BOARD MEMBERS

Ava Ardeshir Cowasjee is a prominent Pakistani businesswoman and philanthropist, deeply involved in the maritime, insurance, education, and social sectors, and widely respected for her commitment to corporate governance and social development. She has undertaken extensive professional training at the Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance, completing all requirements for Corporate Governance Leadership Skills and successfully passing all assessment tests. Her governance education further includes an awareness session on corporate governance for female directors of listed companies conducted by the Karachi Stock Exchange Ltd. and the Centre for International Private Enterprise, as well as workshops for the Human Resource and Remuneration Committee, Audit Committee, Strategy Committee, and Risk Committee, workshops on Corporate Governance in Public Sector Companies at PICG, Driving ESG from the Boardroom, and Advanced Risk Governance for Banks. In addition, she attended the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, where she completed all requirements for the SECP-approved Certified Director Programme.
Professionally, Ava Cowasjee has served as a board member of the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation, bringing decades of experience from her family’s long-standing shipping enterprise, and has chaired the Pakistan Ship’s Agents Association on two occasions. She is a director at Jubilee General Insurance and also serves as an independent non-executive director at HBL Growth Fund and Shahtaj Sugar Mills. Within the family business, she has been a partner in the Cowasjee Group for nearly three decades and is Chairman of the Cowasjee Foundation.
Her philanthropic and social engagement is extensive. As Chairman of the Cowasjee Foundation, she continues the family’s philanthropic legacy in education and community service; serving as Honorary Secretary of Lady Dufferin Foundation Trust Hospital, Pakistan’s largest nonprofit hospital dedicated to women and children; and is a Governor on the Board of the Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture, reflecting her commitment to cultural and educational development. She has also served as Vice Chairman of SOS Children’s Village Sindh for over a decade, supporting orphaned and vulnerable children. Ava Cowasjee’s contributions have been recognized with the Ladies Fund Lifetime Achievement Award, presented at the Sindh Governor’s House in acknowledgment of her pioneering role in shipping and philanthropy. She also supported the establishment of IBA Karachi’s Ardeshir Cowasjee Centre for Writing, named after her father.
Daughter of the late Ardeshir Cowasjee, a ship-owner, businessman, renowned journalist, social activist, philanthropist and a member of a notable Parsi family influential in Karachi’s shipping industry since 1883, Ava Cowasjee seamlessly blends corporate leadership with heartfelt philanthropy, championing social causes while shaping key sectors such as shipping, education, healthcare, and insurance, thereby upholding her father’s legacy while forging her own distinguished path.