Dr. Akmal Hussain has a B.A. Honours Degree in Economics and Politics from Cambridge University and a Ph.D in Economics from Sussex University. He has been an economics lecturer at University of California, Riverside, on the adjunct faculty at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and Chairman, Public Administration Department, Punjab University. He has also lectured widely at premier training institutions, including Pakistan Administrative Staff College and National Defence College, and presented papers as a panelist at international conferences around the world, including Harvard University, The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Peace Research Institute, Oslo, World Conference on Development Rome, The United Nations, Geneva, Wilton Park at Sussex and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tokyo.

Dr. Hussain has authored three books on Economic Policy and contributed chapters to ten other books, has 29 publications in academic journals and produced over 100 newspaper articles on economic and social issues. His latest contribution to Economic Policy research has been the UNDP Pakistan National Human Development Report 2003, published by Oxford University Press. He has also undertaken research for international agencies, including the World Bank, United Nations University, ILO/ARTEP, Swiss Development Corporation, Dutch Government and CIDA. Dr. Hussain also writes regularly for a leading English language news paper in Pakistan, The Daily Times and occasionally for The Friday Times and The Dawn.

Institution building and social mobilization for poverty alleviation

Dr. Akmal Hussain has worked as a social mobilizer to enable local communities to acquire basic services. During 1998 he worked as honourary Chief Executive Officer of the Punjab Rural Support Program (PRSP). In this capacity he helped establish this poverty alleviation institution, and got it off to a flying start in eight divisions of rural Punjab. He has also helped to establish the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) and LEAD (Leadership for Environment and Development, Pakistan) as the founding member of the Board of Directors of both institutions. Dr. Hussain is also on the Board of Governors of the South Asia Centre for Policy Studies (SACEPS).

Contribution to National Policy

He was an honourary member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Affairs Committee between 1997 and 1999. In May 1997 he prepared the ‘‘Report of the Task Force on Poverty Eradication’’ as its honourary chairman. The proposals of the report were later adopted as part of National Policy. He has also served on President Musharraf’s Economic Advisory Board during 1999-2002 and most recently has been a member of the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Poverty Alleviation and Employment Generation.

Dr. Hussain contributed to the SACEPS policy proposals for the SAARC summit held in January 2004. The proposals were adopted and made part of the official SAARC Summit Declaration.

Contribution to Private Sector Management

Dr. Akmal Hussain was appointed Managing Director of Sayyed Engineers (Private) Limited in 1984. Sayyed Engineers was at that time producing predominantly ballpoint pens for the local market with a monthly output of 4.5 million writing instruments. Over the next 10 years four strategic goals were achieved:

1. Increased turnover by 10 times.

2. Achieved wide diversification of the product line by establishing two additional factories manufacturing a wide range of writing instruments such as markers, highlighters, staplers, stamp pads and lead pencils.

3. Launched into exports and established a geographically wide export market for Sayyed writing instruments. Sayyed is currently exporting to the Middle East , Africa and West Asia regions.

4. Achieved backward integration by establishing the capacity of manufacturing moulds for injection moulding machines and also microprocessors for computer operated machines.

5. The above objectives were achieved by taking the following initiatives:

i). Developing a new participatory management system which while enabling collective reflection on policy issues, regards each individual in the team to be a unique centre of creative initiative. The management system at Sayyed induces a high level of dedication, synergy and skill development.

ii). Developing state of the art computer systems for marketing, material resource planning and evaluation of production efficiency.

During this period the Sayyed Engineers case study was developed and is being taught at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.