Chief Minister Sindh and Patron of IBA, Syed Murad Ali Shah has appointed Dr S Akbar Zaidi as the Executive Director, Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi for four years as per a notification issued by the Universities and Boards Department, Government of Sindh.

Dr Zaidi is a renowned academic and political economist with over 35 years of teaching and research experience in Pakistan and abroad. He has served as a faculty member in renowned institutions across the globe, including Columbia University, Johns Hopkins, IBA, Karachi and the University of Karachi. He is a political economist with interests in political economy, development, the social sciences more generally, and increasingly, history.

He has written over 75 academic articles in international journals and as chapters in books. Amongst his books, are: Military, Civil Society and Democratization in Pakistan (2011), The New Development Paradigm: Papers on Institutions, NGOs, Gender and Local Government (1999), and Pakistan's Economic and Social Development: The Domestic, Regional and Global Context (2004).

His recent books include Issues in Pakistan's Economy: A Political Economy Perspective published by Oxford University Press in 2015, and a co-edited volume entitled New Perspectives on Pakistan's Political Economy: State, Class and Social Change, published by Cambridge University Press in April 2019.

Dr Zaidi holds PhD and MPhil degrees in History and Economics from University of Cambridge, an MSc in Social Planning in Developing Countries from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a BSc in Economics from University College London. Dr Zaidi is the 10th head of the Institution replacing Dr Farrukh Iqbal, who served the Institute for more than 3 years.