Ahmed Mirza

Ahmed's thesis explored the role of institutions and their association with start-up activity for OECD countries. The thesis notes the interactions of informal institutions moderated by formal institutions under the guise of property rights(PRs) and access to finance (ATF) examining its association with Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA). The thesis examines these interactions in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. This group is an intergovernmental economic organisation with 37 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. The thesis studies the time-period of 2010-2020 using an unbalanced data panel multivariable regression analysis consisting of 32 countries using a fixed-effects model. This is done due to exogenous shocks influencing formal institutions from events like the financial crisis aftermath, Brexit, the 2016 U.S. election and the Covid-19 pandemic. This time period is significant as the shocks generated by the events mentioned above will have had significant influences on formal institutions influencing their moderating effects on TEA. 

Ahmed's research interests stem into two categories; academic and practitioner based.

Academically, Ahmed is interested in research areas surrounding blockchain and web3 industries. Additonally, his interests lie in examining regulations and their influence on ventures and international trade (particularly surrounding emerging markets and Chinese multinationals)​. 

On a practioner front, Ahmed is interested in exploring new technologies as POCs (proof of constructs) to allow him to better utilise more technologies in generating data architecture solutions.

Ahmed holds the following degrees:
Undergraduate degree (University of Glasgow, 2012-2016)
Postgraduate degree (University of St Andrews, 2016-2017)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) (University of Glasgow, 2019-2022)

Ahmed's future research aims to explore more technologies, trends and phenomena in the Web3 world.

Ahmed has a wide array range of experience.  Ahmed has experience with two of the "Big 4" in management consulting and auditing respectively. During his PhD, Ahmed completed part-time work experience for the Scottish Government conducting data analysis and research for data sets and their quality.

Since completing his PhD in 2022, Ahmed is a data architect for a FinTech start up in the digital assets sector. Ahmed has a diverse set of responsibilities which include defining and implementing a comprehensive data strategy, aligning technical solutions with business goals and ensuring operational efficiency across data platforms. This involves engineering scalable and secure data lakes, integrating various data sources facilitating efficient querying and analytics. Moreover,  database optimization efforts reducting query latency via performance tuning and schema enhancements is conducted. Robust data governance frameworks and audits ensuring compliance with GDPR and SOC2 standards are also tasks Ahmed works on.

Ahmed's expertise and interests mainly lies in three areas: regulations and trade, institutional theory and data science (management).

There are several publications that Ahmed has worked on that can be captured in the public domain. Asides from his thesis, Ahmed publications that he was involved in the following:
- Young People in Scotland Survey 2021: attitudes to violence against women and girls (link);
- Equality Data Improvement Programme (EDIP) project board - equality data audit and overview of data: December 2021 (link);
- Equality data collection in the Scottish public sector (link).

Since completing his doctorate, Ahmed has not been involved in teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate level degree courses. Ahmed has taught undergraduate degrees of international business and strategy as a PhD candidate.

Since completing his PhD, Ahmed has conducted several talks for a wide range of audiences from other university MBA students (Oxford and Fordham), high school students and masterclass sessions within the University of St Andrews. In a lot of these talks, Ahmed has covered more technical content surrounding the digital asset sector and the security aspect of blockchain technology and what his employers do in this space (importance of cryptography).

At the university of St Andrews as an honorary lecturer, Ahmed intends to help stakeholders within the university better data management and science. Working as a data architect which means aligning systems, use data science techniques and support stakeholder decision making is a vital set of skills which the School will have access to. Additionally, Ahmed will help inform audiences more about blockchain and data management, containing relevant and updated material depending on the nature of the lecture for the audience themselves.

Ahmed was raised in Kuwait attending an international school. He moved to the U.K. in 2012 to complete his tertiary education here in Scotland. Ahmed completed his PhD in 2022 (viva was in September 2022) where the role of institutions and their association with start up activity in OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries was explored. The thesis utilised a quantitative methodology using moderation effect (OLS (log) interaction multivariable regression) models. Apart from this, Ahmed has founded a society in University of Glasgow, was a class representative for his PhD cohort during his programme and also served as a board member for the PhD society.