Aysha Baqir graduated from the world-famous Mount Holyoke College in the US, where she studied International Relations. Her time at college sparked a passion for development and she returned to Pakistan. She quickly learned that the poor needed access to economic resources and networks before they could voice their demands for social justice and she decided to arm herself with an MBA. In 1998, she founded a pioneering economic development not-for-profit organization focused on poverty alleviation through the provision of business development and market-focused trainings for girls and women. In 2013 she relocated to Singapore. She is on the Board of Kaarvan Foundation, an Ashoka Fellow, and member of the Singapore Writers Group.