Dr Sohail H. Naqvi is the Executive Director (ex-officio Federal Secretary) of the Higher Education Commission for Pakistan. In his role he has helped develop and implement a comprehensive strategy for the revival of the university education sector of Pakistan. The Higher Education Commission, with an annual budget of US$0.5 billion, is responsible for all matters relating to higher education in Pakistan including, policy, quality assurance, degree recognition, new institutions, existing institutions and operational funding of public sector universities.

Dr Naqvi has a PhD in Electrical Engineering and extensive teaching and research experience both in the USA and Pakistan. He was deeply involved in the transformation of the University Grants Commission of Pakistan to an autonomous ministerial level Higher Education Commission, spearheading higher education reforms in Pakistan. Dr Naqvi has a number of patents to his credit and has also worked with start-ups bringing high-tech inventions to the marketplace. This has helped him implement an ambitious portfolio of programmes and an explosive growth in research activity in Pakistan universities, coupled with doubling student numbers. He has overseen significant enhancement in the quality of Pakistani education, including the standardisation of programmes at the undergraduate and postgraduate level with clear quality-related benchmarks.

Dr Naqvi participated in sessions 2b - Are partnerships a one-way street?and 6a - The global research business.