As CEO of Standard Chartered Bank (Pakistan) Limited (SCBPL), Shazad is committed to creating an inclusive environment which leverages colleagues’ diverse strengths and positively impacts clients and communities. Under Shahzad’s leadership, SCBPL has made significant strides towards becoming an inclusive gender balanced organisation. Presently, 27% of SCBPL’s workforce is female in contrast to 2014 whereby the female participation rate was 21%. During Shahzad’s tenure, SCBPL has embedded flexible working practices, revised parental leave benefits, introduced mentoring and wellness sessions for women and most importantly increased focus on hiring, retaining and promoting women. In addition, SCBPL launched Inclusive Leadership Programme which is designed to support over 550 People Leaders in understanding the importance of developing an inclusive work environment by equipping them with the essential skills to drive change and mitigate bias. Shazad sits on the Standard Chartered Global D&I Council, responsible for overseeing the development and implementation of the D&I strategy which covers gender equality as well. He is also the member of SC Global Community Programmes Steering Group championing the GOAL programme. The programme aims to empower adolescent girls become integral economic leaders and has benefited over 6,000 girls in Pakistan alone. SCBPL also supports female entrepreneurs in Pakistan via its #SCWomenInTech programme. Shazad is an advocate of increasing female representation in senior roles and enabling a discrimination free reward and performance decision-making, principles emanating out of SC Group’s commitment to UK HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter and the Fair Pay Charter. Externally, Shazad chairs the board of directors for Developments in Literacy (DIL) in Pakistan which primarily focuses on providing educational opportunities for girls.  Furthermore, Shazad is a great ambassador for gender equality and regularly speaks and participates as a panellist and keynote speaker at external events to bolster change.