People

Shaukat Aziz

Shaukat Aziz

Former Prime Minister of Pakistan (2004-2007)

Biography

His Excellency Mr. Shaukat Aziz was elected as Prime Minister of Pakistan and served from 2004 – 2007, following five years as Finance Minister from 1999.

Mr. Aziz was the first Prime Minister of Pakistan to complete a full term in office. Mr. Aziz restored his country’s credibility at home and abroad and is renowned for his strategic approach, structural reforms, transparency and ability to focus on what is best, not simply what is politically expedient. His policies were based on the principals of liberalization, deregulation, and privatization, accompanied by strong regulatory oversight.  Mr. Aziz’s tenure was marked by high economic growth, increase in per capita income, reduction in poverty, an upsurge in investments and improved debt and economic indicators.

After graduating from Gordon College, Rawalpindi in 1967, Mr. Aziz gained an MBA degree from the Institute of Business Administration, University of Karachi. An internship at Citibank marked the beginning of a 30-year career in global finance, encompassing roles in Pakistan, Greece, United States, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Philippines, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore. As Executive Vice President, he held several senior management positions in Citibank including head of institutional banking for Central Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa and later for Asia Pacific, followed by Chief Executive of the bank’s global wealth management business.

He became Finance Minister in 1999 and was named “Finance Minister of the year” for 2001 by both Euromoney and The Banker magazines published in the United Kingdom. In 2013 Mr. Aziz was awarded Global Leadership in Islamic Finance Laureate by the Edbiz Corporation, a think tank specializing in Islamic financial intelligence, advisory, advocacy, and literacy.

As Prime Minister, Mr. Aziz co-chaired the UN Secretary Generals Committee to promote reform and coherence at the United Nations. As recognition of his services to Pakistan, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws by his Alma Mater, The Institute of Business Administration, University of Karachi, Pakistan. In 2014 Mr. Aziz was appointed Senior Visiting Research Fellow at Green Templeton College, Oxford University, United Kingdom, where he also chaired their annual Emerging Markets Forum. In September 2014, Mr. Aziz received an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration from the East Asia University, Bangkok Thailand.

Having presided over impressive economic growth in his country, Mr. Aziz offers an expert view and is a frequent speaker on the challenges facing the world including structural reforms, diplomacy, geopolitics and security. Mr. Aziz is a member of several boards and advisory boards of various commercial and non-profit entities around the world.  Mr. Aziz’s book, ‘From Banking to the Thorny World of Politics’, was published by Quartet in May 2016 and is available on Amazon.com.

Shaukat Aziz was previously a member of the 21st Century Council.

Articles

composed by Arswain
machine learning consultation by Anna Tskhovrebov
commissioned by the Berggruen Institute
premiered at the Bradbury Building
downtown Los Angeles
april 22, 2022

Human perception of what sounds “beautiful” is necessarily biased and exclusive. If we are to truly expand our hearing apparatus, and thus our notion of beauty, we must not only shed preconceived sonic associations but also invite creative participation from beings non-human and non-living. We must also begin to cede creative control away from ourselves and toward such beings by encouraging them to exercise their own standards of beauty and collaborate with each other.

Movement I: Alarm Call
‘Alarm Call’ is a long-form composition and sound collage that juxtaposes, combines, and manipulates alarm calls from various human, non-human, and non-living beings. Evolutionary biologists understand the alarm call to be an altruistic behavior between species, who, by warning others of danger, place themselves by instinct in a broader system of belonging. The piece poses the question: how might we hear better to broaden and enhance our sense of belonging in the universe? Might we behave more altruistically if we better heed the calls of – and call out to – non-human beings?

Using granular synthesis, biofeedback, and algorithmic modulation, I fold the human alarm call – the siren – into non-human alarm calls, generating novel “inter-being” sonic collaborations with increasing sophistication and complexity. 

Movement II: A.I.-Truism
A synthesizer piece co-written with an AI in the style of Vangelis’s Blade Runner score, to pay homage to the space of the Bradbury Building.

Movement III: Alarmism
A machine learning model “learns” A.I.Truism and recreates Alarm Call, generating an original fusion of the two.

Movement IV: A.I. Call
A machine learning model “learns” Alarm Call and recreates A.I.Truism, generating an original fusion of the two.

RAVE (IRCAM 2021) https://github.com/acids-ircam/RAVE