Her Excellency, Ms. Ingrid Johansson, Ambassador of Sweden to Pakistan and Mr. Ashley Gold, CEO of Ericsson visited LUMS on September 23, 2016. The Ambassador and the CEO were welcomed by Prof. Dr. S. Sohail H. Naqvi, LUMS Vice Chancellor, Dr. Martin Lau, Dean Shaikh Ahmad Hassan School of Law (SAHSOL), Dr. Shahid Masood, Dean Syed Babar Ali School of Science & Engineering (SBASSE), Dr. Tanveer Shahzad, SDSB Faculty, Khurram Zafar, Executive Director LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship (LCE) and Ms. Sarah Karim, Manager Marketing, LUMS.
Dr. Naqvi welcomed the guests and talked about the long term association of LUMS with Sweden and how it has evolved over the years. He spoke about the support provided by the Rausing family of Sweden for LUMS, which resulted in the establishment of the Rausing Executive Development Centre and the Gad and Birgit Rausing Library.
Ms. Sarah Karim gave a presentation on LUMS and briefed Ms. Ingrid and Mr. Ashley about LUMS, its four schools, the programmes offered, research centres, the National Outreach Programme and campus life.
The presentation was followed by a discussion where the Ambassador expressed the keenness of the government of Sweden to establish academic linkages, business partnerships and sharing human resources between the two countries. She said that when she came to Pakistan in May earlier this year she was pleasantly surprised by the secure, modern and tolerant conditions of the country and this is the image she wants to project to her Swedish counterparts and encourage them to collaborate on many levels.
Mr. Ashley Gold, CEO of Ericsson expressed his desire to recruit LUMS Electrical Engineering students and support research on the Internet and the telecom industry at LUMS.
Dr. Naqvi also proposed an arrangement where a delegation of students from Sweden visits LUMS and a delegation of students from LUMS visit Sweden to encourage dialogue and further collaborations between the two countries. The Ambassador urged the VC to start work on the exchange of students between the two countries immediately.
Khurram Zafar, Executive Director, LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship (LCE) spoke about some interesting research at LUMS and startups incubated at the LCE.
A tour of the campus then took place which included a visit to the Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities & Social Sciences (MGSHSS), the Library, the Moot Court at SAHSOL, Syed Babar Ali School of Science & Engineering (SBASSE), the Rausing Executive Development Centre (REDC) and LCE at the Suleman Dawood School of Business (SDSB).