joined Stewart Wrightson (Lloyds Brokerage Office) to simultaneously gain practical experience.
His life in Tehran began at 6:30 a.m. He worked each day from 7.30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and attend ed classes from 2:30 p.m. till 9:30 p.m. His Friday mornings were usually spent visiting the spiritual places such as Mazaar and the library of the great scholar Sufi Shah Abdul Azim in Southern Tehran. Long weekends were spent at Kum and holidays at Isphaan and Mashad.
By acquiring a reasonable command over Persian language, he also started doing correspondence for a local trading company on Thursday afternoons. He completed his BS in Insurance & Economics with distinction in 1978. C onscious of the fact that he had signed a bond to serve Pakistan Insurance Corporation for three years as a requirement of his scholarship, he approached the organization, but after getting no response proceeded to USA for higher education.
With this gradual approach of hard work and savings during this time, he was able to pursue a Masters in Business Administration in Insurance and Risk Management from the St. Jones University (formerly College of Insurance in New York), USA. Upon completion of his MBA, he was offered a lucrative job at American International Group (AIG), the largest international insurer in the world. He also became an Adjunct Professor at The College of Insurance.
During his stay in United States of America in 1979, he suffered through the death of his beloved mother. Upon returning to Pakistan, he entered into an arranged marriage, the best decision of his life. After marriage, the couple lived in USA for a few years until his wife persuaded him to return to Pakistan, which also provided him an opportunity to spend some time with his father.
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Receiving Best Business Manager IBA Award from Late Governor Sindh
Justice(R) Qadeer Uddin Ahmed 1989 |
His first job in Pakistan was with the newly established Reliance Insurance Company as Executive Vice President. At the age of 34 he was the youngest officer appointed as a Grade 20 Officer (with Basic Pay Scale of Grade 21) as the Executive Director of Reinsurance, Planning & Development at Pakistan Insurance Corporation (PIC). He spent three Years with the organization, which also provided him an opportunity to fulfill his commitment as linked to the grant of the RCD Scholarship to study in Tehran. Later, he joined Commercial Union (CU), the la rgest British insurer in Pakistan (now AVIVA), as General Manager.
In 1996, he was appointed the first Managing Director of CU Life as well as the Country Chief of CU in Pakistan. In 2002, AVIVA decided to pull back from six countries including Pakistan. At that juncture, he had an option either to continue in the insurance sector or to pursue a career in a different field. Amongst the offers that he had, he chose the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) due to his qualifications in Risk Management and familiarity with KSE’s operations .
Association with New Zealand
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New Zealand Commemeration Medal from
High Commissioner Laurie Marks 1990 |
By virtue of CU’s management of the operations of New Zealand Insurance Company, the New Zealand Ambassador based in Tehran and accredited to Pakistan approached him to assist in setting up their trade office and act as an Honorary Trade Representative. With his wide contacts, the trade between the two countries doubled within a year. He was appointed as the Honorary Consul of New Zealand for Pakistan and elevated to the position of Honorary Consul General for Pakistan.
He has played a pivotal role in awarding grants from the New Zealand Government to a number of NGOs in health, education, and community development throughout Pakistan. His recent contribution opened the door for Pakistani students to peruse post graduate studies at New Zealand universities. He also presided over the creation of Pakistan Dairy Development Company to help Pakistan in achieving its long term goal of White Revolution. Fudda has been representing New Zealand in Pakistan for the past 18 years. During this period, he was decorated with two medals, one for the 150 years celebration of New Zealand and the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in recognition of his services to New Zealand. Go to Top
New Zealand order of Merit from
High Commissioner Niel Holms 2002
During his time at Reliance, he joined the board of Kutiyana Memon Association and helped in the creation of an Education Board. Realizing the lack of higher education facilities for girls in that neighborhood, he led the establishment of KMA Girls College. While at Commercial Union, he took active part in the activities of the Management Association of Pakistan (MAP) and the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI).
Sitara-e-Imtiaz from Governor Sindh
Dr. Ishrat-ul-Ibad on behalf of President of Pakistan-2006 |
He was elected President of both organizations, in 1999 and 2001 respectively. He was also appointed as a member of the Board of Investment and served on the Board of Governors of the Pakistan Institute of Management. He also served as a member of the Privatization Commission Government of Pakistan for seven years from 2000 to 2007. During this period, Central Board of Revenue (CBR) also nominated him as Chairman of Alternate Dispute Resolution Committees, a position which he continues to hold. Recognizing his efforts in public service and developing the corporate sector of Pakistan, he was conferred with “Sitara-e-Imtiaz”, the highest civil award, awarded by President of Pakistan on 23rd March 2006. In October 2006, he was recognized as a founding member of the Board of Governors of the Karachi Centre for Dispute Resolution.
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with Governor State Bank of Pakistan
Dr. Shamshad Akhtar at
MicroFinance Round Table 2007 |
While studying at the RCD College he gained three years of practical experience at Stewart Wrightson (leading Lloyd's Brokerage House). At AIG he was responsible for the Controllers Department, doing quarterly and annual filings for six group companies. Later he moved to the Reinsurance Division and was involved in developing reinsurance treaties for product liability as well as product guarantee and the first ever political risk coverage issued by AIG. Finally, before returning to Pakistan, he spent a year at American Life, a group company of AIG. During the period, he was also appointed as a Member of Faculty of The College of Insurance, New York as an Adjunct Assistant Professor.
Upon his return to Pakistan, he joined Reliance Insurance Company as Executive Vice President and contributed towards an early rise of this private company that was listed at the KSE. During his tenure as Executive Director, he introduced a professional approach in dealing with private sector companies and in the very first year all reinsurance contacts internally as well as externally were accomplished well before their expiries. He also established a Research and Development Department and introduced a three –month course on Insurance and Re-insurance for industry professionals. Finally he took a number of steps to substantially increase the profitability of the PIC, which resulted in the corporation receiving the top companies’ awards from the KSE. A s General Manager of Commercial Union, the largest British (General) insurers (now AVIVA) operating in Pakistan, his vision as well as technical and marketing skills allowed CU to bec ome the largest foreign insurer in the country with highest profitability within four years of his posting. When life assurance in Pakistan was re-opened to the private sector in 1996, he was appointed the first Managing Director of Commercial Union Life Assurance Company (Pakistan) Limited as well as the Country Chief of the parent company, the CGU International Insurance plc. He played a very effective role in its conception, incorporation, organization, and the establishment of its branches at a number of important centers through out Pakistan providing employment opportunities to over 1000 people. He was instrumental in CU Life being the first insurance company in Pakistan to receive ISO 9002 certification.
Over a quarter of a century, Fudda represented PIC as well as the Insurance Association of Pakistan at the Executive Board level as well as Technical Committees of RCD Reinsurance Pool and the Federation Asian & African Reinsurance Pool. He delivered lectures and led a number of seminars at the Pakistan and Karachi Insurance Institutes and other domestic and international institutions. He was a member of the Working Group of the National Insurance Reform Commission and was worked closely with the Asian Development Bank in the development of the insurance sector in Pakistan by actively participating in the deliberations on Insurance Ordinance 2000.
Mr. Fudda served as Managing Director of the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) for three years from September 2002. At that time, due to various reforms carried out by the economic team since 2000, the Pakistan economy had started showing improvement. From stock market point of view there was a need to capitalize on those reforms. Therefore, after taking charge and sensing the opportunities , Mr. Fudda initiated and implemented a comprehensive plan to refocus, reorganize and reinvigorate the institution to bring it into the national and international limelight. This included a number of measures including introduction of the Code of Corporate Governance; stronger risk management regulations, namely capital adequacy, exposure and margin requirements; clearing and settlements; greater discipline in trade; and enhancing the transparency at all levels of operation. These initiatives resulted in restoring the investors’ confidence.
During the period he represented KSE at number of domestic and international events including (i) 10th Asia Pacific Issuers & Investors Forum, Singapore; (ii) Euro-Money Breakfast Panel Discussion, Dubai; (iii) Asian Development Bank Regional Seminar on Investigation and Enforcement, Manila; (iv) Capital Market Development Program - Securities & Exchange Commission, Washington; (v) South Asian Federation of Exchanges (SAFE), Mumbai; and (vi) Federation of European and Asian Stock Exchanges (FEAS) at Zagreb and Istanbul. He was elected to the Technical Committee of SAFE and Executive Committee and Chairman of the Task Force on Corporate Governance in the FEAS Region.
Upon completion of his three-year tenure at KSE, Fudda did not opt for renewal and decided to engage in another challenging opportunity.
Mr. Fudda was appointed as the Country Director, Pakistan of the Center for International Private Enterprise (an affiliate of U.S. Chamber of Commerce) in September 2005, to head its very first field office in Karachi – Pakistan. He has lead CIPE to an exceptionally good start by focusing on projects involving chamber and b usiness association development, promotion of quality economic journalism, corporate governance, women’s entrepreneurship development, policy advocacy for capital formation for Information Technology Industry, outreach and availability of microfinance for micro enterprise development, drafting of regulations for private equity and venture capital, and creation of the Securities Institute of Pakistan
Mr. Fudda has traveled to 60 countries in 7 Continents and is blessed with a son and a daughter.Magnificent Memons' team hopes and pray that the his success story continues and reach unimaginable heights.
