Ayla Majeed, ACCA's first Muslim Vice President in 118 years

 

Ayla Majeed, ACCA's first Muslim Vice President in 118 years

Ayla Majeed has been elected as the first Muslim Vice President of the professional accountancy body Association of Chartered

Ayla says that providing education especially to the underprivileged is very close to my heart (Ayla Majeed).

Many people in the world dream of representing their country at the global level and making its name shine, but only a few people can fulfill this dream. Ayla Majeed from Rawalpindi is also one of the few people who not only gained expertise in her field but also the professional accountancy body Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) which is considered as one of the most prestigious institutions in the world. ) and made his country famous by being elected Vice President.

Ayla Majeed works on the future of energy, climate change and its impacts and sustainable infrastructure and is also recognized as the global leader of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Energy Transitions.

Early Education and Careers

Ayla Majeed, ACCA's first Muslim Vice President in 118 years

Recently elected Vice President of ACCA Ayala Majeed did her primary education from Rawalpindi. He then studied pre-engineering and pre-medical at the Federal Government College, later graduating in economics, physics and mathematics. Then he did MBA from Limousin and after that he did ACA and also studied law from University of London.

While talking to Independent Urdu, Ayla Majeed said, "In my personal life, I am very creative and I believe that grades cannot be used to judge how much talent a person has." Nothing has gone according to plan in my education and career, I love taking challenges and that is why I have done so many different things in my academic career and professional life.'

He said that while working in M&A Financial Advisory, I realized that I needed to further improve my skills in accounting and hence studied ACCA.

Explaining about ACCA, he said, 'It is a global accounting body which was created in 1904. It is present in more than a hundred countries and our students are found all over the world, with more than five hundred students and more than 270,000 members, of which I am one.

"Now that I have reached this point, it is my responsibility to provide these opportunities to others" (Ayla Majeed).

"Actually the ACCA Council is the highest governing body, it is in a way the board of the organization to which I was elected for the first time in 2014 and the second time in 2017 and the third time in 2020. The council consists of 45 members elected from around the world and then there are elections within the same council which are called council officers election. So I took part in the councils officers election and was elected as the vice president. It is also a great honor for me because I am the first woman not only from Pakistan and South Asia but also from the Muslim world who has received this honor in the history of ACCA.'

Why ACCA?

Ayla told Independent Urdu that 'ACCA is a degree which is based on the best syllabus in the world and it is a high quality education and since I was pursuing this education along with work, I decided to pursue this degree. chose to.'

In response to the question why is it important to attract students and create opportunities for ACCA in Pakistan and what can be done for it. He said that 'In Pakistan and developing countries like that, it is very important for people to know about things and to have expertise in their field to get expertise in their field and to find their good career opportunities. ACCA is working with many partners, schools, colleges to attract students to ACCA, but in a country like Pakistan, education is very important to attract students to it.'

About the importance of ACCA at the global level, he said that 'ACCA is also very important because its syllabus keeps changing according to the requirements of the time and it is also very important at the global level. There is recognition. Also, if you look at everything from banking to hoteling and politics, ACCA graduates are serving in every field, so it's a higher education of great importance.' Ayla Majeed further said, 'I give this honor to Pakistan, South Asia and all Muslims because I am the first vice president from the Muslim world

ACCA and women

In response to a question about the percentage of women studying in ACCA, he said, "If we look at the percentage of ACCA students, almost 50 percent of the students are women." In terms of members and council, there are almost equal proportions of female and male students. He further said that since ACCA is a program of easy duration which does not compromise on its quality, it is very easy for men and women to get this education especially in developing countries.

'It's also good for people who want to restart work after taking a career break. I believe that this can be done by people in remote areas, but for them it can be very beneficial and empowering because we believe in diversity and inclusion and personal bias. It is our mission to work for the public interest.

Welfare work

Ayla Majeed said: 'Many people, including me, have reached high places because they had opportunities and now that I have reached this place, it is my responsibility to do the same for others. Provide opportunities. Providing education especially to the underprivileged is very close to my heart.'

'I am a board member of an organization that runs a Teach a child school. We have two campuses in Lahore and it is working very well. This institution is imparting high quality education to the children and the children who graduate from there are making a name for themselves in other fields including business accounting.

Stock exchange and representation of Pakistan at global level

Ayla Majeed said about these experiences, "Working as the first female board member in the stock exchange was a challenge for me initially, but working there was also a great opportunity to prove that women are equally skilled at work." Keeps as much as anyone else. When you're working in a place like that and you're getting to hear different points of view, it definitely changes views and that has a good impact on decision-making.'

Regarding the representation of Pakistan in the World Economic Forum, she said that 'representation in this forum was the best experience of my life and I consider myself very lucky to represent my country, profession and gender at this most prestigious forum in the world. .'

He said that 'in whatever field you work in, it is very important to talk to people because through this you can learn and understand problems and find solutions to them. Working with many global leaders, I learned to build trust and be authentic to achieve success.'

Ayla Majeed also recently represented Pakistan at COP 27, about this experience she said: 'My participation in COP 27 was very good, my topic of discussion was energy transition which is decarbonisation and climate change. It is very important to prevent the bad effects of I work a lot in this field and for a country like Pakistan it is very important not only to work on best practices but also to communicate our vision to all partners around the world.

From the developed countries to the most underdeveloped countries, we put our perspective and told what problems the world is facing. The Nationally Determined Targets (NDCs) to combat climate change are also working very well and there is a consensus among the Government of Pakistan and partners to work together to tackle climate change. have to do