Faizan S. Syed is the Chief Executive Officer of Health Television (HTV) and the Founding, Director of the Institute of Communication and Media Studies (ICMS) at Ziauddin University since 2011.Prior to joining HTV, Faizan worked as an investment banker in the Global Industrials Group at Barclays Capital (formerly Lehman Brothers), where he contributed to 15 transactions worth over $30 billion including a variety of IPO's, high yield offerings, and M&A transactions.
Prior to his career as an investment banker, Faizan spent four years at General Motors where he was nominated as an Emerging Global Leader. During his career at GM, he served in various manufacturing, marketing and business development capacities across three US cities.
Faizan holds an MBA from Cornell University where he was selected as a Park Fellow and a Bachelors Degree from the University of Virginia. BR Research recently had an interaction with Faizan covering the plans and ambitions of the media studies' institute. Below are edited excerpts.
BR Research: What is the main aim and objective of Institute of Communication & Media Studies (ICMS)?
Faizan S Syed: Institute of Communication & Media Studies (ICMS) grew out of a need that our TV channel had, which was to staff and retain the best talent in media. Unfortunately as we were staffing Health Television ("HTV"), we realised that a vast majority of media professionals didn't have any formal training regardless of the area of specialisation.
Given the resources we have with the Ziauddin Hospital and University, we decided to create a breeding ground for the next generation of media leaders committed to the vision of promoting a professional media environment in Pakistan.
BRR: Given the support from your hospital, it is good that your students get early exposure in practical fields. But is the limited experience also a problem because your students mostly get experience of medical and health related items
FS: This is not true. Our Ziauddin University's medical college and the medical related faculties (dental, nursing etc) rely on Ziauddin Hospital and its multiple campuses as the teaching hospital.
We have deployed a similar model with ICMS and created a television channel (HTV) and a radio station (98.2 FM), which will serve to be like the "teaching hospital" of media. ICMS is the only media institute in Pakistan with this very unique set-up allowing the students to deep dive into media training right from the start. In fact our current students have spent their summers and free time working in the TV station and radio channel on a variety of content given that the focus of HTV is health wellness and lifestyle.
BRR: What are your plans for the future in terms of curriculum, faculty and expansion?
FS: Even though the ICMS is just in its second year, we are extremely well positioned to become Pakistan's number 1 media school. It may appear to be a tall claim but we realistically believe we can do that. And to that end we have adopted a strategy that balances the critical interplay of research, faculty and curriculum.
ICMS plans to offer more specializations in the future along with increasing the number of PhD and foreign qualified faculty at the institute. We are also focused on providing students greater opportunity and practical exposure to students in their specific fields of interest such as television, radio, print, advertising, journalism social media and marketing
BRR: Media is an industry with far-reaching implications. Do you plan to have intensive research because right now the impact of media on politics, on elections, on campaigns, on consumer behaviour is an unknown quantum.
FS: Ziauddin University has a strong focus on research and is currently staffing out a university level research department. For ICMS, this department will help support and fund research studies related to all forms of media so we can better understand this industry and its impact on the larger general population.
This research driven approach will also allow our students to develop their critical thinking skills and will distinguish them from students of other media colleges. Our focus on research has existed from the very first day as our curriculum is designed to provide students with an understanding of data collection and interpretation methods and several courses are currently dedicated to this topic.
BRR: What makes you different from a dozen of other media university departments - most such media department are either for advertising or typical mass communication and teaching how to write press releases. What is your cutting edge?
FS: One obvious difference is that the ICMS has an integrated TV channel (HTV) and a radio station (98.2 FM), which makes us stand out of the crowd. This feature would give our students a real taste of professional media world during academics, and they can better decide their career paths moving forward.
Then we are also very proud of our strong faculty comprised of seasoned industry professionals, foreign graduates and Ph.Ds as well as a leadership team that is dedicated providing students with an unmatched educational and life experience. This provides practical exposure to students and also helps them learn from and interact and network with professionals who are pioneers in the fields of media and communication. We believe this overall experience will change the way media students think of this industry going forward.
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