Arshad Haji Ebrahim Mirza - A Memon with A BANK.

Mr Mirza is the Founder of a

1) NBFC fintech company offering ethical finance www.assetify.in

2) India’s first Zakat Crowdfunding Platform www.indiazakat.com

Arshad Haji Ebrahim Mirza, is an entrepreneur and is a senior professional with over 18 years of Information technology experience in Insurance, Banking & Financial industry

Arshad Mirza was born in Akola, Maharashtra state in a well-known Memon family. His father, Haji Ebrahim Mirza (Gondwala) is a prominent businessmen and a personality known in all the communities. He is youngest in the 4 siblings in his family of 3 brothers and 1 sister.

He did his schooling until 12th Standard in Akola and then went on to complete his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical engineering (B.E Mech) in 2001 from Amravati, Maharashtra.

From his schooling days and during engineering he contributed to his family businesses without compromising his studies, he was an average student in studies, but he was also known as very sincere and responsible by his parents, siblings, and his friends. Despite of spending most of his time supporting family businesses he was keen in doing his studies and constantly used to take advice for studying in best possible manner from his mentors and seniors known to him.

After completing his engineering in 2001, he pursued his further studies in IT in Pune. He did his post-graduation studies at India’s premier C-DAC institute at Pune University for around a year and started his IT career in 2002 in Mumbai. But he resigned from his career’s first job in less than six months due to his parents wish to stay with them in Akola, his passion continued in IT and he started coaching in software languages to Engineering and BSC students. He rejected many opportunities in IT and followed his father’s wish to stay with him, but finally, his brother-in-law Mr. Arshad Memon insisted, and Mr. Arshad Mirza got permission from his Father to move to Pune. He resumed his career with an IT company in 2003.

He moved to US in 2006 by his company to work with a global Insurance client MetLife in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He ended his long-term US assignment within a year again due to family reasons and returned to Pune in 2007. In his one-year US assignment he received Individual Excellence Award for selected US employees in his company. Due to his exceptional technology and client handling skills, his company moved him to Zurich, Switzerland in late 2007 to work with Credit Suisse, the 2nd largest bank of Switzerland. Thereafter, Arshad Mirza worked in senior management positions in a span of 14 years at Credit Suisse and UBS, the largest banks of Switzerland.

Achievements - Being a Memon, Arshad Mirza always strived in leveraging his professional skills to his entrepreneurial journey. In 2017, he co-founded a NBFC fintech company registered with RBI offering ethical Car Finance through digital platform www.assetify.in (formerly called as www.ecarworld.in).

He loves playing chess and badminton. He tries to maintain his reading habits and a daily short fitness routine at gym.

Mr. Arshad Mirza gives the credit of all he achieved in his personal and professional life to his parents and his brothers and family and most importantly that of his brother in law Mr. Arshad Haji Dawood Memon (Vaiwala) and his Sister Mrs. Rozina Arshad Memon in Pune. His wife Mrs. Ayesha Mirza stood always supporting in all his decisions in his corporate career and his entrepreneurial journey. Mrs. Ayesha Mirza and their two daughters always enabled him to focus on his bigger ambitions.

He also conducts skill development lectures and seminars guiding the graduating students and gives career counseling advice to the young aspirants. He is a Chapter Head of Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP) in Switzerland. He is also an active member of Pune Memon Organization in Pune.

Mr. Arshad Mirza - Director - ECW Consultants Pvt Ltd, encouraged the participants to study the various models of Zakat Collection and Distribution as practiced in Islamic as well as non-Islamic countries like Malaysia, Indonesia etc.

Arshad also wanted to use his experience and skills for the betterment of society. With that goal in his mind, he did intense domain and technical research for nearly 3 years in Zakat management approach followed by many countries around the world. With a clear concept and roadmap, he finally founded India’s first digital Zakat crowd funding platform called www.indiazakat.com - A decentralized zakat management and distribution platform for enabling Zakat donors to donate directly to the desired causes. The platform was launched on the day of Ramadan 24th April 2020 with the support of likeminded professionals from AMP team and in a year time it managed to clock 14,000+ donations of worth Rupees 4.6 cores of Zakat that directly went to their respective causes in their categories like Education, Healthcare, Livelihood support, Relief funds.

He is a staunch supporter of education and believes learning and acquiring skills have no age limit. He endorses everyone in his family and friends to take best of the available education and skills of today. Education does not mean only for employment, but it benefits in taking family business to the next levels and to become successful entrepreneur. As a society we must encourage youngsters from their childhood to dream big and work for the long-term goals. It is a responsibility of every parent and every member of the community.

His advice to the Memon Youth who are in their 20s.

1. Have a bigger vision, long-term goals and set you priorities accordingly

2. Take risks and bold steps and strive to achieve by going out of comfort zone

3. Work hard but work smart without compromising to honesty and ethics

4. Spend daily time judiciously and only in the good and productive things.

5. Be a person of benefits to the society and for the society.

Mr. Arshad Mirza is from Pune, Maharashtra is reachable anytime on his email: mirza.arshad@gmail.com and mobile number: +91 9881136742 and +41 7624 777 34, Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/arshad-mirza-16711b33/

KYC (Know Your Community), is a series of stories on various Memon Individuals & Organizations established in India & abroad highlighting their contributions for welfare & upliftment of society & Memon community across the Globe.