Former Ballard boss embraces unpaid challenge
WENDY STUECK
Monday, January 08, 2007
VANCOUVER — Almost a year into his new, unpaid job as president of the Aga Khan University in Pakistan, Firoz Rasul is working flat out to expand the secular institution’s reach through programs in Africa, Afghanistan, Syria and Egypt.
That mandate sees the former Ballard Power Systems Inc. chief executive officer tapping a deep network of contacts, including Canadian medical and technology specialists who are donating their time and expertise to AKU projects, and working with Canadian universities on initiatives such as AIDS research.
He’s also involved with a project that has seen a group of Calgary residents, led by retired natural gas entrepreneur Jim Gray, raise millions for an AKU-run teacher training program that launches this week in Tanzania.
It’s a lot to do at once, concedes Mr. Rasul, 55, who’s also dealing with the culture shock of moving from Vancouver’s rainy climate to the dust and heat of Karachi — not to mention Pakistan’s complex web of ethnic and religious identities.
But as in business, one has to seize opportunities when they arise.
“There are windows that have opened up,” Mr. Rasul said in Vancouver, where he lived for almost 30 years before moving to Karachi last spring. “They [governments] recognize we don’t have an agenda, that we come in to assist. Syria and Egypt and Africa — they are all looking to create capacity.
“Those windows are open now, but things can change very quickly. Governments can change, policies can change. That is why we are moving on multiple fronts.”
Mr. Rasul, who resigned from Ballard in 2003, was named to his post last year, charged with overseeing the university’s expansion, bolstering research, and developing new sources of revenue.
Founded in 1980 by the Aga Khan, spiritual leader for the world’s Ismaili Muslims, the AKU was the first private university in Pakistan. It began with a nursing program and subsequently added a medical school, teacher training and a hospital. It also expanded to east Africa. Although relatively small — total enrolment is about 2,000 students, about 25 per cent of them in Africa — the institution has a broad reach, with many nursing and medical graduates going abroad to work or study and its programs having ripple effects in their respective regions.
It was that reach that attracted Mr. Gray, now 72 and in what he prefers to call the “renewal” rather than “retirement” stage of his career. The former chairman of Canadian Hunter Exploration Ltd., sold in 2001, Mr. Gray says 9/11 prompted him to look for ways of extending philanthropy outside of Canada. He then began looking for partners that could help.
“I look at it as the horse and jockey setup, where the horse is the project and the jockey is the [non-governmental organization] that’s behind it. Again and again, the path led to the Aga Khan organization,” Mr. Gray says, referring to the university and the related Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN).
Mr. Gray first travelled to Pakistan in 2004 and was bowled over by the AKU’s teacher training program in Karachi. Told that the AKU wanted to replicate the program in Africa, he helped develop a business plan that called for $25-million over five years and envisioned training teachers and administrators to educate the next generation.
Behind the program, Mr. Gray says, is the belief that “education is at the root of long-term stability.”
Mr. Gray has committed to raise $5-million, the Canadian government has agreed to chip in $5-million and the remaining $15-million is to come from the AKDN. The first students begin the program in Dar es Salaam this week.
Mr. Rasul hopes to see more co-operation between the AKU and private-sector and business groups. In the meantime, he’s reaching out to his own contacts, within and outside the Ismaili community.
Take Nizar Huddani: The Calgary-based IT security and infrastructure specialist ran a company for 20 years before selling it in the summer of 2005. After winding up the sale, he and his wife took a vacation in Kenya, where they ran into Mr. Rasul.
The two men had met before, as Mr. Huddani’s company had done work for Ballard. It didn’t take long before Mr. Rasul was outlining the AKU’s plans and asking Mr. Huddani whether he’d be willing to help.
Mr. Huddani agreed, and last year spent six weeks in Pakistan, where he assessed technology infrastructure for AKU facilities in Karachi and Nairobi, donating his time. He expects to go back again and would encourage others to do the same.
“It was an opportunity you couldn’t say no to,” Mr. Huddani says. “It was working in an area that I know, that I specialize in, and it’s an opportunity to give back.”
Ismailimail 