Zia Chishti

Muhammad Ziaullah Khan Chishti (born 1971) is a Pakistani–American investor and business executive. He is the founder of Afiniti and TRG Global.[1][2][3]

Zia Chishti
Born
Wilson Lear

1971 (age 49–50)
Bar Harbor, Maine
CitizenshipUnited States
Pakistani
EducationLahore American School
Alma materColumbia University
Stanford University
OccupationBusiness executive
Years active1990s-present
Known forOrthoclear, Afiniti
AwardsSitara-e-Imtiaz for IT (2016)

After starting his career as a Morgan Stanley investment banker, Chishti invented the medical device Invisalign and co-founded Align Technology to market the product[4] in 1997.[5] He served as CEO of Align until 2003, when he founded the investment fund The Resource Group.[6] In 2005 he co-founded both Orthoclear[5] and Afiniti, the latter of which develops artificial intelligence for use in customer call centers.[7] Chishti was a named inventor on around 150 issued patents by 2018,[8] and had co-founded three unicorn startup companies.[9]

Early life and education

Zia Chishti was born as Wilson Lear in 1971[4] in Bar Harbor, Maine.[10] His father was American and his mother Pakistani, and after the death of his father in 1974,[4] he and his mother moved to Lahore, Pakistan.[1] At that time, his name was legally changed to Zia Chishti.[4] Although Chishti intended to pursue a business career in Pakistan[7] after graduating from the Lahore American School,[4] he was persuaded by his mother to return to the United States. In 1988 he moved to New York City[7] to begin attending Columbia University, where he earned a BA in computer science and economics[6] in 1992.[10]

Chishti subsequently became an investment banker at Morgan Stanley, working in New York and London, England[4] on mergers and acquisitions.[7] He also worked for McKinsey & Company[6] as a management consultant in London.[11] In 1997[10] he graduated from Stanford University in California with an MBA.[6]

Career

Invisalign Technology

Undergoing a course of orthodontic treatment in his early twenties, Chishti envisioned clear plastic appliances instead of metal braces.[7] Working on the project in his dorm room at Stanford University,[8] his invention, Invisalign, allowed computers to customize plastic retainers to gradually shift patient's teeth.[12] Serving as founding CEO and chairman,[13] in 1997 he co-founded the medical device company Align Technology in Sunnyvale, California.[12] The Food and Drug Administration granted Align Technology approval to sell and market Invisalign in 1998.[5] Chishti secured funding from Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, and the company had raised around $140 million in venture capital by 2000. Align Technology listed on the NASDAQ in January 2001 with a valuation of $1 billion. Chishti left Align Technology in 2003[4] and sold his shares in the company.[14]

The Resource Group and Orthoclear

After leaving Align Technology,[14] Chishti became the founding chairman and CEO of The Resource Group (TRG).[6] As his first acquisition with TRG, he purchased the Pakistani operations of Align Technology[4] in Lahore, which Align had shed in 2001. Chishti "took the abandoned office filled with laid-off workers and asked them to trust his vision for a call-center empire."[14] Chishti listed TRG on the Karachi Stock Exchange in July 2003.[4] By 2005, the company had operations in Karachi and Lahore and was supporting and acquiring American call centers.[14]

In 2005, Chishti and several former Align Technology employees founded the medical device company Orthoclear.[5] The company settled a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Align in 2006, with Align purchasing Orthoclear's intellectual property for $20 million. Chishti subsequently returned his attention to TRG.[4]

Afiniti and unicorn valuations

In 2005 Chishti founded Afiniti in Washington, D.C.,[4] with TRG holding approximately half of the startup's stock.[15] Serving as CEO and chairman,[7] Chishti wrote the first draft of Afiniti's software on his dining room table in 2006.[8] The product uses artificial intelligence to help companies increase call center. efficiency.[2] Afiniti had a valuation of $1.6 billion by 2017 and was considered a unicorn, which are companies valued at over $1 billion. Chishti continued to serve as Afiniti's CEO[13] and chairman of the board,[3] which also included directors such as John W. Snow and José Maria Aznar.[13]

By 2017, The Resource Group was operating as an equity vehicle[7] with a number of subsidiaries, for example the offshore company TRG International.[2] It primarily invested in "business process outsourcing (BPO) and related technology companies," according to Chishti.[7] By 2018, Chishti was a named inventor on around 150 issued patents and had founded three unicorn companies.[8] He was awarded the Sitara-e-Imtiaz Award for IT by Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain in March 2018.[16] That April, Chishti was also a recipient of the MIT AI Innovator Award.[8]

Views on artificial intelligence

Chishti has been a critic of the "hype" surrounding artificial intelligence, arguing society is headed for another AI winter.[17] He has stated that the benefits of artificial intelligence are evolutionary, rather than revolutionary,[18] and current successful use cases of the technology revolve around the identification of patterns within complex data, including medical image anomaly detection, hydrocarbon detection, consumer behavioral predication and fraud detection.[17][18]

Personal life

In July 2001, People Magazine listed Chishti among the top 50 bachelors in the United States.[10] Chishti works out of Washington, D.C.[4] He is an avid chess player and skier.[11]

References
  1. Faseeh Mangi (October 2, 2017). "Tycoon Takes Investors Heli Skiing to Show Them Pakistan's Safe". Bloomberg. Retrieved December 10, 2018.
  2. "This company founded by a Pakistani is valued at $1.6 billion". The Express Tribune. April 16, 2017. Retrieved December 14, 2018.
  3. "Meet Zia Chishti, the US-born Pakistani who founded two billion-dollar companies". Al Arabiya. December 8, 2017. Retrieved December 14, 2018.
  4. Farooq Tirmizi (March 7, 2017). "After a stellar entrepreneurial run, TRG is Zia Chishti's swan song". Pakistan Today. Retrieved December 14, 2018.
  5. "OrthoClear, Align end lengthy legal fight". Silicon Valley Business Journal. September 28, 2006. Retrieved December 14, 2018.
  6. "Zia Chishti". Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  7. "Born in the US, raised in Pakistan: Man who founded two billion-dollar companies | The Express Tribune". The Express Tribune. 2017-12-07. Retrieved 2018-10-11.
  8. "MIT AI Innovator Award Celebrates Top Achievers in Four Categories: Better World, Rising Star, Trailblazer, and Lifetime Achievement at Ceremony in San Francisco". Digital Journal press release. April 25, 2018. Retrieved December 14, 2018.
  9. Tony Boyd (May 18, 2018). "Afiniti founder Zia Chishti on his third billion-dollar company". Financial Review. Retrieved December 10, 2018.
  10. "America's Top 50 Bachelors". People. July 2, 2001. Retrieved December 14, 2018.
  11. "Management - Zia Chishti - CEO". Afiniti. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  12. Barnaby J. Feder (August 18, 2000). "Orthodontics Via Silicon Valley; A Start-Up Uses Computer Modeling And Venture Capital to Reach Patients". The New York Times. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  13. Matt Marshall (April 14, 2017). "Sales AI company Afiniti valued at $1.6 billion, files for IPO". VentureBeat. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  14. S. Mitria Kalita (May 10, 2005). "Virtual Secretary Puts New Face on Pakistan". Washington Post. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  15. "Pakistan opens up to investor interest". The National. October 8, 2017. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  16. "Asma, Dr Adeeb among those given civil awards". Daily Times. March 24, 2018. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  17. Zia Chishti (October 2018). "Artificial intelligence: winter is coming". Financial Times. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  18. Zia Chishti (October 30, 2018). "Puncturing the AI hype". Financial Times. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
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