Known as the Bill Gates of Pakistan Salim Ghauri leads the IT sector of Pakistan and under his command Netsol Technologies is bringing in millions of USD in terms of revenue. Salim Ghauri is the main who turned the eyes of the world towards Pakistan in terms of Information Technology.
Born in Bahawalpur, Salim comes from a humble background his father was a very hard working man and he is deeply inspired by his father. His father always wanted to do business and to fulfill his lifelong dream he moved to Lahore with his family. This also encouraged him to have his own business one day.
Salim Ghauri was never a bookworm, he doesn’t express himself as a smart student. Sometimes his teachers would promote him to the next class without final exams as they couldn’t afford another year with him. He received his higher education from Forman Christian College Lahore and for professional he went to Romania and got Degree in Petroleum Engineering.
His first job was as a Data Operator at Citibank Riyadh, Saudia Arabia. After this he went to Australia to work at BHP Steel as a Computer Network Engineer. He spent 17 years as an IT professional and gained experience from different organizations.
But now he thought it is time to do something that he had always dreamed of which was having his own business so after 17 years of successful professional career he waved good bye to his job and came Pakistan to start his own thing.
In 1996, he founded Netsol Technologies by investing all of his savings in it, it is very difficult to start an IT business especially in Pakistan and same was the case for Salim Ghauri. Netsol began from a 2 room office and minimum workforce, his two brothers Najeeb Ghauri and Naeem Ghauri also joined the business and it was Naeem who brought in the first customer for Netsol.
Salim Ghauri is a get up and go person, he is not fond of waiting at all, what we can learn from it is that we don’t have to wait for the right opportunity we have to make the opportunity for ourselves. He has travelled a lot for his business, in the early days if he would go himself once or twice a week to visit the overseas customers by himself just for business as he was not fond of doing business on emails.
There was a German customer in the beginning who wanted to visit Netsol Technologies so that they can know what kind of company they are going to do business with, but at that time Netsol was an office with 2 rooms and few staff members, so Salim Ghauri invited many of his close friends to come with their computers and just sit there like employees, hence making Netsol look like a big organization with many employees.
Salim Ghauri is a very down to earth person, he enjoys spending time with his family and also keeps his health in check as well by working out daily. He drinks water from a tradition clay pitcher in his office as he believes it is more healthy and fresh.
SocioOn Pakistan’s National Social Media and Business Network recognizes Salim Ghauri in its Top100 list of Entrepreneurs of Pakistan and we wish him more and more success for the future.
