Mr. Shaikh Shahnawaz Ali is Co-Founder and Executive Director of PanIIT Alumni Reach for India Foundation. He did his B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay in 2003 and postgraduate in Finance and Strategy from Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad in 2010.

After brief stints in Oil & Gas and Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) sectors, and earning a degree from IIT Bombay, Mr. Ali moved into the business side of Intellectual Property commercialization and protection at Sarnoff Corporation, where he was the Head of Business Research and Strategy. In 2010, after graduating from ISB Hyderabad, Mr. Ali partnered with a fellow IITian to play the role of a game-changer in the skill development space by innovating new business models and influencing institutional and government policies.

Inspired by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, Mr. Ali became a job creator and not a job seeker at PanIIT Alumni Reach for India Foundation (PARFI) – a Private incorporated on October 22, 2009, where he is a co-founder and executive director. With a vision to enhance incomes of the underprivileged through scalable and self-sustainable models, the organization brings market-based interventions to serve the community.

In the formative years at PARFI, Mr. Ali played a major role in roping the key stakeholders including governments, corporates and social investors to partner with the Foundation. Currently, he has moved to an inward looking role to ensure the commitments made to various stakeholders are met and exceeded.

Mr. Ali played key role in taking the operations of the organization to naxal-affected regions of the country, and in particular to Jharkhand to ensure higher social impact. Taking forward the head-and-heart-regime of developing business and financial models, PARFI setup a first-of-its-kind Nonprofit-Public-Private-Partnership (NPPP), PanIIT Alumni Reach for Jharkhand (PreJha) Foundation, with the state government of Jharkhand.

Mr. Ali is an invited speaker, panelist, and policy contributor in his field. He has been on Committees setup by the Advisor to the Prime Minister, a cabinet-minister ranked official responsible for skill development in the country. He was an invited panelist-cum-speaker at the 7th CII Global Skill Summit on Skill Development organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). He has contributed with policy recommendations in meetings of the National Skills Development Agency and the CII National Committee on Skill Development.

Under the leadership of Mr. Ali, PanIIT Alumni Reach for India Foundation has been recognized by many for its efforts towards the skill development of underprivileged sections. Some of the recognitions/ awards include: ‘Jharkhand Samman’, highest state award, for skill development (2018) and it has been featured in a National Geographic documentary, commissioned by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (2018), titled ‘India’s Mega Workforce’; the rural skill gurukul program in ‘Innovations that changed Rural Lives’ – Rural Innovation Fund success stories compendium, along with appreciation from the Swiss Development Corporation by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD); awarded as the ‘Most Promising Partner’ at a National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) Partners’ Meet (2014) and Planning Commission documented the work of PARFI as a success story (2013) and recommended scale-up across all naxal-affected districts in the country.

Some of the prominent achievements of PARFI include: Placed more than 25,000 youth post skilling programs from various states (100% from below-poverty-line, more than 95% from affirmative sections, More than 75% from naxal-affected regions of the country, more than 98% school dropouts, and more than Rs.200 Cr per annum additional income created for youth trained thus far); Setup capacity to train and place 10,000 candidates per annum currently across various states; Operates the largest chain of Nursing Colleges in the country, through its subsidiary, with current training capacity of close to 2000 concurrent Auxiliary Nursing Midwifery (ANM) nurses across eight Nursing Kaushal Colleges; raised funding of more than Rs. 250 Cr, including land and building, from various corporates, developmental agencies, trusts, and governments to create social infrastructure platform for delivering employment-linked skill development programs; and raised funds (Rs.24Cr) from NSDC in 2013; Raised funds (~Rs.6Cr) from NABARD for bringing financing, for the first time to skilling at the bottom-of-the-pyramid in 2010 and Rs.5Cr in another lot was sanctioned through NABFINS, a NABARD subsidiary in 2015.

At the 15th Foundation Day of ISB Hyderabad in 2017, the institute released a Coffee Table Book ‘ISB Portraits’ that captured the leadership and drive of its alumni in their careers. Mr. Ali was chosen as one among the top-1% of “movers-and-shakers among alumni who are making their mark in the world today as business leaders”, to quote from the book. Mr. Ali was also on the Dean’s Merit List at ISB.