FEATURE
Champion – Imran is a passionate advocate for Teesside and is determined to keep the current momentum going through his role as digital lead on the Tees Valley Business Board.
Family business – Flok Co-Working Space, in Middlesbrough town centre, is run by Imran’ s wife, Anila, and their 12-year-old son, Sami, comes in to help in the school holidays.
It was there that he used one of the lessons he’ d learned in the shop – building strong relationships with customers.
Imran quickly progressed into managerial positions before taking his first step into a software start-up as commercial manager for Middlesbrough-based I-Snapshot.
As Imran’ s career continued to take off, his next position was as tech project implementation lead at Leeds Bradford Airport, before being approached by London Midland Railway about a project management consultancy on the sector’ s largest European digital transformation project.
In 2016, a soaring reputation led to Imran becoming innovation lead for GTR, part of the Go-Ahead Group, before public transport giant Keolis engaged him to write its innovation strategy to transform Wales’ transportation eco-system.
Having amassed a wealth of experience, Imran launched his own business in 2017, taking the Alt Labs name from“ Alternative Thinking” and the Alt key on computers.
Alt Labs was innovation partner for Transport for Wales for the first six years and has grown ever since. Highlights include launching major programmes for LNER and National Express, while other customers include English football’ s refereeing body, PGMOL, and Cleveland Police.
Alt Labs has also just completed the Tees Valley Labs Project, an incubator and accelerator contract delivered for Tees Valley Combined Authority as part of the United Kingdom Shared Prosperity Fund, helping create 20 start-ups.
Imran is now looking forward to international growth through the new Riyadh office and is working with the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program( NIDLP), which aims to make Saudi Arabia a global leader in logistics, energy, mining and industry.
But it is Teesside that will always be closest to Imran’ s heart. He is approaching his two-year anniversary as digital lead on the Tees Valley Business Board at a time when Middlesbrough has been named in the latest UK Tech Jobs Report as the
20 | Tees Business