Jehan Ara

Jehan Ara is the Founder & CEO of Katalyst Labs a Technology Startup Accelerator and Innovation hub. She is the former President of the Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT & ITES (P@SHA) where she served for 25 years and was involved in promoting the Pakistan tech industry locally and internationally – she was also the Founder of The Nest I/O a Tech Startup Incubator which incubated 217 startup businesses. Katalyst Labs runs an acceleration program for startups and a Women Leaders Fellowship Program to build the capacity of women entrepreneurs and professionals and to help them create business networks. Katalyst Labs also run two major conferences +92Disrupt – a startup conference and Slush’d.

Jehan has worked in Hong Kong, the UAE and Pakistan. She currently serves as a Member of the PM’s Advisory Council for IT & the Digital Economy, a Member of the APAC Content Advisory Board for TikTok and is on the Advisory Boards of the Sindh Digital Technology Board Governing Body. She has just completed two terms as Independent Director on the board of the Central Depository Company and is also on the World Bank Advisory Group on Gender Diversity and the Board of IDEAS as well on the Industry Advisory Board of various universities. She is on the Steering Committee of the Women for Boards Initiative which works towards increasing the number of qualified and certified women on Company Boards.

She has been identified by Rest of World (ROW) as amongst the top global 100 Changemakers in Tech outside Silicon Valley.

The President of Pakistan has awarded her the Tamgha e Imtiaz for her lifetime of services to the tech industry.