Shahid is an Award winning British-Pakistani entrepreneur and philanthropist, and one of Surrey’s best known business leaders whose success has been down to hard work, and a philosophy of doing business in the right and ethical way.
Perhaps a combination of his Muslim beliefs and the hard introduction to Britain he faced at the time of Skinheads and the BNP movement, helped shape his no nonsense character and his desire to become the success that he is today. In addition to a string of successful businesses, he has also been named one of the Top 100 most influential Muslims in the UK and was also named Asian Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006/07.
Shahid’s story is a true rag to riches tale, having come over to England from Pakistan aged 10 unable to speak any English. Within a year his entrepreneurial flair saw him lending money to his classmates, and a love of football took over his life, eventually leaving school with no qualifications, but as a youth team player on the books of a professional club, and one of the countries first Asian footballers.
Unfortunately, the Football career was short-lived after suffering a severe leg break which once against tested his strength desire to succeed. He soon carved a career for himself in IT, before spotting a gap in the PC market, setting up a business which grew to have offices in 6 countries, turning over in excess of £80 million. However in 2006, he sold his company and decided to take 18 months out of the business world to focus more on working for good causes and charities, a vocation that he’s pursued throughout his life, donating money, and more importantly his time to numerous good causes at home and abroad.
During his time away from the boardroom he became involved in a number of charities and community projects as well as trying his hand at television work, appearing on the Channel 4 programme, Millionaires’ Mission last autumn. The four part series set in Uganda, together in conjunction with charity group World Vision, saw Shahid as one of eight successful British business leaders that were tasked with applying their business skills to tackle the seemingly intractable issue of poverty and improve the living standards of a remote farming community to build sustainable incomes. From his charity work in his native Pakistan, Shahid was able to observe the same issues of corruption and bureaucracy that plights charity workers lives when trying to help developing countries the world over regardless of language, religion or ethnicity.
In addition to this he was also invited by The University of Surrey to become its first non-academic Visiting Fellow, a role for him to help realise the groundbreaking Inter Faith Education Programme, to bring students from diverse religious and spiritual identities closer together to study in one unique building, a first in the UK. Shahid is also involved with Jubilee Action, a children’s human rights organisation, where he was "Charity Champion of the Year", as well as picking up his passion for football again taking on the role of Chairman for Guildford City Football club. A team, who under his stewardship are soon to have a new permanent stadium and currently lying second in the league.
The sporting association doesn’t end there, Shahid has represented England at Squash in the ‘VET GB Squad’s’ section, and also has two famous sporting nephews, the England cricketer Sajid Mahmood and British boxer Amir Khan.
In 2008, now back at the helm of two companies, one in IT, the other in Telecoms, Shahid still finds time to pursue his charity work, and is still heavily involved in the Rotary Club and a number of local charities. He has also recently been appointed as Chairman to the Woking Asian Business Forum where he is a role model, motivator and mentor for young Asian men and women to inspire them to start up their own businesses, much as he did when he first started out - after all Shahid’s motto through work and life has always been ‘treat others as you would want them to treat you, no matter what age, religion or wealth’.
Perhaps a combination of his Muslim beliefs and the hard introduction to Britain he faced at the time of Skinheads and the BNP movement, helped shape his no nonsense character and his desire to become the success that he is today. In addition to a string of successful businesses, he has also been named one of the Top 100 most influential Muslims in the UK and was also named Asian Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006/07.
Shahid’s story is a true rag to riches tale, having come over to England from Pakistan aged 10 unable to speak any English. Within a year his entrepreneurial flair saw him lending money to his classmates, and a love of football took over his life, eventually leaving school with no qualifications, but as a youth team player on the books of a professional club, and one of the countries first Asian footballers.
Unfortunately, the Football career was short-lived after suffering a severe leg break which once against tested his strength desire to succeed. He soon carved a career for himself in IT, before spotting a gap in the PC market, setting up a business which grew to have offices in 6 countries, turning over in excess of £80 million. However in 2006, he sold his company and decided to take 18 months out of the business world to focus more on working for good causes and charities, a vocation that he’s pursued throughout his life, donating money, and more importantly his time to numerous good causes at home and abroad.
During his time away from the boardroom he became involved in a number of charities and community projects as well as trying his hand at television work, appearing on the Channel 4 programme, Millionaires’ Mission last autumn. The four part series set in Uganda, together in conjunction with charity group World Vision, saw Shahid as one of eight successful British business leaders that were tasked with applying their business skills to tackle the seemingly intractable issue of poverty and improve the living standards of a remote farming community to build sustainable incomes. From his charity work in his native Pakistan, Shahid was able to observe the same issues of corruption and bureaucracy that plights charity workers lives when trying to help developing countries the world over regardless of language, religion or ethnicity.
In addition to this he was also invited by The University of Surrey to become its first non-academic Visiting Fellow, a role for him to help realise the groundbreaking Inter Faith Education Programme, to bring students from diverse religious and spiritual identities closer together to study in one unique building, a first in the UK. Shahid is also involved with Jubilee Action, a children’s human rights organisation, where he was "Charity Champion of the Year", as well as picking up his passion for football again taking on the role of Chairman for Guildford City Football club. A team, who under his stewardship are soon to have a new permanent stadium and currently lying second in the league.
The sporting association doesn’t end there, Shahid has represented England at Squash in the ‘VET GB Squad’s’ section, and also has two famous sporting nephews, the England cricketer Sajid Mahmood and British boxer Amir Khan.
In 2008, now back at the helm of two companies, one in IT, the other in Telecoms, Shahid still finds time to pursue his charity work, and is still heavily involved in the Rotary Club and a number of local charities. He has also recently been appointed as Chairman to the Woking Asian Business Forum where he is a role model, motivator and mentor for young Asian men and women to inspire them to start up their own businesses, much as he did when he first started out - after all Shahid’s motto through work and life has always been ‘treat others as you would want them to treat you, no matter what age, religion or wealth’.
Named one of the Top 100 most influential Muslims in the UK, Shahid’s story is a true rag-to-riches tale. Leaving school with no qualifications he has run a string of multi-million pound businesses, was named the Asian Entrepreneur of 2006 and was star of Channel 4’s Millionaire’s Mission. Shahid is a straight talking businessman who is heavily involved with charities both at home and abroad.
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