American Pakistan Foundation (APF) — a Washington-based organisation that aims to foster connections between the United States and Pakistan — has appointed Saleem Ahmad, chairman of the National Incubation Centre (NIC) at Lahore University of Management Sciences (Lums), to its board of directors, it emerged on Saturday.

In a statement, Lums said that with Ahmad's appointment, the APF "hopes to foster stronger ties with Pakistan's entrepreneurial ecosystem and serve as a pathway to productive economic diplomacy and collaboration between institutions and people of the United States and Pakistan".

Ahmad's addition to the APF board "signifies the advent of deeper connectivity with the entrepreneurial youth of Pakistan and facilitation of intellectual capital development at NIC Lahore, Lums," it added.

Ahmad is a seasoned finance professional with a $250 billion track record of investment, restructuring and advisory experience at top global financial institutions including Highbridge (JP Morgan), Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Citi in New York, London, Hong Kong and Pakistan. He is a senior advisor to Afiniti, an applied artificial intelligence company, and co-founder of 47 Ventures, the first international VC fund focused on Pakistan, according to the statement.

He is an alumnus of Lums, LSE and Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Ahmad is also on the board of OPEN (Organisation of Pakistani Entrepreneurs in North America), which the statement said, would further "help cultivate opportunities for foreign investment in Pakistan, connecting tech-enabled ventures with investors in the US".

He was appointed as the chairman of the NIC at Lums in October 2020.