Karim Gulamhussein Rajpar Ladak

To say that Karim G. Ladak of Toronto is a well-travelled person would be a gross understatement - in his still youthful age, Karim has visited a whopping 160 countries! Having lived in 10 countries, Karim sees himself as a nomad - in fact his new book, out this month, is called “Cosmopolitan Nomad- A Globetrotter's Story”

At Khojawiki, we think it is fascinating how Karim Ladak has managed to leverage his good fortune, to create for himself a world that he relishes (working less, enjoying more) and his story can provide a valuable lesson to some of us, who might be obsessed with the rat race!

Karim was born in Tanzania, where he did his primary education but arrived in Canada at a early age, completing his high school and first degree at York University, in Toronto. Luckily, he then chose to spend a summer abroad at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem studying Classical Arabic, which then lead to study at Sorbonne in Paris, France and then at University of Surrey in London, United Kingdom, where he graduated with a Masters in Science degree in 1982.

What followed for Karim was a fascinating career, fine tuned for maximum travel, that began firstly in Canada (managing supply chain systems) and then across the globe as an Information Technology and Shared Services Executive with the global powerhouse, Procter & Gamble. In the process, Karim made it to India, as an IT Manager to lay the foundation for P&G India and Kobe, Japan to develop the P&G IT Master Plan for Asia.

In 2002, Karim returned to Canada to become the Business Intelligence leader at P&G, Global Business Services division, where he pioneered business dashboards. But by now, Karim was totally hooked on travel and in 2007, he chose to relocate to Moscow, Russia to head P & G Global Business Services for Central and Eastern Europe, a $5 bln business and then between 2010 and 2013, he was responsible for European Procurement Services and Solutions (400 people across 3 service centers and 60 sites), providing governance to process $20 bln worth of goods and services annually for P&G. In addition, Karim has held 3 global roles and a regional organization leadership and his signature on all these assignments has been his ability to transform both the business and its organization. Karim successfully trained 120 trainers globally and has been an strong advocate for diversity as well as for development of IT Women in Central and Eastern Europe and Eastern Africa.

Karim on one of his trips.

He has been an active leader in community work, across a variety of non-profit organizations in Canada, where he was a founding member and later chaired the board of directors. Karim served on the Health and Rehabilitation Panel for the United Way of Greater Toronto and later served in the Aga Khan Social Welfare Board of Canada for 6 years, first as Vice-Chair and then as Chair.

In 2014, Karim decided to slow down professionally and now does private consulting, so as to be able to focus more on his passion of travelling and his writing about it. The result is his new book

We will let Karim explain why he wrote this book:

"Hello there! My name is Karim, I am a travel lover and over the last few years, have discovered that travel is not just about down-time, but equally importantly it is a powerful way to learn about the world, about our similarities and about our differences. It helps break boundaries, bridge the divides, it helps nurture a greater understanding of people and cultures of the world. I see myself as a citizen of the world and my aspiration is that we see the world as one global humanity, and come together on the basis of our similarities versus our differences, since many of the “labels” impressed upon us are a function of our socialization."

"Cosmopolitan Nomad- A Globetrotter's Story” is available here at a special pre-order price this month.

You can read about his book on his blog here:

Visit http://cosmopolitannomad.com

Here is a video of the book:

The book is dedicated to his parents, Count Gulamhussein Rajpar Ladak & Countess Sultankhanu Gulamhussein Rajpar Ladak of Kigoma, Tanzania.

We wish Karim many "bon voyages" to come!

IID/2017