Tariq Kirmani

Soon after completing his Masters in Business Administration (MBA) Tariq Kirmani embarked upon a rewarding career, starting with a multi-national Oil Company (Caltex later Chevron Pakistan) in 1969 and worked for seven years in the United States, United Arab Emirates and Australia in different senior management positions in Marketing, Operations, and Finance. In 1991, Kirmani became the first Pakistani to be elected as a Company Director of that multi-national company.

In April 1999, he joined Pakistan State Oil (PSO) as Deputy Managing Director and went on to become the Managing Director in July 2001. He turned around this public sector organization and converted it into a customer-focused entity, by giving it a new brand image and making it profitable while aggressively competing with multi national companies like Shell and Total. Innovative marketing strategies and [...] edge IT based systems contributed to PSO’s success. This lead to an increased market share which it sustains to date owing to Kirmani’s vision and long term strategic thinking. PSO is the largest company in Pakistan with a turn over of Rs. 350 billion (US$ 6 billion) and employee strength of approximately 4000.

With PSO ‘s successful turn-around and his 36 years of multi faceted experience in the corporate sector both domestic and international, the Government of Pakistan (GoP) appointed Tariq Kirmani, as Chairman and CEO, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in April 2005. He served the airline for two years until April 2007 during which he introduced customer focus and identified and initiated implementation of programs in three key areas for improvement a) Fleet Renewal b) Employee Rationalization c) Systems & Processes through implementation of IT and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

PIA serves 62 international and domestic destinations with an annual revenue of Rs. 70 billion (US$ 1.2 billion) with the support of 18,200 employees. Tariq Kirmani has been instrumental in initiating the process of process of rightsizing the Airline with international benchmarks. Due to his personal reasons, Tariq Kirmani resigned from PIA in April 2007. In November 2007, Tariq Kirmani was elected a Director of Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC),Pakistan

Presently, Kirmani is also serving as a Director on the Boards of: Pakistan State Oil Company (PSO), Pakistan Steel (PS), Pakistan Power Infrastructure Board (PPIB), Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE), Pakistan Sports Trust (PST), Cupola Cares Foundation (CCF) and the National Academy of Performing Arts (NAFA).

Due to his personal efforts, PSO and PIA became members of the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland, and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Geneva, Switzerland.