About AVA

The corporate capability division of AdVentures Studio.

AdVentures Academy designs advisory-led learning experiences for Pakistan's leading public, private and development-sector organisations, built around the realities of how work actually gets done here.

AdVentures Academy (AVA) helps organizations develop people who can take responsibility, lead teams, and make sound decisions. We work with early-career professionals, middle managers, and C-suite leaders across leadership, management, career readiness, and applied AI.

Each program starts with the client’s priorities and the realities of participants’ roles. Practitioners with experience of the work lead our tailored training, coaching, and mentoring, giving people space to practise, receive feedback, and put new skills to use.

As the learning and development arm of AdVentures Studio, we build in follow-up and measure progress at work. Development should leave people more capable long after a program ends.

Parvez Abbasi speaking at the Pride of Pakistan event in Islamabad

Three pillars

Leadership. Capability. Transformation.

Leadership

Adaptive leaders who can read the room and move the room, at every level of the organisation.

Capability

Tailored programs in AI, sales, communication and critical thinking, built around the work, not the slide.

Transformation

Behaviour change that lasts beyond the workshop. Coaching, reinforcement, measurement.

By the numbers

A track record we can defend.

50,000+

Professionals, officers, students and entrepreneurs trained

350+

Programs & training initiatives delivered

75+

Years of combined facilitator experience

100+

Public, private and development-sector partners

Lead facilitators

Coaches who've done the operating job they teach.

Parvez Abbasi

Founder & Lead Coach

Founder of AdVentures and its academy, with over three decades of work across Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Coaches founders and executives through mergers, transformations and the messy middle of building something new. Also a general partner at Teamup Ventures and the force behind the Murree Incubation Center.

Erum Rizvi

Corporate Trainer, Communication & AI Readiness

Nineteen years across Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, Schneider Electric and Nayatel before moving into training full time. Runs programs on communication, emotional intelligence, time management and AI-era ways of working. Panelist at the Pakistan Business Leaders Summit and a coach to senior public and corporate teams.

Abdur Rafay

Strategy & Growth Lead

Leads strategy and growth at AdVentures, shaping how capability programs are scoped, priced and taken to market. Works alongside sponsors from first conversation to delivery, translating business problems into program design. Focused on making learning engagements accountable to commercial outcomes, not attendance sheets.

Nauman Abbasi

Head of Business Development & Leadership Facilitator

Head of Business Development at AdVentures with 18 years across hospitality, IT, logistics and public welfare. Leads sales leadership and idea-validation programs for banks, incubators and corporate teams. Calls himself a curiosity ataleeq: teaching people to sell by teaching them to ask better questions.

Saima Abbasi

Strategic Consultant, AI & Future Readiness

Educator and strategist working at the intersection of AI literacy, STEM education and leadership transformation. President of the Kohsar Women Development Forum and founder of inspirED, coaching CEOs, director generals and senior public-sector leaders. Builds AI programs that teach people to actually use the tools, not just talk about them.

Adnan Riaz

Lead Facilitator, Commercial & Sales

Built and led commercial teams across consumer and B2B; teaches selling as a craft, not a script.

Sipehre Irfan

Executive Coach, Ikigai & Purpose

Twenty-three years in banking and fintech leadership, including senior advisory and priority banking roles at Standard Chartered. Now Chief Coach at The Iki-gai Coach, having trained and coached over 6,000 professionals. Teaches purpose as a discipline: what you are good at, what the work needs, and where the two meet.

Bushra Usman

Facilitator, Personal & Professional Development

Founder of BU, a personal and professional development centre built around confidence and behaviour change. Trains teams and individuals using NLP-informed methods for communication, self-management and resilience. Active in Pakistan's coaching community and a regular voice on development that outlasts the workshop.

Farhan Mehmood

Senior Facilitator, HR & Performance

Thirty years in HR and organisational consulting across Pakistan and the Gulf, spanning more than thirty sectors. Former Director HR at Dow University of Health Sciences and advisor on digital learning at PTCL; now regional director at HR.com. Builds KPI frameworks and performance systems that survive contact with real operations.

Mirza Masood Baig

Learning & Development Lead (MCIPD)

Chartered CIPD member, communication specialist and strategic marketer with nearly 30 years across learning, leadership and broadcast media. Former CEO of Suno TV and Head of PTV World, with earlier leadership roles at Geo TV and the British Council. Leadership facilitator and Train-the-Trainer alumnus focused on communication, culture and managerial development.

Laraib Mustafa

Facilitator, HR & Employer Branding

Five years across HR, marketing and project leadership, including HR and strategy roles at AdVentures. Designs and delivers sessions on employer branding, early-career readiness and team communication. Keynoted NUST's NYSEP program and works closely with student and graduate cohorts.

Dua Zahra

Facilitator, Product & Business Analysis

Certified AI-driven Product Owner and Business Analyst (CSPO, ECBA) with over seven years in product management, requirement elicitation and Scrum/Kanban delivery. Works across SDLC pipelines, stakeholder management and workflow design, with hands-on SQL, Python, Excel and Power BI. Coaches young professionals on career direction, interview readiness and clear communication.

The studio team