Mr. Ziad Bashir has been a member of the Board since February 1999. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Entrepreneurial Studies from Babson College, USA, and brings extensive experience in the textile, retail and technology sectors. He is a certified director from the Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance (PICG).
Mr. Ziad Bashir currently serves as Chairman of the Pakistan Business Council (PBC), the country’s apex private-sector advocacy platform, having previously served as its Vice Chairman and as a Director on its Board since 2022. He also chairs the Pakistan Retail Business Council, which he founded in 2014 to give the formal retail sector organized representation in policymaking. He additionally serves as a Director of the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC) and of NADRA Technologies Limited.
He is the Chief Executive Officer of Arwen Tech (Private) Limited and a Director on the boards of several Gul Ahmed group companies, including GTM (Europe) Limited (UK), Gul Ahmed International Limited (FZC) (UAE), GTM USA Corp. (USA), Swisstex Chemicals (Private) Limited, and the Landhi Industrial Trading Estate Development & Management Company (LITE DMC). He is also the Founder Director of Ideas by Gul Ahmed, and is leading the Group’s expansion into the food and beverage sector through Ideas Café, which launched in Karachi and is planned to expand to ten additional locations nationwide over the next two years.
Mr. Ziad Bashir plays an active role in shaping national economic policy. He is a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Committee on Domestic Commerce and Information Technology, and served on the Prime Minister’s Taskforce 2025 as Chair of the Railways and Ports committees. He has also served on the Federal Board of Revenue’s Apex Committee and as an Executive Member of the FBR’s Reforms and Resource Mobilization Commission (RRMC), contributing to reforms aimed at broadening the tax base and improving the efficiency of the tax system. His earlier public-sector engagements include the Pakistan Board of Investment, the Punjab Board of Investment and Trade, and the Export Processing Zone Authority.
Within industry bodies, he has served as Chairman of the Landhi Association of Trade and Industry across several terms and continues as its Patron-in-Chief, and sits on the Central Managing Committee of the All-Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA). He was previously President of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) Pakistan and continues on its Board of Governors.
Mr. Ziad Bashir has been the Honorary Consul General of the Consulate of Denmark in Karachi since 2015. In 2025, he was conferred the Knight’s Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog by H.E. King Frederik of Denmark, in recognition of his role in strengthening commercial and cultural ties between Pakistan and Denmark.