Sue Stockdale talks to Sanzar Kakar about his life as an entrepreneur in Afghanistan, how he measures success, and how the company pivoted to support the recent humanitarian crisis in the country.

Sanzar Kakar is the Chairman of Afghanistan Holding Group, a 13-year-old private firm with 350 Afghan team members that has served over 700 international organizations. Ventures include Moore Afghanistan (accounting and consulting), Afghanet (internet service), Mezan (school), F45 Training (fitness), BusinessDNA (media), Hesab (payments), and BBR (transport).

Mr. Kakar graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science Engineering and from Warwick Business School with a Master’s in Business Administration. At the University of Pennsylvania, Sanzar served as the Manager of the Wharton Graduate Association. Following his undergraduate degree, he worked for Merrill Lynch as a Technology Analyst on a trading desk for bonds and equities, creating a link for automatic reporting to the New York Stock Exchange.

Mr. Kakar started in Afghanistan as an Investment Associate for Acap Partners, setting up a $20 million venture capital facility and sourcing over 300 new deals for consideration. He joined as an Executive Advisor to the Attorney General's Office of Afghanistan on a U.S. Department of State program to reorganize the institution and set up a national paper and computer criminal case management system spanning seven-justice institutions. Later, Sanzar served as the Economic Advisor for the Afghanistan Investment Climate Facility, setting up operational and fiduciary requirements for the seven-year £30 million grant facility in Kabul, followed by a promotion to Deputy Interim Team Leader. Mr. Kakar speaks English, Pashtu, and Dari.

Find out more about Afghanistan Holding Group at the website. https://ahg.com.af

This series is kindly supported by Squadcast –the remote recording platform which empowers podcasters by capturing high-quality audio and video conversations. Find out more at squadcast.fm

Key Quotes:

‘I like to start new ventures and new opportunities.’

‘I think Afghans in general have an incredible entrepreneurial spirit.'

‘It is the greatest humanitarian crisis probably of our lives and anything we can do to try to address it and help people in their time of greatest need, it's an obligation upon us.’

‘I’m very much from the technology background, and technology is a lot about scale. You can accomplish a lot of things through technology by making a bigger difference and bigger impact.'

‘I’ll be able to look back and say, I tried my best and I was able to help the most number of people. And that would be a great measure of success for us.’

‘What I learned more and more about myself is that the value of helping others.’

‘I’m a very visual person often making charts and diagrams and try to imagine things differently, imagine things, better’.

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Sound Editor: Matias de Ezcurra (he/him)
Producer: Sue Stockdale (she/her)