Shabbir Akhtar

I am a storyteller with a technical bent of mind - a brand & communications specialist and a digital disruption expert. In a career spanning over a decade, I have worked across multiple industries, helping brands find their voice in a cluttered and noisy digital world.

My engineering education, backed by my diploma in advertising and post-graduate education in marketing, enables me to employ technology to communicate for and promote the brands I represent, to effectively reach the target audience. I have completed Harvard Business School’s online course on Disruptive Strategy, which allows me to apply strategic frameworks to assess new opportunities and potential threats and employ techniques for executive-level strategy formulation and team management. Recently, I have graduated from the Master of Science in Communication Management program at Singapore Management University on a Leadership Scholarship and was also a Dean's List recipient.

I started my career in digital marketing after graduating as an engineer. I eventually started looking at the entire gamut of branding, PR & communications - building communication strategy, managing & executing advertising budgets, conceptualizing text, graphics & video content, public relations, event management, integrating online & offline marketing, and maintaining brand consistency across multiple channels.

My experience in working with startups and in varying industries has allowed me to employ different branding, PR & communication strategies, and understand their effectiveness among the target audience.

Beyond helping brands reach their business goals, I am passionate about travel & photography. Mys travel experiences & photographs are documented in the blog www.fofafifl.club, which I maintain along with my wife, who runs the agency www.strategian.biz, which supports social and development sector organizations. I am also an ardent supporter of animal welfare and advocate against their unethical use in the tourism industry. My wife and I have adopted three orphaned animals in Kenya - two African elephants & a genetically-blind rhino - and also sponsor an Asian elephant in Cambodia, who was rescued from the logging industry.