Asad Umar was born in Rawalpindi. His father was an Army officer and his family has a long history of military career. He is the youngest among his 6 other siblings. Umar graduated as an MBA from the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi in 1984.
Asad Umar served as CEO and President of Engro Corporation for 8 years during a 27 year career with the company which began in 1985, when the company was still a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, the global oil giant. He joined the company as a business analyst, and was working for it abroad in Canada when the famous management buyout of Engro took place in 1991.
Umar came back to Pakistan and in 1997 was appointed the first CEO of Engro Polymer & Chemicals, the group’s petrochemical arm. Later on, he was elected as the President and CEO of Engro Corporation in January 2004 and transformed the business from a mere chemical company to a giant conglomerate. It was his idea to diversify into dairy and food business and today 'Engro Foods' stand as the highest profit producing subsidiary of Engro Corporation. It was in his tenure when Engro became the first Pakistani company to buy a business entity abroad when the company earlier in 2012 bought Canadian based food company 'Al Safa Halal'.
Umar has been quoted about his first salary as saying, “I still remember the exact figure of my first salary: Rs 8,170 per month. My boss at the time said ‘Well, frankly they are paying you too much.” At the time he left the company, he was the highest paid CEO in the country who received Rs 5.7 million per month as salary, in addition to which he was also paid from company stocks and owns about 2 million shares of the corporation. He received Sitara-i-Imtiaz for his business achievements in 2010.
Asad Umar resigned as CEO of Engro Corporation on 19th April, 2012 and joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. At PTI, he will be part of committee to work on a draft paper to suggest economic reforms to take Pakistan out of current financial crisis. Asad Umar was appointed Central Senior Vice President of PTI on April 21, 2012.
