B.A Economics, International relations.
Masters in Public Administration.
Alma mater
Mount Holyoke College (1995), Harvard Business school (2008)
Occupation
Social entrepreneur
Title
Founder CIRCLE, She loves tech
Sadaffe Abid is a social entrepreneur from Karachi, Pakistan and the former COO and CEO of Kashf Foundation. She is the founder of tech-organization CIRCLE, and its current CEO.[1][2] She is also a Vice Chairperson of Pakistan Microfinance Network.[3]
Personal life
Sadaffe hails from the city of Karachi. She was born into a military family[4] due to which she moved to many different places along with her parents. Her family had been posted to Khariaan, Noushera, and Rawalpindi.[5]
She joined the Kashf Foundation as a founding team member in April 1997, and created a non-profit, micro-finance and wealth management organization.[11] The foundation is the first Micro Finance Institution (MFI) in Pakistan.[12][13] She served the Kashf Foundation for 8 years as the COO and then 2 years as the CEO of the organization.[14][15] During her time at Kashf, Sadaffe expanded the organization.[4][16] During her tenure, Kashf received the AGFUND International Prize and Grameen Trust Microfinance Excellence Award.[6][17]
She has since then also served as a CEO of Buksh Foundation, another micro finance institution.[18][19] She has also worked as a Gulf Representative at Mercy Corps in Dubai and a guest lecturer at CEDEP at INSTEAD. Sadaffe has also worked at National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), where she is in the board of directors and Chair of Inclusive Committee.[20][14][21]
She is currently running an enterprise she co-founded called CIRCLE ; a tech-organization encouraging women in tech ventures.[22][23] She is a consultant for the International Finance Corporation on gender diversity and is a social entrepreneur at INSEAD. Since 2014, Sadaffe has also lectured on social entrepreneurship at CEDEP, INSEAD.[6][24]
Sadaffe is also on the board of Pakistan Microfinance Network, UN Women Pakistan Civil Society Advisory Council and Indus Earth.[25][26] She is an advisor to the global Dell Women Entrepreneurship Network (DWEN).[14][27]
Circle
Sadaffe stated that her goal is “Women Economic Empowerment and Inclusion”.[28][29] She founded CIRCLE to empower women through technology.[30][31] CIRCLE is a social tech-enterprise aimed at improving women's economic empowerment to help build and develop the entrepreneurial and leadership capacity of women.[32][33] The organization has been working in Pakistan since 2014 to provide economic participation and empowerment to women in the IT sector.[34][35]
Initiatives
The tech-organization CIRCLE initiated She Loves Tech. Sadaffe started this initiative in 2017 to support women start-ups and provide mentorships.[36][37]
CIRCLE is now bringing She Loves Tech: 2020, which is a technology start-up competition sponsored by HBL.[38] The competition will be hosted in 10 cities in Pakistan. Sadaffe says this year, they aim to empower 10,000 women through workshops and digital boot camps.[39][40][41]
Sadaffe also started an initiative through her organization CIRCLE, called "Tech Karo".[42][43] Tech Karo is a training program for students from underprivileged areas.[44] The program focuses on training girls and women digital skills such as coding, digital marketing to increase their livelihoods and generate positive impacts for their families and communities.[45][46][47]
Awards and achievements
Sadaf is the recipient and alumna of Australia awards.[45]
She is a recipient of the Mount Holyoke Alumni Achievement Award for her service. Her work at Kashf has been highlighted in Nicholas Kristoff’s book, Half the Sky.[48][49]
