Ajaz Khowaj Quoram Ahmed [1] | |
|---|---|
 Ahmed in 2015 | |
| Born | 1973 (age 51–52) |
| Nationality | British [2] |
| Occupation | CEO |
| Years active | 1994–present |
| Board member of | AKQA (1994–2024) [3] Elton John AIDS Foundation [4] Virgin Unite [5] Mental Health Innovations [6] Prism The Gift Fund [7] |
| Parents | |
| Website | www |
Ajaz Khowaj Quoram Ahmed, MBE (born 1973) is a British entrepreneur. He is best known as the founder and CEO of London-based new media company AKQA.
Ahmed was born in Taplow, Buckinghamshire [2] in 1973 [9] to parents from Punjab, India. [9] He grew up in Maidenhead, where his father, Khowaj Ahmed, worked at a Beechams factory, and his mother, Sughran Ahmed, worked at a hospital launderette. [8] [9]
While in school, Ahmed was a paperboy and delivered newspapers to the UK headquarters of what was then the world's third-largest software company, Ashton-Tate. He wrote to the company requesting a job, and at 15, received an offer to work there during school holidays. [9] From 1989 to 1991, Ahmed served in the marketing department and eventually as a programmer. [10] He used the company's dBASE software to author an improved financial system for purchase orders. [9]
In addition to working for Ashton-Tate as a teen, Ahmed worked for video game developer Ocean Software. [9] He left school in 1992, and for the next year, he was a marketing and public relations employee for Apple UK. [11] [10] He turned down a copywriting position at BBDO and a brand management position at Unilever [10] to begin a business studies degree at the University of Bath. [9]
In 1994, Ahmed decided to leave university and launch a multimedia agency. [10] There was a high level of interest in the World Wide Web at the time, and he felt that it was crucial to start a company right away. [10] He first undertook a "fact-finding" trip to the U.S. to find out how companies were using the Internet. [10] Following this, at the age of 21, he founded AKQA, named after his initials. [9] [12]
Ahmed led the company as its CEO and public face, [9] and by 1999, it was ranked as the largest independent new media agency in the UK. [13] The company received an investment of $71 million from Accenture in 2001, and merged with three agencies in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Singapore, establishing itself as an international agency. [14] [15] WPP acquired a majority stake in the agency in 2012, with the deal valuing AKQA at $540 million. [9] AKQA became an autonomous subsidiary of WPP. [15] In November 2020, WPP announced that Grey Group would merge with AKQA to form AKQA Group. [16] Thirty years after founding AKQA, Ajaz Ahmed resigned as CEO of AKQA Group on 17 Oct 2024. [17] [18] [19]
On 1 May 2025, Ahmed launched a new marketing agency, Studio.One. [20] [21] [22]
Ahmed was appointed Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2018 Birthday Honours for services to Media. [23] [24] Later that same year, he was awarded an honorary degree as Doctor of Business Administration from the University of Bath. [25]
Ahmed has authored three books, as of 2021: Velocity (2012), [26] Limitless (2015), [8] and Defeat (2019). [27] Velocity was co-authored by Nike's former vice president of digital sport Stefan Olander, and discusses how companies should embrace the digital world. [26] The book was a UK bestseller in non-fiction. [28] Ahmed has stepped down as CEO at AKQA and now serves on the board of trustees for non-profit organizations including the Elton John AIDS Foundation, [4] Virgin Unite, [5] and The Royal Foundation's Mental Health Innovations. [6]