<a href="https://www.startupdaily.net/2021/09/catalysr-founder-usman-iftikhar-honoured-as-western-sydneys-champion-with-atlassians-co-founders-named-the-citys-best-in-global-business/" target="_blank">Catalysr founder Usman Iftikhar honoured as Western Sydney's Champion, with Atlassian's co-founders named the city's best in global business</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<font color="#6f6f6f">Startup Daily</font>

Catalysr founder Usman Iftikhar honoured as Western Sydney's Champion, with Atlassian's co-founders named the city's best in global business - Startup Daily

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Ignition Lane's Weekly Wrap: OnlyFans seeks G rating, ASX results bubble, Muskbots - Startup Daily

Stanford University Graduate School of Business

University of Wollongong

Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology

Earthling -  CEO at Catalysr -  2018 Commonwealth Young Person of the Year -  2019 Obama Leader Asia Pacific -  2020 Stanford GSB alum -  Obsessed with Migrapreneurship

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Catalysr is a pre-accelerator empowering Migrapreneurs to build Australia 2.0!Our vision is to create a migrapreneurial revolution, by empowering migrant and refugee startup founders in Australia to be bold, use their diversity of thought, cultural background and experiences as an asset and create a better future for themselves and Australia.Our mission is to create 10,000 jobs in the next 10 years!As the CEO of Catalysr, my role is to set the vision, bring the desired resources and meticulously work with our team to make Catalysr the best pre-accelerator in the world. Since 2016, we have run 6 programs, working with 273 migrapreneurs and helped launch 110 new businesses.

Catalysr - Pre-accelerator for Migrants & Refugees

The Obama Foundation Leaders: Asia-Pacific Program is a one-year leadership development and community engagement program that seeks to inspire, empower, and connect emerging leaders from across the Asia-Pacific region.In December 2019 - 200 emerging leaders from 33 nations and territories across the Asia-Pacific region will gather in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to begin their journey in the Obama Foundation Leaders: Asia-Pacific program! Over the course of the five-day convening, President and Mrs. Obama, as well as other prominent speakers and thought leaders, will join the Leaders for discussions around progress and opportunity in the Asia-Pacific region and values-based leadership.In addition to the plenary sessions, Leaders will participate in skill-building workshops, leadership development training, and a community service project, among other activities.

Obama Foundation

Obama Leader: Asia-Pacific

The Edmund Hillary Fellowship brings world class entrepreneurs and investors together in Aotearoa (New Zealand) to catalyse positive change for the world. I am privileged to join other fellows for the Cohort 5 (Karamu). Here's an article on my plans with Catalysr in New Zealand. <a href="https://stories.ehf.org/creating-pa-4a4e6eeb8b22">https://stories.ehf.org/creating-pa-4a4e6eeb8b22</a>

Edmund Hillary Fellowship (EHF)

Fellow Cohort 5 (Karamu)

Regional Opportunities Australia (ROA) is a not-for-profit set up in 2019 to help migrants and refugees move from big cities to regional Australia and connect them with employment and business opportunities. ROA's role is twofold; it will identify employment and business opportunities in regional areas, and it will also identify migrants and refugees in cities, get them ready and then help them move to those regional areas.ROA aims to positively transform the lives of migrants and refugees by helping them obtain employment, build successful businesses and fulfilling lives in regional Australia, so they can make meaningful contributions to and successfully integrate into Australian economy and society in regional areas.

Regional Opportunities Australia

Non Executive Director

The Westpac Social Change Fellowship supports innovators with a passion to create positive social change in Australia.10 Fellowships of up to $50,000 are awarded in 2019 to individuals who have the vision and commitment to deliver an initiative that will improve the wellbeing of Australians. The fellows also become life-long members of the W100 network. The Fellowship is designed to give recipients time and space to develop the skills, knowledge and networks needed to accelerate their growth as a social innovator. This may involve travel study tours, work experience, research or building stronger connections that will directly enhance their ability to lead positive social change. <a href="https://bicentennial.westpacgroup.com.au/Scholars/Profile?Id=3329">https://bicentennial.westpacgroup.com.au/Scholars/Profile?Id=3329</a>

Westpac Foundation

Westpac Social Change Fellow

The Global Shapers Community, one of several multi-stakeholder communities at the World Economic Forum, is a network of Hubs developed and led by young people who are ‘exceptional in their potential, their achievement and their drive to make a contribution to their communities’.

World Economic Forum

Global Shaper

AMP’s Tomorrow Makers come from all walks of life and locations, abilities and interests. They share the determination to make a positive impact on the community.Out of 1000s of applications, I was one of grant recipients who was chosen in 2018 amongst athletes, social innovators, scientists, educators, entrepreneurs, musicians and medical researchers to share in a $1 million of grants generously provided by AMP to make a better tomorrow!The AMP Tomorrow Maker grant is enabling me to work at scaling our work and impact at Catalysr, and move forward on our mission to creating 10,000 jobs in the next 10 years! Find out more here: <a href="https://www.ampstomorrowfund.com.au/tomorrow-makers/usman-iftikhar/">https://www.ampstomorrowfund.com.au/tomorrow-makers/usman-iftikhar/</a>

AMP Tomorrow Maker

Singularity University is a global community using exponential technologies to tackle the world’s biggest challenges.The Global Solutions Program (GSP) is a 9-week immersive, residential experience at NASA Research Park in Mountain View, CA. GSP brings together dreamers and inspired solvers with unique skill sets, experiences, and passions, and empowers them to develop moonshot innovations addressing humanity’s grand challenges by leveraging exponential technology and entrepreneurial tools. Specifically, GSP exists to foster the development of viable startups (for-profit or not-for-profit) that will positively impact the lives of a billion people in 10 years or less.GSP 2017 had climate change as the overarching theme, and I was selected for the scholarship to join the program amongst the top 90 people in the world to develop moonshot innovations to solve climate change leveraging exponential technologies. 

Singularity University

Global Solutions Program (GSP 2017) Fellow

The G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance (G20 YEA) is a collective of organisations across the G20 countries that work to promote and advance entrepreneurship. Alliance members represent more than 500,000 young entrepreneurs. The Foundation for Young Australians is the Australian member organisation.Each year, the G20 YEA brings together hundreds of the world’s top young entrepreneurs and key knowledge partners at an international Summit to share ideas and catalyse global change. I had the privileged to join the Australian Delegation to G20 YEA 2017 Summit in Berlin, Germany on Digital Trends for Future Business.  Currently, I am the Australian lead of the Working Group to develop a G20 wide Youth Entrepreneurship Visa to simplify mobility and incentivise young entrepreneurs to expand internationally, as well as allow free flow of talent across borders. 

G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance

Australian Lead - Entrepreneur Visa Working Group

EnergyLab was founded to support new business and technological initiatives that move Australia and the world toward 100% clean energy solutions. It offers various entrepreneurship programs in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Cambodia and India.  My role is to identify strategic initiatives that can enable EnergyLab to grow & scale our impact, and develop and lead those projects to fruition.

EnergyLab

Director Of Special Projects

YLab is a social enterprise that is building an ecosystem for young people, and those working alongside them, to fix the world.My role as an Associate is to work individually and collaboratively within teams to deliver consulting projects for Government, Corporate and NFP sector around the future of: Cities, Democracy and Work. My Engagements have been with: Navitas, Google, NSW Govt, Western Sydney University, Resilient Sydney and Digi Engage.

YLab Global

Associate Consultant

EnergyLab is a new cleantech incubator and accelerator in Australia aiming to move Australia and the world towards 100% sustainable, clean energy solutions. Climathon is a global 24-hour climate hackathon, and in Sydney it is conducted in partnership between EnergyLab and Climate-KIC – Europe’s largest public private innovation partnership.- Led a team of 3 to deliver the inaugural Climathon Sydney project in 2016, where 30 participants (5 startup teams) developed practical solutions to uptake of electric vehicles in Sydney. - EnergyLab + Artesian invested, and provided a spot in Accelerator Program to 'Everty' one of the winning teams.

Project Manager at Climathon Sydney

The Young Social Pioneers (YSP) program is an incubator program that provides young entrepreneurs and changemakers the skills, networks and clarity of purpose that will ensure their ventures have the best shot at success.I was privileged to be selected as 1 of the 60 young change-makers in Australia to join the Young Social Pioneer 2016 cohort, where I planned to continue building Catalysr and collaborate with other young pioneers for collective social impact. Won the pitching competition at the end of the program in the open stream, and was awarded $10,000 grant by FYA, sponsored by Mutual Trust 

The Foundation for Young Australians (FYA)

Young Social Pioneer

Catalysr is a startup incubator located in Western Sydney. Our mission is to create a migrapreneurial revolution, by empowering and enabling migrants and refugees in Australia to start their own businesses and create their own futures.We are a social enterprise. So far, we have run two incubator programs working with 66 migrapreneurs and helped launch 15 new businesses. My role is twofold: 1) As a product manager for our two products:  Accelerator program and our Podcast - Migrapreneur Stories with the aim to learn from others in the startup industry and be the best in the world.2) Founder Coach, help early stage migrant/refugee founders - aka Migrapreneurs learn the mindset, skillset and tools to be successful. 

Co-Founder & COO

Worked with a cohort of 18 young people from Australia, selected for the SSE & Citi Youth Launchpad program, with the aim to learn skills and establish networks necessary to turn our passion for environmental and social good into a reality. Catalysr was born out of this program and we won $5,000 Take-off Grant to do a launch and showcase event in Parramatta.

School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) Australia

Associate Fellow

Worked as a Graduate Campaigns Trainee at GetUp!, on a rotational role in Media, Legal, Climate and Clean Energy Teams and was able to deliver various research projects, campaign plans and also fed into the organisation strategy moving into the election year.

GetUp

Campaigns Trainee

Conducted in-depth tutorials with a focus on industry case studies, for Master of Engineering and Master of Engineering Management students in: - ENGG954: Strategic Management for Engineers and Technologists- ENGG942: Professional Practice for Engineers

Academic Tutor

iUniVative was a collaborative project between University of Wollongong and businesses in Kiama. - Worked on Droppoint Australia's business challenge to research and evaluate the potential to expand into the Business-to-Customer (B2C) parcel market.- Conducted market research, developed a business plan, and recommended aggressive marketing strategies for growth in the new market

Droppoint

Business Consultant - iUniVative 2014

UniVative Regional was a collaborative project between University of Wollongong and Sutherland Shire Council - conducted on a competitive basis with other university teams, aiming to develop a strategic engagement plan of the council. - Conducted market research and data analysis to understand customer and partner needs- Undertook strategic planning to develop a public event launch and implementation plan- Won the UniVative Regional competition and received an award by the council management

Sutherland Shire Council

Business Development Intern - UniVative Regional

Worked as the National Supply & Talent Management lead with AIESEC South Africa for:- Development of exchange internships- Initiatives leading to national and local organizational development- Programmes and processes for talent management pipeline. - Fostered cooperation and relationships with AIESEC national bodies globally 

AIESEC South Africa

National Vice President - Outgoing Exchange/Supply & Talent Management

Founded and led a team of 5 vice presidents and 33 student members for AIESEC chapter at GIK Institute.  - Developed and set up a local structure of AIESEC in GIKI and developed a local compendium- Recruited, trained and mentored new members to set-up a leadership pipeline.- Managed external relations with administration at GIK Institute, expansion partner - AIESEC in Islamabad and National leadership of AIESEC in Pakistan. - Developed budgets, fundraised and was responsible for allocation of funds to various projects

AIESEC

Expansion President

Worked as a management trainee in Russia, and learnt cross-cultural leadership in a highly demanding environment through the following projects:- Led a research team of 12 nationalities with the aim of setting up an Industrial & Logistics park in Siberia, and developed business plans using the 'Business Model Canvas' - Carried out market research with  'Siberia without Borders' - an Entrepreneurship Hub in Siberia- Participated in an arts and architectural project for International Biannual Arts Festival (Biennale) with a team of Russian students to make a model Russian village- Organised and Chaired a regional AIESEC Conference for 50 new recruits and was incharge of managing the agenda, speakers, all conference logistics and delivered sessions on leadership.

🌏 Usman Iftikhar

🌏 Usman Iftikhar