Sultan Ali Allana

Sultan Ali Allana was born in Karachi, in 1959. He attended St. Patrick's High School, DJ Science college and then moved to Canada where he obtained an undergraduate and a postgraduate degree from the McGill University. He then attended the University of Wisconsin, USA, where he obtained an MS in Management Technology.[4][5][6]

He joined CitiBank Karachi in 1985. He left CitiBank in 1994 and formed the Equity firm Global securities, which entered into a joint venture with UBS. In 1997, he was appointed to the board of Tourism Promotion Services Pakistan Limited (the owners and operators of Serena Hotels in Pakistan). In 1999 he acquired a management stake in NDLC and was appointed as CEO of the company. NDLC later merged with IFIC Bank to form NIB Bank.

In 2002, he worked with the Government of Pakistan to establish the First Microfinance Bank, and was appointed as its first chairman (2002-2006).

In 2003 he volunteered for the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) to oversee their investments in banking, insurance and aviation, and later joined the organization.[7][4][8]

In 2004 he was appointed as the chairman of Habib Bank Limited after its privatization. AKFED had acquired the majority stake during the privatization.[9] Habib Bank Limited operates more than 1600 branches, in over 15 countries. Sultan Ali Allana has now successfully positioned HBL as the largest bank in Pakistan in terms of assets, and has been ranked as the top Pakistani bank in the Forbes Global 2000 multiple times.[10][11] HBL has been named Pakistan’s Best Bank by Euromoney, Best Domestic Bank by Asiamoney and Best Investment Bank by FinanceAsia. In 2020, HBL was named  Asia’s Best Bank Transformation by Euromoney.[12][13][14]

Sultan Ali Allana is a patron and collector of Pakistani Art. In his role as the chairman of HBL, he has shown support and sponsored numerous organizations that promote art in Pakistan. He, and his company sponsor the Lahore Biennale, which attracts more than three million visitors. At the inauguration of last year's event he stated that “It is incumbent for societies to recognize the tremendous value of the arts and the need to honor and nurture artists”. He is a collector himself and has a large collection that is made up of mostly local pieces with some international pieces as well.[15][5][16] He is a member of the Steering committee of Artists' Welfare Fund.[17]

He was awarded the Sitara-e-Imtiaz in 2006 for "valuable services for Pakistan", in the economic and financial sector, especially the establishment of the First Micro Finance Bank.[3]