Syed Mohsin Ahmed, CEO of the Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN), has worked in the microfinance sector for the last ten years. A qualified Management Accountant, Mr. Ahmed has taken executive courses on leadership from the Harvard Business School, a Financial Risk Management course by the Citi Foundation and Women World Banking and a diploma course on Microfinance at the Microfinance Training Program in Boulder, Colorado.

As the CEO of a network he has been involved in interacting with the government especially MoF and SBP to influence policy and promote an enabling environment for the sector. He has engaged extensively with the donors and investor community through road shows and one on one interaction with a purpose to pitch Pakistan as an attractive investment for social and commercial investors, both from domestic and international markets. Mohsin was involved in developing a strategy for growth with the State Bank of Pakistan (The central Bank) that was approved by the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Mohsin is leading a well reputed country level network that was declared as best network for the year 2010. He sits on the Board of South Asia Microfinance Network and has recently been elected as Chairman of the BoD’s of SAMN.

Mr. Ahmed has been involved in guiding the PMN financial transparency initiative and developing performance measures and benchmarks for the microfinance industry. He was instrumental in upgrading the globally recognized “Performance Indicators Report”, which has set the standard for MFIs to manage and monitor their programs against national and international benchmarks. This report has now been replicated in Ethiopia and other countries including South Africa, Afghanistan, and Kenya have shown interest in its replication. Mr. Ahmed was also involved in preparing a country report for Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh on the “State of Performance and Transparency’” for the microfinance sector in the SAARC countries to celebrate the UN’s Year of Microcredit. This report was published along with The World Bank, CGAP and the MIX.

 He is also working with his management team, board, members and strategic players in developing industry infrastructure for availability of liquidity and managing credit risk like Credit Bureau, Consumer Protection Codes with a Grievance redressal system and a commercially focused refinancing apex that leverages on commercial banks and capital markets through availability of smart subsidies.