Biography

Nadir’s mission is to improve quality education for all the children of Pakistan, especially those in living in rural, impoverished villages.

Nadir is the Chairman of the Mubarika Trust, which oversees the growth and success of Mubarika campus, a primary and secondary school in rural Pakistan. Nadir has an undergraduate degree in Finance, from San Jose State University and a Masters in Sustainable Energy from RMIT in Melbourne, Australia. His initial schooling was completed in Pakistan. 
He is the son of Nawaz Ahmed Minhas and Begum Salma Akhtar Malik, the husband and wife couple who first founded the school. Nawaz and Salma both have family roots in the small farming village where Mubarika Campus is located. When they visited the village, Nawaz and Begum learned about the major hardships facing this impoverished community, including the marginalization of women and girls. Many girls are married in their early teens, and their sole purpose became to raise families.
Nawaz and Begum wanted to end this cycle of poverty and subjugation and decided to open a girls’ secondary school in 2006. The school is named Mubarika, in honor of Begum’s mother who, while formally uneducated herself, believed in the empowerment of women through education. The campus is now open to both boys and girls and includes students from grades 1-10.

Since its founding in 2006, the Mubarika Campus has increased student enrollment to 1,500 students. The school continues to support its founding values, and works hard to promote the empowerment of women and girls for a better society. In fact, today over 70 members of their 90-person staff and faculty are women, including their principal who is an accomplished member of the local community. The students are thriving and performing well, and one of the school’s first graduates is now studying to become a doctor.