CFO & Board Secretary, AlFadhili Field Housing for Real Estate Development
Inspired: I started my journey with ACCA in 2000. I still remember when my elder brother brought home an ACCA brochure given to him by one of his students, something attracted me to it and i felt i could add an international qualification to my education. At that time, in Pakistan, it was considered as a side qualification, and very few people knew about it. However, when I started doing my research on ACCA, I came to know that it is a very prestigious qualification globally recognised especially in the UK, Europe, and Africa. In Asia and the Middle East, it has recently started getting introduced in the market, and the response has been impressive. I decided to go for ACCA mainly because it is a globally recognised qualification, and it meets all the standard of a leading chartered accountancy qualifications like ICAEW, ICAP, etc. When I got my first job in EY Jeddah, it was all because I had the ACCA qualification.
Career Journey: I started my audit training as an Audit Associate in KPMG Karachi in 2003. I worked there for 10 months before I joined EY Jeddah as an Audit Associate in 2004. I progressed rapidly through 7 designations and became Senior Audit Manager in 9 years. In 2014, I left EY and joined King Abdullah Port as a Senior Finance Manager, where I was leading the Budgeting, controlling, and reporting. In 2018, I got an opportunity to join AlFadhili Field Housing as a Chief Financial Officer, a construction and facility management company jointly owned by MASIC (Muhammad I. Alsubeaei & Sons Investment Company) and ARAMCO.
Highs and Lows: Definitely, every professional has lots of high and low moments in their life, but one thing that always helps me is my ACCA qualification. I still remember while working in EY, in order to be eligible for promotion to Manager, apart from an excellent client service record, a global qualification is one of the requirements, and ACCA is one of the acceptable qualifications.
Community Connection: As I am in Saudi Arabia since 2014, there were very limited activities conducted by ACCA. However, I was actively involved in arranging CPD events for almost 10 years for Pakistan Accountant Forum, Jeddah.