The College of Business Management (CBM) at the Institute of Business Management (IoBM) hosted a guest speaker session with Mr. Muhammad Ali Tariq, an MBA (Finance) alumnus of CBM, Class of 2008, and currently Senior Vice President, Distribution, at Red Bull Canada. The event was organized under the guidance of Dr. Shagufta Rafiq, Associate Dean, CBM, IoBM, with facilitation by Alumni Affairs and MARCOM . Ms. Sharmeen, a faculty member at the Communication and Languages Department, served as the Master of Ceremonies. The session was attended by students and faculty members of CBM.
As part of his visit to IoBM, President IoBM, Mr. Talib Karim, welcomed distinguished alumnus Mr. Muhammad Ali Tariq and his wife, Mrs. Abeer Tariq, an IoBM alumna, to the President’s Office. President Karim congratulated Mr. Ali Tariq on his distinguished international career and appreciated his continued association with his alma mater. The meeting provided an opportunity to discuss fostering industry-academia collaboration, and exploring future initiatives.
Mr. Muhammad Ali Tariq brings over two decades of experience in the global consumer goods industry. Following his MBA from CBM in 2008, he went on to hold leadership roles across distribution, commercial strategy, route-to-market, and business transformation at leading organizations including Nestlé, FrieslandCampina, Reckitt, and Red Bull. He is known for driving sustainable growth through customer-centric strategies, operational excellence, and innovative business practices, qualities that have shaped his rise to senior leadership on the global stage.
The session was as much a homecoming as it was a talk. Mr. Ali Tariq reflected that it was at IoBM where everything for him began, both personally and professionally. He and his wife, Mrs. Abeer Tariq, also an IoBM alumna, took a campus tour before the session to revisit the memories they had built during their time at the institute.
Speaking to students, Mr. Ali Tariq advised them to begin their careers swiftly after completing their bachelor’s degrees, without taking unnecessary gaps, and encouraged them to pursue their passions while remaining mindful of their professional prospects. He walked the audience through his own journey, from being a student at IoBM to reaching his current professional stature at Red Bull Canada.
He told students that the first ten years of a corporate career are a learning curve, during which titles, pay, and company names matter far less than the learning itself. He advised them not to expect managers to always provide solutions, but to build a solution-oriented mindset of their own. Attitude, he said, is what makes a professional truly stand out, and success requires thinking with the next ten years in mind.
Reflecting on leadership, Mr. Ali Tariq said the journey to the top is often a lonely one, and that attitude defines it more than anything else. Knowing where you want to be in life, he said, is the starting point, and it takes courage to follow through on that vision. He encouraged students to fail fast, fail cheap, and never shy away from experimentation, noting that life is inherently unpredictable in both personal and professional spheres. He said opportunities rarely present themselves; they must be tested and pursued, and failures should be treated as part of the process, not the end of it. He also urged students to become comfortable with ambiguity, to never see themselves as inferior, and to remember that family is where life’s journey begins. Adaptability, he said, is essential. He closed the topic by noting that career growth brings a shift in identity, from individual contributor to manager to leader, and that true leadership lies not in commanding a team but in delegating effectively and building strong teams.
Turning to the future of work, Mr. Ali Tariq said artificial intelligence is far more than a buzzword. It is actively reshaping operational systems and creating new challenges for the workforce, and professionals who learn to manage AI effectively, rather than compete with it, will shape the future of business. On family businesses, he advised students to first spend at least two years in a corporate organization before joining a family enterprise, to gain a genuine feel for the professional world.
In his closing remarks, Mr. Ali Tariq advised students to stay grounded, remember where they began, and remain humble. He urged them not to fear failure, saying life offers lessons in many forms, and encouraged them to keep looking ahead with confidence, adding that giving up is never an option. The floor was then opened for a question-and-answer session, during which students engaged Mr. Ali Tariq on career planning, industry transitions, and leadership challenges. The session gave students a valuable experiential learning perspective, connecting classroom theory with real-world corporate insight from an alumnus who has walked that path himself.
