Ameena Saiyid

Ameena Saiyid is the Managing Director of Lightstone Publishers in Pakistan. She headed the Oxford University Press Pakistan for 30 years, becoming the first woman to ever head a multinational company in Pakistan and was also the President of the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In 2005, she became the first Pakistani woman to be awarded the Order of the British Empire for her services to women’s rights, education, and intellectual property rights in Pakistan, and to Anglo-Pakistan relations. She began the movement of literature festivals in Pakistan and is also the founder of the Karachi Literature Festival. In February 2013, she was conferred the prestigious French award of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters for her work in promoting literary culture. She attended Karachi Grammar School.

Ms. Saiyid is a member of the Federal Education Minister’s Search Committee for the selection of scholars on Pakistan Chairs abroad, a member of the Foreign Minister’s Committee of Arts and Culture and of the Sindh Government’s subcommittee for Libraries. Ms. Ameena is also the prestigious Trustee of the Vicky Noon Education Foundation, UK, which gives scholarships to Pakistani students to study at Oxford and Cambridge Universities.