Mr. Arif Zaman

Arif Zaman, FRSA, is Executive Director, Commonwealth Businesswomen’s Network (CBW), the only organisation focussed on women’s economic empowerment accredited and recognised by all 53 Commonwealth governments and a strategic partner of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council. He was Advisor to the Commonwealth Business Council for South Asia, Corporate Governance and Women in Business (2005-14).

He is also CEO, Riscaire providing training and advisory services on governance and reputational risk in partnership with leading firms in related areas. He is on the visiting faculty at Henley Business School, University of Reading and one of the founders of the Commonwealth Research Network on International Business (CRN-IB). He is the author of the bestselling book on Reputational Risk (Financial Times, 2004 and published in Russian, 2008), still the only international researched based publication of book length on reputational risk from a major business publisher. His recommendations on behalf of the Commonwealth Business Council led to Pakistan being the first country to include an explicit reference to reputational risk in the 2012 Code of Corporate Governance issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).

Arif is on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Commerce and Management (Review of International Business and Strategy from 2016), the Journal of Business Strategy, the India-based FOCUS: Journal of international Business and the South Korea-based International Journal of IT Business Strategy Management. In 2012-13, he served on the Drafting Panel for the new British Standard BS13500 on Delivering Effective Governance.

During 16 years at British Airways, Arif was Global Market and Industry Analyst at (1996-2005) where he won several company awards including for his contribution to BA’s Business Principles and Sustainability Policy and industry awards for his work on logistics, trade and strategy. He previously worked in HSBC’s Corporate Finance division and financial PR for Valin Pollen, one of London’s leading firms in the sector at the time and which produced the institutional shareholder video for the privatisation of British Airways. Arif was a Visiting Researcher at the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Associate Fellow at the Royal Institution of International Affairs (Chatham House) during a sabbatical from BA in 2003-04. He was Associate Director, Mosaic, HRH Prince of Wales Charities 2005-10 focused on mentoring and leadership development in the Muslim community. He is on the Board of HOPE-UK, (Health Oriented Preventive Education), the UK arm of a Karachi-based NGO that works nationally. In 2011 he received an award from former Malaysian PM Abdullah Badawi for his ‘excellent contribution in the field of public relations serving world communities.’