Farees Shah, CEO and Country Manager

Farees Shah

CEO and Country Manager

Karripay

Location
Pakistan
Education
Master's degree, Business Administration
Experience
17 years, 1 Months

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Work Experience

Total years of experience :17 years, 1 Months

CEO and Country Manager at Karripay
  • Pakistan - Karachi
  • My current job since April 2022

P&L, Global Business and Product Strategy, Business Development and Partnerships
• Launched the Pakistan business within 6 months and set up and structured the local team, business process and KPI’s and defined vision and purpose statement for Karri’s expansion
• Developed the business and product roadmap from a school payment app to a wholistic digital collection platform
• Identified relevant payment methods and developed roadmap for partnerships to cover card payments, IBFT and cash
• Set up and led the sales team that pitched to 200+ schools out of which 10+ were live in under 6 months

General Manager at VavaCars
  • Pakistan - Karachi
  • February 2019 to January 2020

Hired by Vitol as part of the global leadership team of VavaCars, an online-offline used car business with initial locations across Turkey and Pakistan, and set up the Pakistan business from zero

General Manager - Pakistan

P&L, Global Strategy, Business Transformation & Regulatory Affairs
• Developed and executed launch plan for nationwide roll out of the business including purchase centers and warehouse
• P&L owner for the Pakistan business with accountability for Business Development, Purchasing, Sales, Marketing etc.
• As a key member of the global leadership team involved in all key business strategy decisions for the organization
• Structured and negotiated partnership with Meezan Bank to provide shop floor financing to VavaCars dealers

Country Manager at iflix
  • Pakistan - Karachi
  • March 2016 to January 2019

Recruited as part of the Global Leadership team and set up and launched the Pakistan business from zero to the leading online streaming service in the country Country Manager - Pakistan / General Manager P&L, Global Strategy, Business Transformation & Regulatory Afairs
•Conducted feasibility & conceptualized and implemented launch plan which led to a customer base of over 2 MM subscribers with over 400, 0000 monthly active subscribers and monthly consumption of 30 MM minutes
•P&L owner for the Pakistan business with accountability for BD, Content, Marketing, Localization etc.
•Studied local laws and regulations and developed legal strategy pertaining to launching an OTT in Pakistan
•As a key member of the global leadership team involved in all key business strategy decisions for the organization
•Planned and executed the strategic pivot of iflix from a paid to a freemium service across 25+ iflix countries Business Development and Revenue Management
•Negotiated and launched partnerships with partners PTCL and Telenor worth over US$ 3 MM revenue in year 1 as well as with device manufactures, ecommerce stores, fast food chains which resulted in customer acquisition as well as incremental revenue Content Strategy, acquisitions and Marketing
•Established and closed partnerships with 10+ major local and regional partners content partners including HUM, ARY, Reliance, Disney UTV which accounted for over 3, 000 hours of content
•Led the marketing team that carried out digital paid marketing, TV and radio campaigns, PR and activations as a result of which over 1.5MM customers were acquired within year 1 with a budget of $1 MM
•Developed concepts for iflix originals and executed successfully to drive acquisitions in the market
•Won the Pakistan Advertisers Society (PAS) Award for Best in Media

Co-founder and Co-CEO at Daraz
  • Pakistan - Karachi
  • April 2012 to December 2015

Recruited as the first Rocket Internet employee in the country and set up daraz.pk, Pakistan’s largest online store in terms of traffic and revenue with a workforce of over 250 employees

Co-Founder/Co-CEO

Overall Business Performance
• Conceptualized and implemented business strategy which led to growth in monthly revenue from zero to USD 1.2 MM and assortment to more than 50, 000 unique products in a 3-year timespan
• Successfully raised 2 successful funding rounds worth over US$ 50 MM from investors including Oreedoo and CDC before eventual exit to Alibaba Group

Business Development and Relationship Management
• Initiated relationships with over 500 leading fashion and electronics brands who signed up as sellers on Daraz
• Developed sales pitches for brands and structured and trained the buying team which managed over 500 relationships

Digital and Offline Marketing teams
• Created and implemented marketing and PR roadmap and developed in-house expertise in online marketing and content development as a result of which Daraz.pk was among the top 50 most visited websites in the country
• Managed all aspects of multiple TV advertising campaigns including defining creative briefs and reviewing media plans
• Conceptualized and executed Daraz Fashion Week an online shop-able event which increased monthly revenue by 20%

Operations Infrastructure
• Set up item level warehousing across 3 cities with a capacity of 200, 000 items and last mile delivery network
• Shaped the logistics landscape for ecommerce by liaising with major third-party logistics partners to amend their product offerings and processes to be able to provide services like cash on delivery to the ecommerce sector

Deputy General Manager at Karachi Electric
  • Pakistan - Karachi
  • May 2009 to March 2012

KE is a power utility with market cap of US$ 725 MM, annual revenue of US$ 1 BN and 2.2 MM consumers.

Deputy General Manager - Distribution Strategy

Restructuring Operations and Business Transformation, Project Feasibilities and Implementation
• Hired and led a 40-person internal consulting team and defined deliverables and timelines and managed progress
• Developed and executed the restructuring plan for the maintenance centers which led to improved information flow, an efficient and logical organization structure and reduced the headcount of its workforce by 15% (from 5200 to 4400)
• Defined criteria for and carried out pilot project on rational load shedding strategies. Implementation of this strategy across the city led to a reduction in Transmission & Distribution loss by PKR 300 million per annum.

Global Associate at Deutsche Bank
  • United Kingdom - London
  • June 2008 to August 2008
Manager Market Operations at Pakistan Mercantile Exchange
  • Pakistan - Karachi
  • December 2003 to December 2007

Education

Master's degree, Business Administration
  • at Insead
  • December 2008

Recipient of INSEAD Sasakawa Scholarship and INSEAD Diversity Fund Scholarship

Bachelor's degree, Computer Science
  • at Lahore University Of Management Sciences
  • November 2003

Specialties & Skills

Leadership
Business Development
Streaming Media
New Business Ventures
Startups
MANAGEMENT
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION
OPERATIONS
TRANSFORMATION (GENETICS)
ACCOUNTABILITY
REDUCTION (COMPLEXITY)
CONTENT STRATEGY
ELECTRONICS

Languages

English
Expert
Urdu
Native Speaker