OPEN for Business

The Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs of North America (OPEN) is a voluntary not-for-profit association dedicated to the promotion of entrepreneurship within the Pakistani community in North America. Established in Boston in 1998, OPEN has chapters in Boston, New York and most recently, in the Silicon Valley. The goals of OPEN are:

- To facilitate and encourage the growth of Pakistani entrepreneurs in North America

- To provide financing assistance and mentorship to enterprising individuals through programs such as the business plan competition and monthly business plan critiques.

- To develop ongoing events through which local professionals can meet and network amongst themselves and with other influential individuals.

- To recognize accomplishments by Pakistani entrepreneurs and professionals.

The recently launched Silicon Valley chapter of OPEN conducts monthly meetings of Charter Members: one of the regular features of this monthly meeting is a presentation of a business plan by a company for critique and advice by the Charter Members. OPEN Silicon Valley also holds Quarterly Networking Events that are open to all members as well as non-members. People interested in presenting at these meetings should email salman@techlogix.com or umair@clickmarks.com

OPEN Silicon Valley Networking Event November 13, 2001

The first OPEN Silicon Valley Networking and Social Event will take place on November 13, 2001. The event will begin with a presentation on OPEN and will include a panel discussion titled “Entrepreneurship in the Post Dotcom Era”. Panelists will include:

Arif Janjua (Moderator) [CEO iDrive]

Ammar Hanafi [VP Business Development, Cisco]

Asad Jamal [Managing Director, DFJ ePlanet Ventures]

Sajid Sohail [Founder Dazzle]

Zia Chisti [CEO Align Technologies]

The event will be held at the Hotel Crowne Plaza Cabana located at 4290 El Camino Real, Palo Alto from 5:45pm to 8:00pm. Admission is free to all members and non-members.

Membership

The membership OPEN Silicon Valley consists of:

- Charter members: entrepreneurs or senior executives in the high-tech industry

- General members: professionals in the high-tech industry

As we, the initial Charter members grow the organization in the next few months (execute aggressively against the charter and goals) we will begin to accept more charter members as well as open up the organization for general membership.

OPEN Silicon Valley Charter Members

Ammar Hanifi: Vice President, Business Development, Cisco Systems. Previously Vice President, Business Development, PanAmSat Corporation.

Amir Khan: Director of Product Strategy & Management at Procket, a startup focusing on the Internet infrastructure products. Previously, Director of Product Marketing at Nortel Networks; prior to that was in product marketing and business development at Cisco.

Arif Janjua: CEO of iDrive, a storage solution provider for communication service providers and other enterprises. Previously, President, Consumer Services and EVP Corporate Development at Infospace.

Asad Jamal: Co-Chairman and General Partner, Draper Fisher Jurvetson ePlanet Ventures LP.

Asim Abdullah: Co-founder Veo Systems which was acquired by CommerceOne in 2000.

Atiq Raza: Founder and Chairman of Raza Foundries. Former President of AMD, following their merger with Nexgen where he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Faysal Sohail: SVP Numerical Technologies. Previously President & CEO of Cadabra Design Automation and SVP of Synopsys Corporation.

Hasan Rizvi; Vice President, Development, Oracle Corporation. Formerly, co-founder and CEO of Karient Inc. and prior to that co-founder and Vice President at Corio.

Idris Kothari: Co-founder, VP Net. Also co-founded Semi-Custom Logic, Inc., a company providing system and ASIC design services, and VIA Technology

Nazar Zaidi: Co-founder and EVP Engineering & Technology of Nexsi Systems, a layer 4-7 content based switching company. Previously a Principal Engineer and Design Manager at Intel Corporation.

Riffat Pirzada: Director, Ciena Software which acquired Cyras Systems, an optical networking company he co-founded.

Safwan Shah: Founder and CEO of Infonox, a transaction processing and management solutions provider. Previously, served as Director of Technology for 4th Wave. Co-founder Chowk.com.

Sajid Sohail: Founder and CEO of Dazzle Multimedia. Previously at C-Cube and Digital Equipment Corp.

Salman Akhtar: Co-Founder and co-CEO Techlogix Inc., an eBusiness solutions development firm with offices in Boston, Silicon Valley and Lahore.

Sohaib Abbasi: Senior Vice President, Development, Oracle Corporation.

Umair Khan: Cofounder and Chairman, Clickmarks Inc., a mobile software infrastructure company. Founder and Chairman Wordwalla Inc., a multilingual communications company. Co-founder Chowk.com.

Zia Chishti: Founder and CEO of Align Technologies, a publicly traded medical technology company. Formerly with Morgan Stanley's investment banking division.

Zia Yusuf: Managing Director, Asia-Pacific for SAPMarkets, Inc. the b2b exchange company of SAP AG. Previously with Goldman, Sachs & Co.