Our Team

Ansir Junaid

Chairman and Trustee

Sufia Junaid

Trustee

Ijaz Shah

Senior Advisor

Jackie Sanders

Executive Director

Dr. Adnan Hyder

Chief Technical Advisor

Dr. Abdul Ghaffar

Senior Technical Advisor

Col. Khalid Mahmood (R)

Managing Director

Ameena Ayub

Program Officer

Julie Novario

Program Officer

Ansir Junaid

Ansir Junaid, Chairman, and Trustee of the Foundation, immigrated to the US over 30 years ago with a singular focus, to earn a strong education and create an impact. Mr. Junaid is a sought-after expert in transforming fragmented markets into sustainable growth engines through innovative techniques and technology infusion. Much of his work has focused on redefining traditional supply chains to enable new relationships between large retailers and domestic and international suppliers (Asia, Dubai & Africa). Mr. Junaid is a go-to expert collaborating with private equity to transform fragmented businesses into blended acquisition targets with national presence and optimized value.

Through Mr. Junaid’s leadership, SupplySide Group has grown into a global business that serves hundreds of customers and companies including decades-long relationships with Fortune 500 notables such as Amazon, Target, UPS, Home Depot, and Lowe’s. SupplySide Group’s impact is especially remarkable within logistics management and packaging services.

He serves on several boards, including University Hospitals of Cleveland, The RAND Corporation, and Greater Cleveland Sports Commission. Mr. Junaid is also a collaborator with a number of international think tanks and nonprofit organizations such as The Atlantic Council, The Citizens Foundation, and Hunar Foundation.

Mr. Junaid and his wife, Sufia Junaid, share a deep commitment towards philanthropy. From this passion, they created The Junaid Family Foundation. Mr. Junaid’s philanthropic contributions have been acknowledged through several organizations, including inclusion on Crain’s Cleveland’s 2020 list of Notable Immigrant Leaders and the 2020 Foreign Minister’s Honors List by the Pakistan Foreign Ministry.

Mr. Junaid received his Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems & Marketing from Cleveland State University.

Sufia Junaid

Sufia Junaid, Trustee of the Foundation, is a passionate advocate for her community and volunteers her time and philanthropy to numerous local and international organizations. In particular, Ms. Junaid is an advocate for girls and women to support their ability to reach their potential regardless of circumstance.

She is an active board member of the Pakistan Ladies Association of the Midwest, which aims to support and bolster the engagement of Pakistani women in several spheres of the community and break through barriers of misinformation through the depiction of real Pakistani women.

Ms. Junaid is also a champion of economic, social, and healthcare development both locally within her community in Cleveland, Ohio, and abroad. She is actively involved in the Stanford Charity for Narcolepsy. Together, she and her husband, Ansir Junaid, have worked tirelessly to expand the horizons for education amongst young girls and women in the rural communities of Pakistan, through funding of school construction projects and scholarships for girls entering all levels of school, including university and vocational programs.

Ms. Junaid is an avid learner and is always looking for new ways to grow and develop her skills. Along with being an ardent reader, she runs a book club, encouraging women to take the time out to read. Ms. Junaid is an inspiring example of dedication and hard work and an invaluable asset to both her family and community.

Ijaz Shah

Mr. Ijaz Shah, Senior Advisor at the Foundation, provides foundation strategy and administration oversight of core program funding activities.

Mr. Shah brings extensive financial and operational expertise to the Corporation. He has previously served as Vice President of the International Division at the Huntington National Bank, Chief Operating Officer at the National Solvent Corporation, and President of Farmis Corporation. He also served previously as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Prime WoodCraft and SupplySide USA, two of Ansir Junaid’s operating companies.

He received his JD from the University of Punjab Lahore, Pakistan, and his MBA from Baldwin Wallace College.

Jackie Sanders

Jackie Sanders, Executive Director, leads the Foundation’s operations, program-related investments, and communications. She began working with the Junaids in 2020 before the Foundation’s establishment on philanthropic and business activities that aligned with her experience as a strategic marketer with domain expertise in the healthcare and life science industries.

Ms. Sanders is also the principal of Purple Carrot, a boutique strategic marketing firm that works with intrapreneurial and entrepreneurial business ventures within the health and wellness space. Previously, Ms. Sanders worked as a senior leader within several leading healthcare communications firms in New York City, including Havas Health, The Bloc, and Cline, Davis & Mann, driving agency support of the launch and inline branding and communications work for F500 pharmaceutical and biotechnology treatments across a broad array of therapeutic categories. She began her career in product management at Ethicon, Johnson & Johnson.

She holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan and an M.B.A. from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.

Dr. Adnan Hyder

Adnan A. Hyder, MD MPH PhD, is Chief Technical Advisor at the Foundation, where he provides strategic and operational counsel to decision-making, giving, and programs. Dr. Hyder is an international leader in global health research and has pioneered work around ethics, injuries, health systems, and non-communicable diseases. For over 25 years, he has relentlessly worked to improve global health in low- and middle-income countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Dr. Hyder has been an advocate of ethically designed grant programs for global health research, arguing in favor of the creation of incentives for applicants to focus their research on marginalized communities. He has conducted studies focusing on defining the epidemiological burden, understanding risk factors, exploring potential interventions, estimating economic impact, and appreciating the socio-cultural correlates of non-communicable diseases and health systems around the world. Dr. Hyder has co-authored over 400 peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals and numerous world reports with organizations like the World Bank, World Health Organization, and UNICEF. Currently, Dr. Hyder serves on several international health boards and societies – including as International President of the World Health Summit 2023, Chair of the board for Health Systems Global, and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Youth for Road Safety. Dr. Hyder received his M.D. from the Aga Khan University, Pakistan, and obtained his MPH and Ph.D. in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University, USA.

Dr. Abdul Ghaffar

Abdul Ghaffar, MD, PhD serves as Senior Technical Advisor at the Foundation, where he oversees operational and strategic program development within the domain of Healthcare & Development.

Dr. Ghaffar has extensive experience as a physician, professor, scientist, and senior executive in the UN and government. His distinguished career spans more than 35 years, with leadership roles at the Ministry of Health of Pakistan, Health Services Academy, Islamabad, and the World Health Organization.

Dr. Ghaffar has served as the Executive Director of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research at the World Health Organization. Before joining the Alliance, he served as Regional Advisor for Research, in the Eastern Mediterranean Office of the World Health Organization. Dr. Ghaffar also worked as a Health Policy and Systems Specialist at the Global Forum for Health Research in Geneva. In his home country (Pakistan), he started his career as a public health physician and later worked in different leadership positions as Assistant Director-General of Policy and Planning; Deputy Director-General of International Health; and Director of the Health Services Academy, a national school of public health.

He has advised many governments in the use of evidence for stronger health systems, helped establish policy and research institutes, served on the technical and advisory boards, published more than 140 peer-reviewed papers, and led the writing and development of some prestigious global health reports, such as WHO’s Strategy on Health Policy and Systems Research.

Dr. Ghaffar is a physician by training with a Ph.D. in Health Systems from Johns Hopkins University.

Col. Khalid Mahmood (R)

Colonel (Retired) Khalid Mahmood is the managing director at the Foundation, where he oversees the implementation of the Foundation’s programs in Pakistan. Col. Mahmood’s expertise lies in Human Resources and Financial Management, and he has held diversified positions over the last 40 years in both the public and private sectors. His expertise in the fields of selection and recruitment, training, financial management, operational deployment, and human resource development span across three different organizational types: federal government-run organizations in Pakistan, private sector organizations, and military organizations. Col. Khalid Mahmood has served as the Director of Administration and Finance at the Global Change Impact Studies Centre (GCISC) under the Ministry of Climate Change in Pakistan. He has also served as the Director of Human Resource Management and Finance in two security companies functioning under the policies and controls of the Provincial Home Department and Pakistan’s Ministry of Interior. Col. Mahmood served in the Pakistan Armed Forces between 1983 to 2008 as a commissioned officer at the unit, brigade, division, and general headquarters (GHQ) levels. He received his MPA from the University of the Punjab, Lahore, with a specialization in human resource management.

Ameena Ayub

Ameena Ayub, Program Officer at the Foundation, oversees day-to-day program management and administrative support. Ameena is passionate about social justice, human rights, and advocating for the rights of marginalized communities. She has worked with various nonprofit organizations to promote gender equity, education, and economic development in her home country, Pakistan. Her documentary short, Pardesan, premiered at the Cleveland International Film Festival and was an official selection at the Leeds International Film Festival. Ameena also has experience working on refugee integration during her study abroad program in Jordan. Ameena holds a B.A., with a focus on Public Policy and Documentary Filmmaking, from Sarah Lawrence College.

Julie Novario

Julie Novario, Program Officer at the Foundation, oversees day-to-day program management for our U.S. projects. Julie comes from a background steeped in community outreach and non-profit healthcare in Cleveland where she worked with underserved populations to help overcome socioeconomic barriers. Having primarily worked with women & children, Julie has immense pride in defining needs of this diverse population and providing concrete resources to increase family prosperity. Julie holds a B.S. and M.S. in Public Health & Health Policy from Kent State University.