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From the Press Release Page at Alchemy:
Working
Mothers, Actuaries and Basel II: Alchemy Associates at MEFTEC
‘06
10th
February 2006
Imagine:
a.
A group of working mothers with kids and highly coveted degrees
in computer
science from top notch local schools looking for challenging
work and
flexi timings
b.
A non traditional actuarial consulting firm
c.
A regulatory standard built around risk management practices
for an industry
that uses mathematics as old as time
d.
Beach chairs, loyal customers and a Nobel Prize winning differential equation
e.
Foreign competition with cutting edge technology, unlimited
marketing budgets
and an already established international track record
Take
(a) to (d), throw them in a salad bowl called Alchemy and
pit it against
the multinational players with unlimited budget in (e). Sounds like
a cross between Erin Brockovich and a Disney movie playing
the underdog
against big bad corporate giants. You know, you have seen
the movie;
in a nail biting finish the under dog wins. But is that so
in real
life?
Read on…
Jawwad
Ahmed Farid headed back home to Pakistan from Northern Virginia,
in January
2003, with a desire to do something that was different and meaningful
and yet went against conventional wisdom. An actuary by profession
with an MBA from a Columbia Business School, Jawwad’s
meaningful version
1.0 was a traditional actuarial practice with a twist. Its
first actuarial
valuation engine, the core of the practice, was not written
by an actuary
or an actuarial student but a part time working mother. Erum Khalid,
employee number one, with a bachelors and masters in computer science
from Pakistan’s top rated and well respected FAST Institute
of Computer
Science, worked a couple of hours every day while her children went
to school. Their first office was a beach chair and a laptop;
their first
assignment – review of capital adequacy rules for a
financial services
free zone in the Middle East.
The
firm that rose from such a humble beginning, three short years
later, employs
23 professionals, 6 of them women, 4 of them working mothers; counts
35 of the 50 odd financial institutions in Pakistan amongst
its customers
including the Pakistani central bank, the largest life insurance company,
the largest bank treasury and the largest brokerage house; implements
a home grown, cutting edge Basel II solution for Market, Credit and
Operational risk that has won multiple industry awards; and
stands tall,
shoulder to shoulder with competition that has a few hundred
million dollars
more in market capitalization and balance sheet foot print.
“When
we first started thinking about what we stood for as a firm”,
says Mujtaba
Iqbal, Director of the Enterprise Analytics practice, “We
agreed that
we had to make a difference in both our client and our employees’ lives.
Not one before the other but a balance that ensured that our
people and
our customers did not have the same issue we had in our earlier careers.
It has not been easy holding true to that vision but if there
is one
thing that has helped us get where we are, it is that balance.”
The
most common term used by employees to describe the team –
fun to work with.
The most common words used by the same group to describe the
nature of
our work – fast paced, invigorating, on the edge. Noor
Ali, Analyst and
Project
Manager describes working at Alchemy as “An ever evolving
strategy game,
where every triumph is rewarded by an even bigger challenge”
What
about customers? The one word customers use to describe Alchemy
- Partner.
Commenting on this choice, Jawwad Farid, Chief Executive and Director
responsible for the Enterprise Risk and Basel II practice
says,“We
know what we went through when we had to decipher the Black
Scholes equation.
We take great pains to spare our customers that agony. Having said
that, the process and the underlying equation are essential
to how Risk
Management works. We spend a lot of quality time with our
users ensuring
that they understand not only how to use the system but also
how to
break it. When we break it together, it’s the customers
who come up with fixes
and suggestions first. It is their solution; they own it as
much as we
do.”
After
exhibiting at GITEX in September ’05 and the Pakistan
Single Country exhibition
in Malaysia in October ’05, Alchemy will now be exhibiting
its flagship
Enterprise Risk product, Alchemy Risk Manager at MEFTEC ’06
from 13th
February to 15th February 2006 at the Pakistan Pavilion (EC-03).
For more
details on this release, the firm or our work, please contact:
Jawwad
Farid/Uzma Salahuddin
103
– 104 Amber Estate, Main Shahrae-Faisal
Karachi,
75350, Pakistan
www.alchemya.com
Cell:
+92300 251 9368
jawwad@alchemya.com
uzma@alchemya.com
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