Farees Shah

Email: farees.shah@alumni.insead.edu
Tel: +92300-8218247
HIGHLIGHTS

Founded and launched Daraz.pk : the leading eCommerce store in Pakistan and one of the largest Rocket Internet
ventures in the South Asia-Middle East-Africa region
Led various restructuring projects aimed at loss reduction at the Abraaj Capital portfolio company Karachi Electric
Member of the team that set up Pakistan Mercantile Exchange, a platform for trading commodity and financial futures
Awarded the INSEAD Sasakawa Scholarship and INSEAD Diversity Fund Scholarship
Feature regularly on various TV shows and conferences as an expert on eCommerce and retail

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2012 Present Daraz.pk (www.daraz.pk) a venture of Rocket Internet
Pakistan
Recruited as the first Rocket Internet employee in the country and set up daraz.pk, Pakistans largest online
store in terms of traffic and revenue with a workforce of over 250 employees
Co-Founder/Co-CEO
Responsible for overall business performance:

Conceptualized and implemented business strategy which led to growth in monthly revenue from zero to USD 1.2
million and assortment to more than 50,000 unique products in a three year timespan
Successfully devised pitching strategies, created pitch decks and conducted investor presentations which resulted in
two successful rounds of funding in excess of 50 million USD

Lead Business Development and Relationship Management:

Initiated relationships with over 500 leading fashion and electronics brands who signed up as sellers on Daraz
Developed sales pitches for brands and structured and trained the buying team which managed over 500 brand
relationships

Managed Digital and Offline Marketing teams:

Created and implemented marketing and PR roadmap and developed in-house expertise in online marketing and
content development as a result of which Daraz.pk is among the top 50 most visited websites in the country
Managed all aspects of the TV advertising campaign to defining creative briefs, selecting agencies for production of
creatives and reviewing media plans for multiple TV commercial campaigns
Conceptualized and executed Daraz Fashion Week(www.daraz.pk/fashionweek)- an online shop-able event which
featured in all leading publications, generated over 5 million impressions on social media and increased weekly
revenue by 80%

Responsible for Talent Management :

Recruited, structured, defined key KPIs and incentive structures for all key departments including buying, operations,
marketing, customer service, finance and HR
Defined HR policies, employee appraisal process and implemented HR levels across the 250 people organization

Built Operations Infrastructure :

Set up item level warehousing across 3 cities with a capacity of 200,000 items and last mile delivery network
Shaped the logistics landscape for ecommerce by liaising with major third party logistics partners to amend their
product offerings and processes to be able to provide services like cash on delivery to the ecommerce sector

2009 2012 Karachi Electric (KE) Owned and Managed by Abraaj Capital
Pakistan
KE is a vertically integrated power utility with a market capitalization of US$ 725 million, annual revenue of
US$ 1 billion and serving over 2.2 million consumers.
Deputy General Manager Distribution Strategy
Restructured Operations and Business :

Hired and led a 40 person internal consultant team and defined deliverables and timelines and managed progress
Led the 5 person Business Intelligence team in the implementation of SAP Industry Solution for utilities(ISU), created
the transition from legacy to ISU and defined new KPIs across all key departments within Distribution
Developed and executed the restructuring plan for the maintenance centers which led to improved information flow,
an efficient and logical organization structure and reduced the headcount of its workforce by 800(from 5200 to 4400).
Led the team which documented and mapped all network operations processes and roles

Conducted project feasibilities and monitored implementation :

Defined criteria for and carried out pilot project on rational load shedding strategies. Implementation of this strategy
across the city led to a reduction in Transmission & Distribution loss by PKR 300 million per annum.
Conducted feasibility of loss reduction initiatives (including Aerial Bundles Cable, Automated Meter Readers and Single
Phase Transformers) and ensured successful execution resulting in an increase in annual revenue by PKR 50 million.

2008 Deutsche Bank A.G.

Global Markets Summer Associate

U.K.

Recommended business strategy to senior management, and initiated implementation after a thorough study of the
structural changes in the European capital market and identifying the new key drivers of success.
Designed and developed an analytics tool to track performance of an existing product and used financial modeling to
conduct scenario analysis of future product performance

2003- 2007 Pakistan Mercantile Exchange (PMEX)

Pakistan
Start up Commodity Futures Exchange - trading gold, silver, rice, palm oil, crude oil and interest rate futures
Mgr Market Operations (2007), Asst Mgr Business Analysis (2005-06), Financial Analyst (2003-04)
Lead business development and awareness campaigns :

Devised curriculum and conducted trainings for over 250 potential brokers over a 3 year period over 200 of which
registered as brokers of PMEX
Led the Market Operations team which planned and coordinated successful commencement of nationwide trading

Worked on defining and implementing business strategy:

Formulated and executed a 5 year plan for the organization as a member of the initial 5 person core team. Organization
grew from 5 employees in 2003 to 47 employees by 2007
Designed initial exchange processes based on practices and trends in global commodity derivative markets
Developed the product specifications and product notes for the first 2 listed contracts of the exchange

EDUCATION
2008

INSEAD
M.B.A - Concentration: Strategy and Finance. GMAT: 710
Recipient of INSEAD Sasakawa Scholarship and INSEAD Diversity Fund Scholarship

1999-2003

Lahore University of Management Sciences

BSc. (Hons.) Major: Computer Science

France

Pakistan

PERSONAL INTERESTS
2008 Present City FM 89 (Radio)
Host of Kick Off the leading sports show on national radio
Other Interests: Playing and watching sports, theater, amateur journalism and music

Pakistan