It all began on July 30, 1978 in the small city of Peshawar, Pakistan - I was born! As the first baby, I got a lot of attention, but that ended soon after my sister Fatima came along :). Peshawar is a beautiful city, and after spending 10 years of my life there, we moved to Karachi. The big city life in Karachi is a different kind of fun, to be sure it was a huge change from the simplicity and natural beauty of Peshawar, but the beach, the activity, and of course, lots of family and cousins made it an enjoyable time. So there I was, having a grand 'ol time till my father's job took us to Bangkok, Thailand. Once again we packed our bags, but this time made our way to a completely different part of the world. Other than the climate - nothing was similar to Karachi! After my initial cultural shock, I quickly got involved in school activities and experienced many friends from all backgrounds. I attended the International School Bangkok, where I completed my high school education.
University education took me to Chicago, Illinois, and in 1995 I was ready for the dorms of the university the students call Illinois Tech. This time, however, only I was packing the bags. Bidding farewell to my family, I opened a new chapter in my life. In addition to learning how to do my laundry, university taught me other valuable things. I met some of my closest friends, and had some of the best professors who spawned my interest in various subjects. After graduating from IIT, I stayed in Chicago for another 2 years before moving to Orange County, California. In July of 2001, I got married to Asma Ahmad, and in October of 2005, we had our son, Ibrahim.
I hardly get a chance to update my web site anymore, but I try to keep it current when possible. Here are some photographs. To contact me, check out my contact information. More about me follows!
Religion: I have a deep belief in God and am thankful to Him for all that He has given me. As Muslims we believe that Islam is a way of life, and should manifest itself in everything that we do, even things like eating, working, sleeping, or studying. I try to go by this philosophy and am constantly striving to make myself a better person, for one should always strive for perfection of the soul. Asma and I do our best to stay constant "students of knowledge", and are always trying to read books, listen to lectures on the iPod, or attend classes.
Relaxing: I really love spending time at home with Asma and Ibrahim. Playing hide-and-seek with Ibrahim, taking him to the park, or just putting him to bed can be so much fun!
Computers and Technology: I was around eight when my mother was working on her PhD. She was always using the computer and I would just sit there and watch, amazed at the things it could do. When Mummy went to the US, Pappa needed to write up a document, but he had no clue about the computer :-). So I said to Pappa, "I can do it!". I could barely contain my excitement as he gave me a doubtful look and for lack of a better alternative, gave me the document to type up. So I went up to the computer for the first time, turned it on, changed to the correct directory, and opened up a new document in Wordstar. Pappa's dubious glances changed to those of amazement as I typed up the document, saved it, and handed him a printed copy. Since then, my interest in computers just grew - to the point that I had set up my first computer network at the age of 13. Many years later, I turned this passion into a career in Information Technology. Although it is quite a change from Wordstar :-), I still love that feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment that comes with enabling people and solving challenging problems, whether it be through technology or process. I also enjoy high-tech gadgets, keeping up to date with technology, and reading blogs.
Sports: As a kid, the only games I was good at were table tennis and Carrom. But I still loved all kinds of sports. Some of my favorites include snowboarding, basketball, racquetball, squash, bicycling, and kayaking. Another game I grew to love was Snooker, a game which practically no one in the U.S. seems to have heard of :-). It is very similar to pool. I also have a passion for, and really enjoy lifting weights. Lately, I have focused my efforts on getting in shape through running.
Physics: In high school, I had an excellent Physics teacher who got me so interested in the subject that at one point in my life, I did nothing but read Physics books! Though Newtonian Physics and mechanics were fun, my favorite topics were Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity. I started by reading "A Brief History of Time", loved the book, so checked out every single book from our high school library that had anything to do with the unified theory, creation of the universe, blackholes, particle physics, or relativity. My favorite authors included John Gribbin and Stephen Hawking. Though I haven't read a Physics book in ages, I still love the subject.
My resume summary is available on the web. I have always been blessed with challenging job and career growth opportunities where I am constantly learning and benefitting from great experiences. I started doing computer/network consulting and desktop publishing work for individuals and small companies as a young teenager. From this, I grew into various helpdesk and PC support roles, and eventually gained experience in Novell, UNIX, Windows NT, Lotus, and Citrix administration. Charles Industries and Rockwell Electronic Commerce Corporation were both great places where I worked full time in environments that allowed me to increase the breadth and depth of my technical knowledge and experience. At Rockwell, as the Global Sales Office Engineer, I was responsible for the design, implementation and support of all Information Technology at all branch offices globally. I also took on a second job function and became the Senior Network Engineer.
At the end of the year 2000, I started work at Broadcom Corporation as a Senior Network Engineer and Network Team Lead. Broadcom has a very dynamic, fast-paced, and challenging IT environment, and is a VERY fun place to work! Broadcom helped me tremendously in achieving my Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE™) certification. Click here to get details on my CCIE experience. By achieving some certifications, I was profiled in the Personal Best feature of Certification Magazine in September 2001. You can see my certification transcript here.
Early on in my career at Broadcom, I made a shift from the technical track to the management track through a promotion to the Manager of Networking and Security. Over the last few years, the scope of my responsibilities has continued to increased through other promotions, and I am currently the Senior Director of IT Infrastructure.
I attended high school at International School Bangkok. After finishing two diplomas in High School, I moved to Chicago to further my education. I graduated from Illinois Institute of Technology with a major in Computer Engineering (Specialization: Software), and a minor in Management. While working on my bachelors, I also managed to finish off a year of my MBA. I am looking forward to going back to school some day soon to complete my MBA.
I thoroughly enjoyed my education at Illinois Institute of Technology. Senior year was especially fun, and I gained a LOT of practical experience. For example, In my CS-470 (Computer Architecture I) class, I designed a 4-bit general purpose microprocessor and also created an instruction set for it. In my CS-441 (Microcomputers) class, I learned and created digital circuits for computer I/O, memory, serial ports, interrupts, etc. I also wrote a simple operating system in assembly. In my CS-450 (Operating Systems) class, I learned in DETAIL how operating systems function, and how to write an operating system. In CS-487 (Software Engineering), we went through the complete software development life cycle to complete an extremely complex project.
One of my most interesting classes in university was Project Bosnia. In this class, I assisted in setting up a network which acted as a backbone for a large database storing legal information for the various cantons that are in Bosnia.
I took part in a variety of on-campus organizations, including Technews (the college newspaper), SLC (Student Leadership Committee), and SPICMACAY (Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture Amongst Youth). I was the Vice President and President of my Residence Hall Council for two years. I was also an Executive Board Member of the Residence Halls Association. I chaired the Network Alliance, a committee which was setup to help organizations communicate and coordinate activities together. I was previously the Vice President and webmaster for Pakistan Students' Association (PSA). I also acted as the Public Relations Officer for the PSA. Besides working in organizations, I tried to participate in both on and off-campus events. I was a participant in International Fest 1996 as a dancer and an assistant in the lights and sound booth. I also assisted in the creation of a stall for the fair. Then in 1997, once again I participated in the stall set-up and danced at "the Fest". I also helped organize "Cultural Show 1996" and took part in a leadership conference at the University of Wisconsin at Parkside.
My brain thrives on intellectual stimulation, I have always been inquisitive, and my thirst for knowledge is never-ending :-) This has constantly propelled me to read, and I find it unfortunate that people hardly read anymore. I used to love reading books on Physics, but I don't get time to do it anymore. In my early days at Broadcom, I spent most of my time reading computer networking and security books. Nowadays, I am into personal development, management, leadership, product management, and marketing books.
Some of my favorite fiction authors include Douglas Adams, Piers Anthony, Isaac Asimov, and Terry Prachett. One of my favorite books is The Hacker Crackdown by Bruce Sterling.
Along with reading, I also enjoy writing. So far, I have only put two of my papers on the web. Pragmatism and Science is a paper I wrote for my Theory of Knowledge class in High School. I also wrote The Institutional Survival Manual for my ENGL-423 (Communication in the Workplace) class at IIT. My publication list is available here. If you are looking for an author or technical editor, please take a look at my resume summary.