Ed is President and Owner of Edward Scribner, C.P.A. a professional accounting firm located in Wellesley MA. He is currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Barakat, Inc. and a Director of Education Matters, Inc. non-profit organization located in Cambridge, MA and Director and audit committee member of the Asian American Civic Association (A. A. C. A.) located in Boston, MA. He was a former director of Solutions Benefiting Life, Inc. and Executive Committee member and head of Business Development for the Asia American Bank and trust, a publicly traded bank located in Boston. He received M.S.T. from Bentley College, M.B.A. from Columbia University and BS from Boston College. He is a member of A.I.C.P.A. and the Massachusetts Society of C.P.A.
Karen has been involved with development since the 1960s beginning with community development in US and Senegal. She has worked in dozens of countries and focuses on community determined learning needs. Her projects have included work for NGOs, bilateral, universities and governments. She has recently completed directing the International & Education Development graduate program at Boston University. She is looking forward to spending more time at Barakat. Karen holds Bachelor’s from University of Michigan.
Ian has 25 years of experience in the for-profit world, and has wide experience with organizational change and processes. Currently, Ian is a project manager at Harvard University Alumni Affairs and Development. Ian's involvement with Barakat stems from a desire to apply his extensive international business experience toward helping make a positive social impact through education. He passionately believes in Barakat's mission and in providing primary education as a basic building block for people to take control of and improve their lives. Ian holds a BA from the London School of Economics.
Bill worked as a potter for over 25 years in California and in Maine. While in Maine he also began to sell tribal rugs handled by Chris Walter, the owner of Yayla and co-founder of Barakat. Bill assisted Chris by helping him market carpets woven for the nonprofit organization, Cultural Survival Turkmen Weaving Project, to rug dealers in the US. Bill wants to share his profit with the weavers and their communities. Barakat gives back to those communities by offering primary education, literacy programs, and courses in human rights. Bill assisted in constructing the foundation of Barakat and served as the first board president. Bill holds a BA in American History from Lehigh University, and an MA in International Relations from the London School of Economics.
Tom is author of The Central Asian Arabs of Afghanistan (1981), The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China (1989) and co-author of Afghanistan: An Atlas of Indigenous Domestic Architecture (1991). Professor of Anthropology at Boston University, Barfield is also President of the American Institute for Afghanistan Studies. Since 2001 his research has focused on problems of law and political development in contemporary Afghanistan. In 2007 Barfield received a Guggenheim Fellowship that supported the research for his new book, Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History (Princeton, 2010). His membership on Barakat’s Board enables him to further education in rural Afghanistan and repay in a small way the debts he owes to the people there. Tom received his PhD in Anthropology from Harvard University.
Chris is President and Founder of Yayla Tribal Rugs, a socially-conscious business which has been directing a percentage of its profits back into the welfare of carpet-weaving communities in South Asia. He is co-founder of Barakat, Inc. as well as Machik, a DC-based non-profit working to strengthen communities in the Tibetan plateau. He serves on the Board of Directors for Barakat, Inc. and Cultural Survival, and is Chairman of the Advisory Board for Machik. He has Bachelors in Anthropology from University of Massachusetts, Boston, and he has used his formal education to hone his natural skills and passion which lie towards the field that is now being recognized as 'social entrepreneurship.'
Habibullah is the president and founder of Kehkashan Exports and a co-founder of Barakat Inc. He has worked in development in Afghanistan, and with the Afghan refugee community in Pakistan, since 1988. Habibullah has worked in innovation of hand woven carpets and kilim rugs since 1989. Habibullah stays deeply committed to furthering access to education for women and children in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Peggy and her husband, Tom Simons (a former ambassador to Pakistan, and a previous member of Barakat’s Board of Directors), were first introduced to Barakat when they attended a graduation ceremony for Barakat’s first school in Attock, Pakistan. They have been supporters ever since. Currently, Peggy and Tom reside in Cambridge. Peggy enjoys being a grandmother to three beautiful grandchildren. She holds a BA from Lawrence College and an MA from Boston College.
Ike Syed is a management consultant at Oliver Wyman where he advises executives in Fortune 100 companies on issues related to corporate strategy and business development. Before joining Oliver Wyman, he held technical and leadership roles at Cisco Systems and Fidelity Investments. In 2012, Ike was selected by the Boston Chamber of Commerce as part of it's prestigious "Future Leaders" Program.
Ike is passionate about promoting human rights and access to quality education in South and Central Asia. He received his B.A.Sc (Honors) in electrical engineering from the University of Waterloo in Canada, M.S. in computer science from Boston University and MBA with a concentration in strategy and finance from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
