Mason alum’s reward to the College of Engineering and Computing creates Dean’s Technologies Innovation Fund
He’s the head of a thriving world wide IT enterprise that does far better than $1.2 billion in yearly profits and has sat on the Board of Guests for 4 yrs, and George Mason University alum Mahfuz Ahmed claims his alma mater is to thank for it all.
Rather heady things for a guy who to start with arrived at Mason lots of a long time back by way of an F-1 visa as an uncertain foreign scholar producing his initial foray over and above his dwelling in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
“Mason’s inclusive surroundings enabled me to not only get a excellent instruction, but assimilate in the new culture,” mentioned Ahmed, BS Electrical Engineering ’93, the CEO of DISYS, a McLean, Virginia-centered global managed services and staffing firm.
“I experienced never ever labored prior to coming to the U.S.,” he explained, and his initial task was in the personal computer lab at Mason. That gave him the foundation for his foreseeable future vocation route.
“Without the nurturing of my professors at the engineering section, I never think I would have been equipped to appear to the career industry with all the capabilities that have been vital to thrive.”
Now a company large, Ahmed is ready to fork out it ahead with a new combined $250,000 dedication by means of his company that will be applied to create the School of Engineering and Computing’s Dean’s Engineering Innovation Fund.
The dedication is section of the CEC’s impending Working day of Providing Marketing campaign on December 8, in which alumni donations to the Dean’s Technologies Innovation Fund will be matched greenback-for-greenback up to $250,000 by Ahmed so as to double the impression that present would make to the training of CEC learners.
“We are incredibly fired up and grateful to have this challenge present,” said Ken Ball, dean of the CEC. “It will enable us to elevate income to help our strategic approach for the College of Computing and its promise of impact on innovation.
“Mahfuz Ahmed is aware of how to innovate,” Ball ongoing. “As a difficult-operating entrepreneur, he established and grew a extremely successful company. I hope that other folks will be encouraged by Mahfuz’s generous instance and add to the Higher education of Engineering and Computing Dean’s Engineering Innovation Fund. This new fund will permit us to improve our courses and facilities, and persuade long run generations to look for answers as a result of innovation.”
Ahmed’s reward embodies the type of collective community work the Mason-led President’s Innovation Advisory Council (PIAC) envisions as it focuses on transforming Northern Virginia into a extra inclusive innovation overall economy full with a diverse and career-ready expertise pipeline.
Mason has led the way in the transformation, beginning with the renaming of its Arlington Campus to Mason Square this spring with ideas for it to develop into an city vacation spot of understanding, collaboration and financial development. Fuse at Mason Square is the technological innovation-forward building that will be the heart of that neighborhood.
The PIAC consists of neighborhood leaders and executives like Ahmed from an array of local organizations, all of whom share a prevalent eyesight with Mason of reworking Northern Virginia into a lively tech hub.
Donations to the CEC Dean’s Technologies Innovation Fund will deliver economic methods vital to fulfill the tech-talent workforce requirements of the area and aid the commonwealth’s Tech Expertise Expenditure Plan, a 20-year initiative aimed at expanding the variety of master’s levels in the fields of personal computer science, computer system engineering, and software package engineering.
“Mason instilled the entrepreneurial spirit in me,” Ahmed stated. “I started out my organization a 12 months immediately after I graduated. Mason was instrumental in my development and results. I am hoping our smaller donation will support really encourage others to observe their desire.”
