Ajaz Khowaj Quoram Ahmed [1] | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1973 (age 48–49) |
| Nationality | British [2] |
| Occupation | CEO |
| Years active | 1994–present |
| Board member of | AKQA (1994–present) Elton John AIDS Foundation [3] Virgin Unite [4] Mental Health Innovations [5] Prism The Gift Fund [6] |
| 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 [8] to parents from Punjab, India. [8] 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. [7] [8]
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. [8] From 1989 to 1991, Ahmed served in the marketing department and eventually as a programmer. [9] He used the company's dBASE software to author an improved financial system for purchase orders. [8]
In addition to working for Ashton-Tate as a teen, Ahmed worked for video game developer Ocean Software. [8] He left school in 1992, and for the next year, he was a marketing and public relations employee for Apple UK. [10] [9] He turned down a copywriting position at BBDO and a brand management position at Unilever [9] to begin a business studies degree at the University of Bath. [8]
In 1994, Ahmed decided to leave university and launch a multimedia agency. [9] 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. [9] He first undertook a "fact-finding" trip to the U.S. to find out how companies were using the Internet. [9] Following this, at the age of 21, he founded AKQA, named after his initials. [8] [11]
Ahmed led the company as its CEO and public face, [8] and by 1999, it was ranked as the largest independent new media agency in the UK. [12] 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. [13] [14] WPP acquired a majority stake in the agency in 2012, with the deal valuing AKQA at $540 million. [8] AKQA became an autonomous subsidiary of WPP. [14] In November 2020, WPP announced that Grey Group would merge with AKQA to form AKQA Group. [15]
Ahmed was appointed Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2018 Birthday Honours for services to Media. [16] [17] Later that same year, he was awarded an honorary degree as Doctor of Business Administration from the University of Bath. [18]
Ahmed has authored three books, as of 2021: Velocity (2012), [19] Limitless (2015), [7] and Defeat (2019). [20] Velocity was co-authored by Nike's former vice president of digital sport Stefan Olander, and discusses how companies should embrace the digital world. [19] The book was a UK bestseller in non-fiction. [21]
Ahmed serves on the board of trustees for non-profit organizations including the Elton John AIDS Foundation, [3] Virgin Unite, [4] and The Royal Foundation's Mental Health Innovations. [5]
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