Samar is a seasoned communications specialist with more than a decade of experience in strategic communications, PR, advocacy and digital marketing. Her expertise lies in designing and executing communication strategies for corporate and financial sector organizations, higher education institutions, not-for-profit organizations, social enterprises, startups and government-led initiatives. She has developed successful advocacy and behavioral change campaigns on the future of work, climate change, financial inclusion and governance; conducted nationwide marketing and outreach activities and delivered workshops, seminars, panel discussions, conferences and hackathons. She was the Head of Communications and External Relations at USAID’s Citizens’ Voice Project, a 45 million USD governance and accountability project. Her other hat is that of an entrepreneur, and she has served as one of the pioneering team members at Karandaaz Pakistan, Habib University, Karachi Institute of Technology & Entrepreneurship (KITE) and Institute for Advancing Careers and Talents (iACT) in Pakistan. She also established Epiphany in 2016, Sohni Dharti Climateers in 2018. Samar’s work to positively impact the society at large in Pakistan through many initiatives, has been recognized. She received Young Alumni Award for 2017 for outstanding professional achievement and community service from her alma mater, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. In November 2018, Samar’s brain child, Sohni Dharti Climateers won the First Runners’ Up award at the Australia Awards Regional Alumni Workshop held in Thimpu, Bhutan. She is also a Climate Reality Leader trained by Al Gore through Climate Reality Leadership Corps. Samar has a Master’s degree in International Relations, specialization in Political Science from the Graduate Institute of International & Development Studies, Geneva and a Bachelors of Arts in International Relations, specialization Political Science, from Webster University, Geneva.

Iram Nawaz – Content Strategist, Managing Editor, Ex-HP, Microsoft USA

Iram Nawaz is a content strategist with over 15 years of experience in Marketing Communications in companies like HP (Silicon Valley), Microsoft (Seattle, WA) and LUMS. She has a deep working knowledge of managing marketing campaigns for technology, sales enablement and product launches. She has recently returned to Pakistan and is the Creative Director of EditorialDesign, a content boutique. Iram also mentors start-ups and is often called to help judge their ideas. Iram is in the process of working on a podcast series around technical communications, professionalism and workplace ownership.

Iram is an experienced communications and content management professional with a portfolio of technical publishing, editorial consultancies, marketing collateral, and web-content management. She was Managing Editor at HP Networking, Hewlett-Packard, Palo Alto, CA (Silicon Valley) where she increased HPN brand awareness across sales professionals and effectively communicating sales tools and assets to channel and sales.

Iram has had several leadership roles at both Microsoft (Redmond, Washington, USA) and HP (Palo Alto, CA, USA). Through HP communication platforms and partnerships with stakeholders, she has delivered change management by reaching audiences up to 30,000 internal clients, partners, and sales teams.