Azhar Rizvi in conversation with me on ITLoW

I have known Azhar Rizvi for several years. He impresses me as being a person of integrity who is committed to providing solutions. By this I don’t just mean ICT solutions.

Azhar has been involved in many different things over the years and I must admit that there have been times when I have wondered if he is not walking on thin ice, whether he is going to fall through the cracks  because he is trying to take on too much. But he has proven me wrong.

The man seems to be able to commit to a large number of projects and work with a diverse number of people at the same time to make things happen. He does not seem to understand the “can’t be done” school of thought.

I have been involved with him on the Earthquake Telemedicine Project where we worked with Intel, the Rawalpindi Medical College, the army, Dr. Aamir Matin in his capacity of the then MD PSEB, and Shahida Saleem to ensure that quick and effective assistance was provided. I remember Azhar spent Eid in Islamabad instead of in Karachi with his family because it was essential for him to coordinate the effort.

Other initiatives in which I have seen him heavily involved are the Rotary Club activities in the area of Technical Education and the DAISY initiative for the Visually Challenged which he and I worked together on. He played a larger role of course.

Azhar’s current involvement in MITEF and TAN surpass all that he has done before. I have seen how hard he and Dr. Zahir Syed have worked with companies and individuals. Their commitment is 110% and we should consider it a privilege to be able to do anything we can to assist.

In this episode of “In the Line of Wire”, Azhar tells us a little about his background, what he has done in his previous life – NCR, Unisys, then starting THK Solutions in partnership with people he respected, working on the huge HBL project and finally MITEF and the first angel fund in Pakistan – the Technology Angel Network of which he is the CEO. Let us go listen to what he had to say.