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Jawaid Baig acquired his early schooling from St.
Anthony's in Lahore before joining Petaro in 1962.
He hails from a prominent family of Lahore. His
father was a very well known figure of his times.
His tenure at Petaro was brilliant. He excelled in
academics as well as sports and was known to be an
extremely likeable personality.
During the final Matric
exams, he obtained the 3rd position in the Board
in the district in 1965. He was the Vice Captain
of the College Shooting team and was also a Colour
Holder in Shooting. He participated in the ISSST
and was a member of the first
Famous Forties of 1966.
Jawaid Baig held several appointments throughout
his stay at Petaro starting from being a Prefect
in class 9. He was the Senior Section Leader of
his house in 12th class as well.
His performance in house teams was highly
commendable. He was a member of the Quiz/Spelling
Bee team and many of the house sports teams. He
was also a member of the College Cricket team. He
was a member of the English Debating Club, the
Funkada Drama Club, Photography Club, etc.
Upon his passing out, Cdr. Firoz Shah (the
Principal) commented: "Smart and talented,
possesses pleasant personality, liked and
respected by his colleagues, an outstanding
sportsman, excellent academic career, a safe bet
for commission in the Pakistan Armed Forces".
He was selected for the 41st Long Course of
Pakistan Army, but chose to enter into civilian
life.
Thus, he joined the University of Engineering and
Technology (UET), Lahore in 1967 and graduated as
a Mechanical Engineer in 1972. During his years at
UET, he was the Founder and Chairman of the
Quaid-e-Azam Students' Federation. He was also the
captain and colour holder of the UET Shooting
Team.
In 1973, Jawaid Baig moved to the USA and obtained
a masters degree in Industrial Engineering from
California State University at San Jose in 1975.
He then got an MBA degree from the University of
Santa Clara in 1978.
While he was at Santa Clara, he was also employed
by Racal Vadic from 1976 to 1978. That year he
joined Bechtel Corporation as a Project Cost
Engineer for construction projects in the
refineries and petroleum division, which launched
him into the projects business for the rest of his
life. He worked with Bechtel until 1984. He was
responsible for costing, estimating, planning,
forecasting and budgeting of the projects. One of
the largest projects in which he was involved was
the $5 billion Sea Water Treatment Plant at the
Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.
In 1985, he moved to Saudi Arabia and Juffali
Bros. as Senior Planning Engineer at Jeddah. At
that time, Saudi Arabia was going through and
economic depression, and a year and a half down
the road, his company offered him to stay back at
a reduced salary package. He declined and
resigned. While he planned to go back to the USA,
two of his major French clients - namely Bouyges
International and Spie Patineau - encouraged him
to start work in Saudi Arabia on his own and they
would give him the work. He found a local Saudi
sponsor and took on the projects.
In 1993, he had grown enough to set up his own
company in Saudi Arabia as a foreign investor
under the name of Baig Arabia. This company has
been one of the key partners of Saudi Oger in many
of the projects and has grown into a major
contracting and consulting company.
In 2007, he set up a second company called Baig
International, and a company in the USA called
Baigie, Inc, USA in California for design
engineering and consulting work, and real estate
investments.
Jawaid Baig is mashallah a very successful
entrepreneur and I wish him the very best for
providing leadership in the business community.
He is also a very conscientious Pakistani and has
great designs on how to try to work for the
betterment and development of the country.
It is truly my honour to have met and known Jawaid
Baig.
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