Class Details

Nadir loves to build and grow communities, and has some experience in this.

20 years back, upon graduating from the Singapore Management University (SMU), Nadir and a few other alumni founded the university's first Alumni Association where he served as its first Communications Director. One of his achievements in the fledgling association was to found the Alumni Scholarship Fund, where as Chairman he rallied the community to raise $200,000 to help students in need. This experience taught him early on the tools of building a new community.

In 2005, while working in Mumbai, India, Nadir started the Foreign Youth Club (FYC), a social organisation that brought together young expats and locals together in the city. FYC attracted interns, professionals, diplomats, social workers, and other youth at its regular fun events, and Nadir was featured in the Indian media for his efforts. The FYC continued in Singapore on his return in 2006 where they organised a number of very cool events, including one on a large yacht and another where they booked out the top of Fort Canning. Most other events took place at popular nightspots. FYC was a fun experience building and growing a community in two different cities.

Some years later while working in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Nadir took on a more serious role of President of the Singapore Business Council (SBC), an association under the umbrella of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce. In this capacity which he held between 2011 and 2014, his role was to bring value to the Singaporean business and professional community, which he did through regular outreach and gatherings. This was a period of plenty of activity for the SBC and Nadir enjoyed connecting the SBC members with his connections from various other communities.

In 2011, Nadir launched Frevvy, an online community which promised to 'connect you with people in your favorite networks when you are travelling to their city or when they are visiting your city.' Frevvy didn't last long, as his initial test communities didn't travel enough to make it worthwhile, but it was a great learning experience building a social networking website anyway.

While in UAE, Nadir also served as President of SMU's Alumni Association there and between 2012 and 2015, as an EXCO member of his business school INSEAD's Alumni Association. In both capacities, he was recognised for his contribution to building and growing the respective communities. It was plenty of fun too and some of the highlights included holding a dinner for the SMU alumni in UAE with the President of SMU who was visiting, and hosting INSEAD's Deputy Dean and a group of students and alumni at a popular nightclub!

In 2016 while back in Singapore, Nadir was invited by SMU to be appointed in its first cohort of SMU Alumni Ambassadors, an honour reserved for distinguished alumni. He continued a second term in 2017 before moving back to UAE.

Nadir currently works at the Human Capital Leadership Institute where his responsibilities include leading alumni relations and forging a stronger community amongst HCLI's influentual alumni base.

Concurrently, Nadir leads the Singapore Leaders Network, where he is also responsible for building and developing the community in their common mission of preparing Singaporeans for global leadership roles.

In this class, Nadir will distill the essence of building and growing a community from his two decades of success and failure to help you with your objectives. Whether you're looking to get more customers for your business, more followers for your brand, or more like-minded community members for your club, there may be some tips here for you.

This class isn't going to be about frameworks and research. It is based on practical real-world experience. I will keep it interactive and take your questions too.