A STAR IS BORN
29th January 2003

Karachi, Pakistan – A country of 140 Million, 17,000 enterprises, 50+ insurance companies, Pakistan boasts a population of 17 actuaries, a handful of associates and 30 odd students. As of 28th January 2002, four firms of consulting actuaries in Pakistan employed a fairly large percentage of these remarkable individuals. The day after, this key statistic changed and Alchemy Consulting was born.

Founded by a maverick actuary, Alchemy is inspired by the ancient art of turning inexpensive metals into gold. According to Jawwad Ahmed Farid, Managing Director at Alchemy, "Ideas are as common as lead, turning them into gold is a delicate process, mastered by few. We think of ourselves as actuaries operating at the intersection of insurance, financial services, marketing, systems and cutting edge business thinking. Even though there is work being done on the actuarial side, product development in this region is wide open for unconventional thinkers. Given our non-traditional background we believe we can add value for our customers as product managers and actuaries; responsible for end to end delivery -- concept to commercial reality".

Jawwad is not exactly new to the local actuarial scene. He started ten years ago as an Asst. Manager at Sidat Hyder Morshed Associate’s (SHMA) Actuarial Practice. It was at SHMA where the foundation of his non-traditional background was laid. Over a period of five years he worked on a wide range of domestic and international assignments. He left SHMA to join the accelerated MBA program at Columbia Business School and spent the next few years working with startups in the US.

When asked about his interest in product management, Jawwad said, "The common theme in my career has been product development work, first on the employee benefit side, then BackOffice, then systems, e-education and financial services. Of all the ventures that I have worked with as an employee, consultant, customer, vendor, owner, investor, student, mentor and innocent bystander, product management has consistently made the difference between success and failure. Why? Product management succeeds because it addresses multi dimensional problems with multi dimensional solutions".

Alchemy Associates is a boutique risk management and actuarial consulting firm with 20 employees and a growing portfolio of blue chip customers in Pakistan and Middle East.

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For additional information about the firm, please contact:

Jawwad Farid/Mujtaba Iqbal
Alchemy Associates
103 – 104 Amber Estate
Main Shahrah-e-Faisal, Karachi 75350, Pakistan
Tel: +92 21 4535712
Fax: +92 21 4546291
Email: jawwad@alchemya.com, mujtaba@alchemya.com
Website: http://www.alchemya.com

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