usa-team
A team with a passion to educate underprivileged children
Board of Directors

Arif Gafur, President

Arif Gafur, President

Houston
Mr. Arif Gafur has been a member of the Board since 2013 and presently serves as the President. Prior to his current role, he had served as the CEO from 2014 to 2018. Under his leadership, TCF-USA continues to grow every day.

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Mr. Gafur is a Professional Engineer (PE) and has worked for major oil companies on senior leadership positions. In addition to this, as a volunteer community organizer he has been successful in mobilizing Houston’s local communities to participate in the American political process and elections. Mr. Gafur has a Master of Science in Engineering from University of Texas. He and his wife, Najma, have two boys and live in Houston. His wife also serves TCF in her own capacity.

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Haji Mody, Secretary

Haji Mody, Secretary

Dallas
Mr. Haji Vali Mody has been on the board since 2014. He currently serves as the Secretary. He is also one of the founding members of TCF-USA Dallas Chapter.
Mr. Mody is the president of a hardware distribution business in Dallas-Fort Worth. Before starting his own business in 1991,

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Mr. Mody worked for Greyhound as the Director of Accounting.
He also volunteers at the mosque in Richardson, participating in various inter-faith activities.
Mr. Mody has an MBA in International Business from University of Dallas and a Bachelor’s degree from University of Karachi. Mr. Mody and his wife, Jane, live in Dallas and have two children.

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Faraz (Farri) Khan, Treasurer

Faraz (Farri) Khan, Treasurer

San Francisco / Austin
Ms. Faraz Khan has been serving as the Treasurer of TCF-USA since 2014. Moreover, as one of the founders of TCF-USA Austin Chapter, she has been a strong advocate of the cause in the community.
Ms. Khan is currently the Chief Accounting Officer of University of California San Francisco Health.

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Prior to this, she had been working as Chief Financial Officer for Universal Healthcare Services (UHS) in South Texas. Ms. Khan has also served as Vice President Finance at Seton Healthcare Family in Austin for 11 years.
She has an MBA in Finance from W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University and is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

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Abdullah Jafri, Director

Abdullah Jafri, Director

Houston
Mr. Abdullah Jafri serves as the Chairman of Outreach & Fundraising Committee of TCF-USA in addition to his role as a Board Member since 2012.
After spending approximately four decades in commercial aviation, he retired in 1998 from the position of President and CEO of Skyways International, Inc., a company that operated large corporate jets.

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Mr. Jafari has also been involved in various humanitarian causes. In the past, he has served as the President and CEO of Shifa Healthcare and Community Services USA, Inc., a non-profit organization.
He has also served on the board and as secretary of SIUT North America, Inc., benefiting the Sind Institute of Urology and Transplantation in Karachi. Moreover, he was a member of Daya’s advisory board, an organization that serves South Asian victims of domestic or sexual violence in Houston. Mr. Jafari is also a member of the Houston Rotary Club.
He is married to Anjum Jafari who in her own right brings a lot of strength to TCF-USA. Mr. Jafari was an active sportsman and played cricket representing Karachi and Pakistan International Airline teams in first class cricket.

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Azhar Hameed, Director

Azhar Hameed, Director

Los Angeles
Mr. Azhar Hameed leads the TCF-USA Los Angeles Chapter. Since his association with the board in 2017, Mr. Hameed brought with him not only the proverbial entrepreneurial energy but also the discipline and experience required to help build projects from the ground up and scale them to global heights.

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Mr. Hameed is a serial entrepreneur whose last company, GfKEtilize, is now part of one of the world’s largest market research company, GfK, based in Nuremberg, Germany. He is also a well-respected social activist and philanthropist.
Mr. Hameed is trained in the fields of Computer Science from University of Oklahoma and Business Management from the Anderson School, University of California, Los Angeles. An avid golfer, he has represented Pakistani Golfers Group as a team captain and organizer.

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Amjad Noorani, Director

Amjad Noorani, Director

San Francisco
Mr. Amjad Noorani had been serving as the Secretary of the Board from 2016 to 2019. He has been associated with TCF since 1999, and has served on leadership positions in TCF-USA since 2004.
Mr. Noorani is a retired physical therapist and safety consultant. He operated a clinical practice in California from 1971 to 1999, and has served on boards and committees of professional and non-profit organizations at the local, state and national level.

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He completed his education at the School of Physiotherapy, University of Karachi in 1969. His personal interests include hiking, music, tennis, photography and gardening. He and his wife, Najma, live in Los Altos, California. His wife is also an active supporter of TCF-USA.

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Jawaid Ekram, Director

Jawaid Ekram, Director

Seattle
Mr. Jawaid Ekram has been a board member since 2013. He is also the founder of the Seattle Chapter, and under his leadership, the Seattle Chapter, along with the community, has built and continues to support over 30+ schools.
Mr. Ekram is a Cloud Computing industry veteran and an entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in engineering and operations of large-scale systems. He is the co-founder of Uhuru Software, a services company.

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He is also on the Board of Entrust Technology. Moreover, he has served asthe General Manager at Microsoft, responsible for Global Foundations Services (Data Center) and Live Meeting Services (SaaS). Prior to this, Jawaid was Chief Information Officer/Vice President Services at Placeware. He also served as Senior Vice President at Visa International for 5 years, responsible for global engineering and operations. During his time at United Airlines, he was instrumental in the development of Apollo, one of the largest global airline distribution systems. He is on the Board of Entrust Technology. Mr. Ekram holds an MS degree in Computer Science from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). His passion is to provide education to underprivileged children, so that they may have equal opportunities in life.

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Shimmi Kidwai, Director

Shimmi Kidwai, Director

Washington, DC
Ms. Shimmi Kidwai has been a board member since 2018. She is also the founder of TCF-USA Washington, DC Chapter, and with the support of DC community, has been instrumental in building over 26 schools. In addition to this, she has offered valuable leadership since the inception of TCF-USA, and has been active in raising awareness and funds for the cause.

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Ms. Kidwai also serves on the board of Friends of Pakistan Club (FOP) and American Pakistani Women’s Association (APWA). She also supports a number of American and Pakistani charities. Her dedication stems from her belief that quality education for the poor is the best solution for Pakistan’s many challenges.

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Ejaz A. Shameem, Director

Ejaz A. Shameem, Director

Chicago
Mr. Ejaz Shameem has been serving on the Board of TCF-USA since 2017. He also heads the Chicago chapter and has played a significant role in strengthening its activities.
Currently, he is Senior Vice President and Director of the Energy Business Consulting group, where he is responsible for the overall management and direction of the group’s various global engagements.

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He has 15 years of experience in the nuclear power industry, including seven years in Seoul, Korea as part of a technology transfer initiative with KEPCO. He is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in the states of Arizona, Illinois and Michigan.
Mr. Shameem is dedicated to the cause of education. He contributes towards building schools through TCF and also funds a University of Illinois Foundation scholarship for deserving engineering students.

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Kashmala Sharif, Director

Kashmala Sharif, Director

New York
Kashmala became part of the board in 2018. She has been involved with TCF-USA’s efforts in New York since 2009.
She currently serves as the Co-Head of the New York chapter which has been a critical pillar for the growth of TCF-USA. Kashmala holds a LLB from the University of Buckingham (UK) and a LLM from the Cardozo School of Law.
Haroon Ismail, Director

Haroon Ismail, Director

New York
Mr. Haroon Ismail became a part of the board in 2019. He has been involved with TCF-USA’s efforts in South Florida and New York. He currently serves as the Co-Head of the TCF Young Professionals New York chapter, which he co-founded in 2015 to foster engagement among the NYC-based professional community. Till date, over 1,000 members from the community have already become a part of the movement.

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Mr. Ismail is the Vice President of AEA Investors, a global private equity firm with over $15 billion in assets under management. At AEA, Mr. Ismail specializes in investments in the industrial and business services sectors. In the past, he has managed four of the firm’s investments and presently serves as a board observer involved with several strategic initiatives.
Prior to AEA, Mr. Ismail was an investment banker at Morgan Stanley. He graduated from the Stern School of Business, New York University with a BS in Finance and Accounting and a minor in Politics.

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Barbara Janes, Director

Barbara Janes, Director

Chicago
Ms. Barbara Janes has been serving on the board since 2010.
She was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Peshawar in the early 1960s. Friends of Pakistan USA, a community formed by Barbara and her former Peace Corps colleagues has been raising funds to support different TCF projects like student scholarships. Ms. Barbara also visited Pakistan in 2007 to conduct TCF teachers’ training workshops in Karachi and Lahore. In 2009, Barbara worked alongside TCF teachers to organize summer science camps.


Advisors to the Board

Zarrar Sehgal, Advisor

Zarrar Sehgal, Advisor

New York
Mr. Zarrar Sehgal had served on the board for a decade, from 2008 to 2018. As a board member, he also served as the President from 2010 to 2018. At present he contributes as an advisor to the board.
Mr. Sehgal is an attorney. He is a partner in Clifford Chance’s US Finance and Restructuring Group and Co-Head of the Asset Finance Practice.

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Mr. Sehgal is also head of Clifford Chance’s Global Transport & Logistics sector group. He has extensive experience representing underwriters, lenders, lessors, and governmental agencies in a wide variety of asset finance transactions. Mr. Sehgal was named as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. He was also recognized by Chambers USA in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.

He received his Juris Doctor (JD) degree from Georgetown University Law Center and his undergraduate degree from Boston University.

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Azher Khan, Advisor

Azher Khan, Advisor

Indianapolis
Mr. Azher Khan had served on the board from 2008 to 2018, and currently serves as an advisor to the board.
Mr. Khan is the President of Calderon Textiles Inc., established in 1983 in Indianapolis. Mr. Khan has also been serving as a Treasurer at Al-Fajr Masjid for the past 24 years. He is also the Treasurer of Muslim Alliance of Indiana and the President of Seeds of Learning, a non-profit dedicated to building goodwill, friendship, peace and tolerance between the people of Pakistan and America through education.

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A native of Karachi, Pakistan, Mr. Khan came to the United States in 1972. He earned a Bachelor’s in International Relations from the University of Mankato, Minnesota in1975 and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the American University, Washington, DC in 1979. Mr. Khan and his wife, Pinky, have three children.

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TCF-USA Management

Danial Noorani, Founder

Danial Noorani, Founder

Chicago
Mr. Danial Noorani founded TCF-USA in May 2002 and served as President till 2008. Mr. Noorani was then appointed as the CEO and managed the organization in that capacity until March 2015.

Mr. Noorani also served as President and member of the Board of ‘Apna Ghar’ (Our Home), a twenty five year old agency for domestic violence survivors in Chicago.

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Mr. Noorani worked at AT&T for 26 years, where he took a leading role in the efforts to introduce competition in the Telecommunications industry. He co-chaired the Illinois Commerce Commission workshop that set the national guidelines for competition in local phone service. He represented AT&T at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and several other state utility commissions.

Mr. Noorani has an MBA from Western Illinois University and a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce and Economics from University of Karachi. Mr. Noorani and his wife, Karen, have three children and live in Roselle, Illinois.

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