{{Short description|Pakistani–American investor and business executive}} {{Infobox person | name = Zia Chishti | birth_name = Wilson Lear | birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1971}} | birth_place = Bar Harbor, Maine, US | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = Lahore American School <br/> Columbia University<br />Stanford University | occupation = Business executive | years_active = | spouse = {{marriage|Sarah Pobereskin|2020}} | partner = Tatiana Spottiswoode ({{circa|2017}}) | known_for = Orthoclear, Afiniti | awards = Sitara-e-Imtiaz for IT (2018) }}
'''Muhammad Ziaullah Khan Chishti''' ({{ne|Wilson Lear}}; born 1971) is a Pakistani-American investor and business executive. He is the co-founder of Align Technology and TRG Global. He is also the co-founder of Afiniti.<ref name=J>{{cite web |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-02/tycoon-takes-investors-heli-skiing-to-show-them-pakistan-s-safe |title=Tycoon Takes Investors Heli Skiing to Show Them Pakistan's Safe |author=Faseeh Mangi |date=October 2, 2017 |publisher=Bloomberg |access-date=December 10, 2018}}</ref><ref name=D>{{cite news |url=https://tribune.com.pk/story/1385200/company-founded-pakistani-valued-1-6-billion/ |title=This company founded by a Pakistani is valued at $1.6 billion|date=April 16, 2017 |newspaper=The Express Tribune |access-date=December 14, 2018}}</ref><ref name=AR>{{cite web |url=http://english.alarabiya.net/en/business/economy/2017/12/08/Meet-Zia-Chishti-the-US-born-Pakistani-who-founded-two-billion-dollar-companies.html |title=Meet Zia Chishti, the US-born Pakistani who founded two billion-dollar companies |author= |date=December 8, 2017 |publisher=Al Arabiya |access-date=December 14, 2018}}</ref>
After starting his career as a Morgan Stanley investment banker, Chishti invented the medical device Invisalign and co-founded Align Technology to market the product<ref name=FT/> in 1997.<ref name=LF/> He was CEO of Align until 2003, when he founded the investment fund The Resource Group.<ref name=SBL/> In 2005 he co-founded both Orthoclear<ref name=LF/> and Afiniti, the latter of which develops artificial intelligence for use in customer call centers.<ref name=AA>{{Cite news|url=https://tribune.com.pk/story/1577860/2-born-us-raised-pakistan-man-founded-two-billion-dollar-companies/|title=Born in the US, raised in Pakistan: Man who founded two billion-dollar companies {{!}} The Express Tribune|date=2017-12-07|work=The Express Tribune|access-date=2018-10-11|language=en-US}}</ref> Chishti was a named inventor on around 150 issued patents by 2018,{{citation needed|date=July 2023}} and had co-founded three unicorn startup companies.<ref name=TB>{{cite web |url=https://www.afr.com/business/lunch-with-the-afr-zia-chishti-founder-afiniti-20180515-h103zd |title=Afiniti founder Zia Chishti on his third billion-dollar company |author=Tony Boyd |date=May 18, 2018 |publisher=Financial Review |access-date=December 10, 2018}}</ref> In 2021, he resigned after accusations of sexual harassment and violence in his career were made public.
== Early life and education == Zia Chishti was born as Wilson Lear in 1971<ref name=FT/> in Bar Harbor, Maine.<ref name=TP/> His father, George Lear, was an American while his mother was Pakistani. After his father's suicide in 1974,<ref name=FT/> he and his mother moved to Lahore, Pakistan.<ref name=J/> At that time, his name was legally changed to Zia Chishti to avoid anti-Christian sentiment in Pakistan at that time.<ref name=FT/> After graduating from the Lahore American School,<ref name=FT/> his mother sent him back to his American roots. In 1988 he moved to New York City<ref name=AA/> to begin attending Columbia University, where he earned a BA in computer science and economics<ref name=SBL/> in 1992.<ref name=TP/>
Chishti subsequently became an investment banker at Morgan Stanley, working in New York and London<ref name=FT/> on mergers and acquisitions.<ref name=AA/> He also worked for McKinsey & Company<ref name=SBL/> as a management consultant in London.<ref name=AFI/> In 1997<ref name=TP/> he graduated from Stanford University in California with an MBA.<ref name=SBL>{{cite web |url=https://sbasse.lums.edu.pk/advisory-board/mr-zia-chishti |title=Zia Chishti |author= |work=Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering |date=27 September 2016 |publisher=Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering |access-date=December 31, 2018 |archive-date=31 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181231045550/https://sbasse.lums.edu.pk/advisory-board/mr-zia-chishti |url-status=dead }}</ref>
== Career == === Invisalign Technology === Undergoing a course of orthodontic treatment in his early twenties, Chishti envisioned clear plastic appliances instead of metal braces.<ref name=AA/> Working on the project in his dorm room at Stanford University,{{citation needed|date=July 2023}} his invention, Invisalign, allowed computers to customize plastic retainers to gradually shift patient's teeth.<ref name=BF/> As founding CEO and chairman,<ref name=B/> in 1997 he co-founded the medical device company Align Technology in Sunnyvale, California.<ref name=BF>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/18/business/orthodontics-via-silicon-valley-start-up-uses-computer-modeling-venture-capital.html |title=Orthodontics Via Silicon Valley; A Start-Up Uses Computer Modeling And Venture Capital to Reach Patients|author=Barnaby J. Feder |date=August 18, 2000 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=December 31, 2018}}</ref> The Food and Drug Administration granted Align Technology approval to sell and market Invisalign in 1998.<ref name=LF/> Chishti secured funding from Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, and the company had raised around $140 million in venture capital by 2000. Align Technology listed on the NASDAQ in January 2001 with a valuation of $1 billion. Chishti left Align Technology in 2003<ref name=FT/> and sold his shares in the company.<ref name=NFP/>
=== The Resource Group and Orthoclear === {{main|The Resource Group}} After leaving Align Technology,<ref name=NFP/> Chishti co-founded Pakistani private equity firm The Resource Group (TRG) with his two partners, his relative Hasnain Aslam and investor Mohammed Khaishgi of the Kheshgi family.<ref name=SBL/> TRG started off by operating 2 distinct private equity entities under the same name, one in Pakistan known as TRG Pakistan and the other in the United States known as TRG International. Chishti was made TRG Pakistan's CEO while Khaishgi led TRG International in the United States. TRG's first acquisition was the Pakistani operations of Align Technology<ref name=FT/> in Lahore, which Align had shed in 2001. Chishti "took the abandoned office filled with laid-off workers and asked them to trust his vision for a call-center empire."<ref name=NFP/> Chishti listed TRG Pakistan on the Karachi Stock Exchange in July 2003.<ref name=FT/> By 2005, the company had operations in Karachi and Lahore and was supporting and acquiring American call centers.<ref name=NFP>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/09/AR2005050901158.html |title=Virtual Secretary Puts New Face on Pakistan |author=S. Mitria Kalita |date=May 10, 2005 |newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=December 31, 2018}}</ref>
In 2005, Chishti and several former Align Technology employees founded the medical device company Orthoclear.<ref name=LF>{{cite news |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2006/09/25/daily56.html |title=OrthoClear, Align end lengthy legal fight |date=September 28, 2006 |newspaper=Silicon Valley Business Journal |access-date=December 14, 2018}}</ref> The company settled a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Align in 2006, with Align purchasing Orthoclear's intellectual property for $20 million. Chishti subsequently returned his attention to TRG.<ref name="FT">{{cite web |author=Thompson |first=Bob |date=September 27, 2023 |title=Amherst Magazine George Lear '58 |url=https://www.amherst.edu/news/magazine/in_memory/1958/georgelear |access-date=December 14, 2018 |publisher=Pakistan Today}}</ref>
=== Afiniti and unicorn valuations === In 2005 Chishti founded Afiniti in Washington, D.C.,<ref name=FT/> with TRG holding approximately half of the startup's stock.<ref name=G>{{cite news |url=https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/pakistan-opens-up-to-investor-interest-1.665435 |title=Pakistan opens up to investor interest |date=October 8, 2017 |newspaper=The National |access-date=December 31, 2018}}</ref> As CEO and chairman,<ref name=AA/> Chishti wrote the first draft of Afiniti's software on his dining room table in 2006.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}} The product uses artificial intelligence to help companies increase call center efficiency.<ref name=D/> Afiniti had a valuation of $1.6 billion by 2017 and was considered a unicorn, which are companies valued at over $1 billion. Chishti continued as Afiniti's CEO<ref name=B/> and chairman of the board,<ref name=AR/> which also included directors such as John W. Snow and José Maria Aznar.<ref name=B>{{cite news |url=https://venturebeat.com/2017/04/14/sales-ai-company-afiniti-raises-1-6-billion-files-for-ipo/ |title=Sales AI company Afiniti valued at $1.6 billion, files for IPO |author=Matt Marshall |date=April 14, 2017 |work=VentureBeat |access-date=December 31, 2018 |archive-date=February 20, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190220155945/https://venturebeat.com/2017/04/14/sales-ai-company-afiniti-raises-1-6-billion-files-for-ipo/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
By 2017, The Resource Group was operating as an equity vehicle<ref name=AA/> with a number of subsidiaries, for example the offshore company TRG International.<ref name=D/> It primarily invested in "business process outsourcing (BPO) and related technology companies," according to Chishti.<ref name=AA/> He was awarded the Sitara-e-Imtiaz Award for IT by Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain in March 2018.<ref name=TD>{{cite news |url=https://dailytimes.com.pk/218892/asma-dr-adeeb-among-those-given-civil-awards/ |title=Asma, Dr Adeeb among those given civil awards |date=March 24, 2018 |newspaper=Daily Times |access-date=December 31, 2018}}</ref> That April, Chishti was also a recipient of the MIT AI Innovator Award.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}
== Views on artificial intelligence == Chishti has been a critic of the "hype" surrounding artificial intelligence, arguing in 2018 that society is headed for another AI winter.<ref name=TFO>{{cite news |url=https://www.ft.com/content/47111fce-d0a4-11e8-9a3c-5d5eac8f1ab4 |title=Artificial intelligence: winter is coming |author=Zia Chishti |date=October 2018 |newspaper=Financial Times |access-date=December 31, 2018}}</ref> He has stated that the benefits of artificial intelligence are evolutionary, rather than revolutionary,<ref name=TFI/> and current successful use cases of the technology revolve around the identification of patterns within complex data, including medical image anomaly detection, hydrocarbon detection, consumer behavioral predication and fraud detection.<ref name=TFO/><ref name=TFI>{{cite news |url=https://www.ft.com/content/88135a47-ad4a-477f-a644-3ce71219cd1f |title=Puncturing the AI hype |author=Zia Chishti |date=October 30, 2018 |newspaper=Financial Times |access-date=December 31, 2018}}</ref>
== Sexual assault accusations ==
On November 16, 2021, a former female employee of Afiniti, Tatiana Spottiswoode, testified before the United States House Committee on the Judiciary. She testified that she had first met Chishti through her father's business ties when she was 12 or 13; that she began working at Afiniti in 2016 under an employment agreement that included arbitration and confidentiality; and that over the following roughly 18 months he alternately pressured her for sex and, when she refused, ignored or humiliated her at work in ways that made her fear losing her job. She said she told him repeatedly—including in writing—that she did not consent to a sexual relationship, and that in a January 2017 email she wrote that he had behaved inappropriately "with my explicit nonconsent" on three occasions. She further testified that he refused to speak to her for months after she declined a trip to Cuba with him; that during a work trip to Dubai he put his hand inside her pants and grabbed her buttocks in front of coworkers without the company taking action on her behalf; that he called her a "bitch" in front of coworkers when she refused to hold his hand; that shortly before a September 2017 performance review involving her work on Brazilian accounts he sent two pornographic emails describing a rape fantasy including strangulation; and that during a 2017 business trip to Brazil he sexually assaulted and beat her in a hotel room, responding "Good" when she said he was hurting her, after which she sought medical care for cuts, bruising, and possible concussion.<ref name="Spottiswoode2021">{{cite web |url=https://www.congress.gov/117/chrg/CHRG-117hhrg46552 |title=Silenced: How Forced Arbitration Keeps Victims of Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment in the Shadows |work=Congress.gov |publisher=United States Government Publishing Office |date=2022 |access-date=2026-04-28}} (written statement of Tatiana Spottiswoode, Nov. 16, 2021; hearing of the House Committee on the Judiciary).</ref>
On November 18, 2021, Chishti left his roles at Afiniti.<ref>{{cite web |title=Afiniti Chairman and CEO Steps Down |url=https://www.afiniti.com/news/detail/afiniti-chairman-steps-down |website=Afiniti |date=November 19, 2021 |quote=BERMUDA, November 18, 2021 – The Board of Directors of Afiniti, Ltd. ("Afiniti") announces that Mr. Zia Chishti has stepped down from his role as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and Director of Afiniti, effective immediately. |access-date=November 19, 2021 |archive-date=November 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211119125540/https://www.afiniti.com/news/detail/afiniti-chairman-steps-down |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Afiniti founder Zia Chishti 'steps down' after sexual assault allegations |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1658987 |work=Dawn |date=November 19, 2021 |location=Karachi}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Cramer |first=Maria |date=2021-11-19 |title=The C.E.O. of Afiniti, an A.I. start-up, steps down after accusations of sexual assault. |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/19/technology/afinity-zia-chishti-resigns.html |access-date=2022-08-01 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> On November 28, 2021, he resigned from all roles at TRG and its affiliates.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Titcomb|first=James|date=2021-11-29|title=Afiniti founder quits investment firm in wake of sex assault claims|language=en-GB|work=The Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/11/29/afiniti-founder-quits-investment-firm-wake-sex-assault-claims/|access-date=2021-11-30|issn=0307-1235}}</ref>
In December 2022, Chishti filed a federal defamation lawsuit against Spottiswoode, saying she had "weaponized" a "consensual love affair" and had lied under oath. The lawsuit was criticized as a disincentive to speak against rich abusers who could afford to bully witnesses with the threat of expensive litigation.<ref name="schaffer2022" /> A week later, the House Judiciary Committee that Spottiswoode had testified to entered a 2019 arbitration tribunal ruling into the Congressional Record in support of the veracity of Spottiswoode's claims. Journalist Michael Schaffer called the document "utterly devastating for Chishti":<ref name="schaffer2022" /> the arbitrator and his investigation had found that Chishti's conduct was "outrageous in character and extreme in degree, going beyond all possible bounds of decency"; that Chisti had groped Spottiswoode in front of colleagues, insulted her, brutally beat her, and had then lied about his activities after the fact; that Chishti had harassed other young female Afiniti employees and they had received monetary settlements in addition to Spottiswoode; and that the company had taken no action to attempt to prevent similar conduct from occurring in the future. It is speculated that Spottiswoode could not release the document herself without breaking the confidentiality requirements and imperiling her settlement, hence why the Judiciary Committee did it instead.<ref name="schaffer2022">{{cite news |last=Schaffer |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Schaffer (journalist) |date=December 22, 2022 |title=A Secret Report About a CEO's Sexual Misconduct Was Just Made Public by Congress |url=https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/12/22/sexual-abuse-congress-lawsuit-00075061 |work=Politico |location= |access-date=December 23, 2022}}</ref>
Chishti lost a mandatory arbitration case on the dispute in which he was ordered to pay over $5 million to Spottiswoode. He subsequently lost, in October 2024, a defamation court case against Spottiswoode in the Washington DC District Court, which the court stated was a "thinly veiled attempt to undo the outcome of an arbitration that rejected Chishti’s account of events and ruled in Spottiswoode’s favour".<ref name=brecorder-20241018>{{cite news |url=https://www.brecorder.com/news/40327703/afiniti-founder-zia-chishti-loses-defamation-case-against-ex-staffer-in-us |title=Afiniti founder Zia Chishti loses defamation case against ex-staffer in US |website=Business Recorder |date=18 October 2024 |access-date=20 March 2025}}</ref><ref name=politico-20221216>{{cite news |url=https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/12/16/congress-sexual-assault-me-too-00074149 |title=She Testified to Congress About Being Sexually Assaulted. Now She's Being Sued. |last=Schaffer |first=Michael |website=POLITICO |date=16 December 2022 |access-date=20 March 2025}}</ref>
In March 2025, ''The Daily Telegraph'' apologised and paid substantial damages in a libel settlement with Chishti in England, for its repeated reporting from November 2021 to February 2023 of sexual misconduct allegations made by Spottiswoode.<ref name=pg-20250317>{{cite news |url=https://pressgazette.co.uk/the-wire/newspaper-corrections-media-mistakes-errors-legal/zia-chishti-telegraph-libel/ |title=Telegraph pays 'substantial' libel damages to tech entrepreneur |last=Tobitt |first=Charlotte |newspaper=Press Gazette |url-access=limited |date=17 March 2025 |access-date=18 March 2025}}</ref>
== Personal life == In July 2001, ''People Magazine'' listed Chishti among the top 50 bachelors in the United States.<ref name=TP>{{cite magazine |url=https://people.com/archive/cover-story-americas-top-50-bachelors-vol-56-no-1/ |title=America's Top 50 Bachelors |date=July 2, 2001 |magazine=People |access-date=December 14, 2018}}</ref> Chishti works out of Washington, D.C.<ref name=FT/> He is an avid chess player and skier.<ref name=AFI>{{cite web |url=https://www.afiniti.com/team/zia-chishti/ |title=Management - Zia Chishti - CEO |author= |date= |publisher=Afiniti |access-date=December 31, 2018}}</ref>
In 2020, Chishti married Sarah Pobereskin in Bermuda.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000185-1808-de47-a3e7-7e8866020000|title=Chishti v Spottiswoode Redacted Complaint|website=Politico}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gov.bm/theofficialgazette/notices/ln03712020|title=Marriage Notice}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [https://www.afiniti.com/team/zia-chishti/ Biography at Afiniti] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181231043130/https://www.afiniti.com/team/zia-chishti/ |date=2018-12-31 }}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chishti, Zia}} Category:Living people Category:1971 births Category:20th-century American inventors Category:21st-century American inventors Category:American people of Pakistani descent Category:Pakistani people of American descent Category:American chief executives in technology Category:American emigrants to Pakistan Category:Columbia College, Columbia University alumni Category:Lahore American School alumni Category:Recipients of Sitara-i-Imtiaz Category:Stanford University alumni Category:Pakistani businesspeople