An economics alumnus of Chennai’s well-reputed Madras Christian College, Imthiaz Pasha is President of the MEASI Group of Educational Institutions comprising five colleges and a K-12 school in Chennai with an aggregate enrolment of 9,800 students. A distinguished industrialist, educationist, and community leader, Imthiaz Pasha’s career reflects a fine balance of entrepreneurial drive and deep social service commitment. 

Pasha’s grandfather Janab Mehboob Khan Sahib developed the largest passenger bus service business in Andhra Pradesh and was a committed philanthropist. Building on this strong foundation, Pasha’s father, Janab Osman Ali Khan, a civil engineer from The Guindy College of Engineering, Madras, promoted the Road Transport Corporation Pvt. Ltd (RTC) in 1955 and further diversified into export of leather, leather products, sea foods, and promoted real estate and steel re-rolling industries. Osman Ali Khan also served as Member of Parliament representing the Kurnool and Anantapur constituencies during the tenures of Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, and Indira Gandhi. Simultaneously, Pasha’s mother, Jouhar Osman Ali Khan Sahiba supported several schools, established orphanages and set up the women’s wing in Anjuman, apart from promoting many secular programmes to improve the lives of the economically weaker sections.

In 1970 after graduation, Pasha began his professional career by acquiring management training in leather, steel manufacturing, road transport etc and was appointed Managing Director of RTC Pvt. Ltd at the young age of 28. In 1982, he branched out on his own and promoted Chevro Leathers which over the past four decades has evolved into one of India’s most respected leather manufacturing enterprises, supplying premium shoe uppers to globally renowned brands such as Bally (Switzerland), Gabor and Salamander (Germany), Armani (Italy), and Clarks and Church’s (UK). Notably, Chevro was the first Indian leather company to introduce fashion leathers in Mode Europe, for women’s footwear worldwide, earning global acclaim in  1988-89. Over the years, the company has expanded its markets to 27 countries and received 37 awards from the Union ministry of commerce for aiding and enabling India’s export efforts.

In education, Pasha’s contribution started with MEASI (Muslim Educational Association of Southern India) in 1991; in 1996, he was appointed its Vice President, rising to the office of President of MEASI in 2023. Over the past three decades, he has played a pivotal role in promoting greenfield institutions including The New College, MEASI Institute of Management, and MEASI Academy of Architecture. In the EW India Higher Education Rankings 2026-27, New College is ranked among India’s Top 25 private autonomous colleges and MEASI Institute of Management #3 in Tamil Nadu among private B-schools. Under Pasha’s stewardship, MEASI has gone international, concluding partnerships with Harvard Business Publishing and being the recipient of numerous academic accreditations and awards.

Among Pasha’s major achievements are his contributions to the management of the Anjuman-e-Himayat-e-Islam (AHI), which supports the education of 1,000 underprivileged and orphaned children in multiple educational institutions and a specialised centre for dyslexic children. AHI also manages the CBSE-affiliated Al-Hira Model School, Chennai (of which he is the Chairman), ranked among Tamil Nadu’s Top 15 co-ed day schools in the EW India School Rankings 2025-26. Actively engaged with several civic and charitable initiatives, Pasha is also a founding-member of the Heart Foundation, Chennai, which hosts and/or supports international academic and medical conferences. Moreover, he was a member of the organising committee of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Scotland, a 510-year-old medical institution, and helped to organise its first conference in India in 2022. In 1987, he was instrumental in organising the first-ever ODI cricket match in Chennai to raise funds for the Madras Round Table-1, a Chennai-based non-political, non-sectarian community service organisation, of which he is an active member.

In appreciation of his sustained effort to develop higher education institutions to empower individuals, strengthen communities, and create opportunities for generations to come, the Board of Directors of EducationWorld are pleased to present Imthiaz Pasha the EW Lifetime Achievement in Education Leadership Award and induct him into the EW Hall of Fame of Indian education.