Saima Rana wears many hats within the LUMS system, working as both, a faculty member and as the Head of Operations at the National Incubation Centre Lahore (NICL) at LUMS.
At NICL, she has paved her way to a primary leadership role in just a year and a half, having started initially as the Director for Learning and Development. As the Head of Operations, she ensures all strategic decision making of NICL is carried out in a timely manner, upholding the overarching mission of NICL. In the Learning and Development portfolio, she has steered the curation of the NICL Foundry Program i.e., a bootcamp style mini-MBA training for entrepreneurs to develop their ideas into investor-ready business plans. She also directed an academic collaboration with the University of Saarland, for the development of a pre-incubation course, Entrepreneurship 101. Furthermore, under her leadership, NICL launched the first Pakistani cohort in the Stanford Seed Spark Program, with an NICL-backed startup winning in South Asia. She also extends support in a mentorship capacity to startups at NICL.
Saima has been a post-secondary Business Management instructor for over 14 years with a focus on entrepreneurship, marketing, and merchandising. She has been engaged with LUMS as an instructor specializing in consumer behavior, and as a juror and thesis supervisor. Her expertise lies in developing her own course outlines and then executing them with case-based teaching. Her courses are incredibly sought after at LUMS and receive very high evaluations. She is also an Instructional Skills Workshop certified instructor.
Saima Rana was a mentor at junior founder in 2022