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Ajaz Khowaj Quoram Ahmed[1]
MBE
Born1973 (age 50–51)
Taplow, Buckinghamshire, UK[2]
NationalityBritish[2]
OccupationCEO
Years active1994 - present
Board member ofAKQA (1994 - present)
Elton John AIDS Foundation[3]
Virgin Unite[4]
Mental Health Innovations[5]
Prism The Gift Fund[6]
Parents
  • Khowaj Ahmed[7] (father)
  • Sughran Ahmed[7] (mother)
Websitewww.ajaz.org

Ajaz Khowaj Quoram Ahmed, MBE (born 1973) is a British entrepreneur who is best known as the founder and CEO of AKQA.

Early life

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Ahmed was born in Taplow, Buckinghamshire[2] in 1973.[8] His parents were born in Punjab, India.[8] Ahmed grew up in Maidenhead, where his father, Khowaj Ahmed, worked at a Beechams factory, while his mother, Sughran Ahmed, worked at a hospital launderette.[7][8]

While Ahmed was in school, he 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 asking for a job, and received an offer initially for work experience during the school holidays when he was 15.[8] Ahmed continued to work at the company through his teens from 1989 to 1991, working 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]

Career

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In addition to working for Ashton-Tate as a teen, Ahmed also worked for video game developer Ocean Software.[8] He left school in 1992, and for the next year he worked in marketing and public relations for Apple in its UK offices in the Thames Valley.[10][9] He was offered roles with BBDO as a copywriter and in brand management for Unilever, but turned them down[9] and began a business studies degree at the University of Bath.[8]

Ahmed decided to leave university in 1994 and work on launching 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, rather than completing his degree.[9] He first undertook a "fact-finding" trip to the US, to find out how companies were using the Internet.[9] Following this, at the age of 21, he founded AKQA and named it 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 United Kingdom.[12] The London-based company received an investment of $71 million from Accenture in 2001 and merged with three other agencies in San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Singapore establishing it 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, with Ahmed as its CEO.[14] In November 2020, WPP announced that Grey Group would be merged with AKQA into one resulting agency named 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: Limitless, published in 2015 by Random House;[7] Velocity, published in 2012 by Random House;[19] and Defeat, published in 2019.[20] Velocity was co-authored by Stefan Olander, the vice president of digital sport at Nike, and discusses how companies should embrace the digital world.[19] The book was a UK bestseller in non-fiction.[21]

He 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]

References

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  1. ^ "No. 62310". The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 June 2018. p. B14.
  2. ^ a b c Dua, Tanya (15 March 2017). "Starting out with AKQA's Ajaz Ahmed: 'It's important to embrace disruption'". Digiday. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  3. ^ a b "Our Team". eltonjohnaidsfoundation.org. Elton John AIDS Foundation. Retrieved 8 November 2021. Cite error: The named reference "Elton" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b "Ajaz Ahmed". unite.virgin.com. Virgin Unite. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  5. ^ a b "Our People". mentalhealthinnovations.org. Mental Health Innovations. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  6. ^ "About". prismthegiftfund.co.uk. Prism The Gift Fund. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  7. ^ a b c d Ahmed, Ajaz (2015). Limitless: Leadership that Endures. Random House. ISBN 978-0091955045.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Smith, Edwin (21 July 2012). "AKQA founder, Ajaz Ahmed: I have a duty now to WPP and Sir Martin". The Telegraph (London). Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  9. ^ a b c d e f Rosier, Ben (10 June 1999). "Web wonder - Ajaz Ahmed Co-founder AKQA". Campaign (magazine). Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  10. ^ "Media Top 100 2007: 93. Ajaz Ahmed". The Guardian. 2007. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  11. ^ Spanier, Gideon (11 November 2020). "WPP merges AKQA and Grey to form AKQA Group". Campaign. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  12. ^ Anholt, Simon (1 July 1999). "Marketing Report: Top 140 Design Agencies 1999". Campaign (Magazine). UK. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  13. ^ Mcilroy, Megan (17 March 2008). "Digital A-List 2008 No.2". Ad Age. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
  14. ^ a b Stampler, Laura. "AKQA Rejected WPP Twice And Dentsu Once Before Selling". Business Insider. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  15. ^ McCellan, Steve (11 November 2020). "WPP Merges AKQA And Grey Into AKQA Group". Mediapost. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  16. ^ "Ajaz AHMED". The London Gazette (62310). The Gazette is published by TSO (The Stationery Office) under the superintendence of Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO), part of The National Archives. 8 June 2018. 3041750. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  17. ^ Gwynn, Simon (8 June 2018). "AKQA founder Ahmed gets MBE in Queen's Birthday Honours". Campaign (magazine). Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  18. ^ Puccinelli, Nancy. "Ajaz Q.K Ahmed MBE: oration". University of Bath. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  19. ^ a b Spanier, Gideon (9 May 2012). "ANALYSIS: Seven 'laws' to keep us on the digital pace". Evening Standard.
  20. ^ Ahmed, Ajaz; Watson, Christian (1 January 2019). Defeat. ASIN B08BWF6RG1.
  21. ^ "Bestsellers". The Daily Telegraph. 19 May 2012.
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