Rehman returns to take back reins of Engro Foods

After setting up the company, he had left it for philanthropic work.

KARACHI: After a brief stint of about two years, Engro Foods Limited’s management went back in the hands that established the company seven years ago as the board of directors appointed Sarfaraz A Rehman as the new CEO on Monday.

Rehman, according to a press release, will replace outgoing CEO Afnan Ahsan, who served the local foods giant for almost two years. Ahsan supervised the launch of Dairy Omung and Omung Lassi, now successful brands of Engro Foods, a subsidiary of Pakistan’s largest private-sector conglomerate Engro Corp.

When it comes to overseeing Engro Foods, there is no better choice than the man who laid the foundation of this company, Ahsan told The Express Tribune while confirming he had resigned from the CEO’s post for personal reasons.

“I don’t know about my next job at the moment but I am moving abroad,” said the former CEO under whose leadership the company, for the first time, introduced its corporate philosophy with a unified theme titled “Khud Pakistan”.

It was in Ahsan’s leadership that the profitability of the premier home-grown, multinational foods company crossed the billion-rupee mark. However, it was the unique leadership style of its incoming CEO that set the company’s ship on the course of growth.

Rehman, a chartered accountant, established Engro Foods in 2006. He hired fresh graduates and gave them full autonomy in terms of their work responsibilities – this kind of autonomy was unprecedented for fresh graduates in Pakistan.

In his previous tenure, the press release said, Rehman looked after the company as CEO for six years and was instrumental in launching flagship Engro Foods brands such as Olper’s, Tarang and Omore, providing the direction and strategic insight to make these brands household names throughout Pakistan.

Rehman resigned from Engro Foods’ leadership in 2011 after deciding to move out of commercial operations and into philanthropy. He then served as CEO of Dawood Foundation, which is a non-profit arm of Dawood Hercules, the single largest shareholder of Engro Corp.

In that role, he was also involved with the launch of the Karachi School for Business and Leadership.

With over 29 years of experience in the fast moving consumer goods and healthcare industry, Rehman has held key leadership positions in leading multinational and national companies in Pakistan and abroad, the press release said.

Rehman is also a director on the boards of Engro Corp and Karachi Education Initiative (KEI), a not-for-profit entity and the sponsoring organisation of the Karachi School for Business & Leadership.

“I wanted to work on the education side,” Rehman told The Express Tribune explaining why he had earlier resigned from the post.

“I am still part of those educational projects including a project I am directly involved in. These projects will continue but other people will run them,” he said, adding he would mainly work as Engro Foods’ new chief.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2013.

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