Hamed Wardak: Entrepreneur Of The Week

Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, Hamed Wardak is the son of Abdul Rahim Wardak, the acting Defense Minister of the country for eight years.

During his position, he worked hard to oppose the destruction of his home country. Unfortunately, the Wardak family ended up having to flee Afghanistan and become refugees.

After living in Pakistan for some time, the family finally moved to the United States, where Hamed has been living ever since. He studied at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. where he became the valedictorian of his graduating class in 1997 and was also named a Rhodes Scholar.Inspired by his father’s wisdom and desire for peace, he got a Bachelor’s Degree in Political and Government Theory, before travelling back to Afghanistan in an effort to help the rebuilding of his country.

Professional Life

Hamed worked as a managing director for the international operations firm Technologists, as well as some contractor work with both the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Through his work, he managed to bring in around $44 million to Afghanistan in monetary aid for design and build contracts.

After his financial efforts, Hamed decided to connect with the Afghan people to find out what other ways he could help them. That’s how he discovered the country needed a government which has a stronger stance with democracy so he decided to create a new political movement – Fedayeen-e-Su – meaning Sacrificers for Peace. The goal of this movement was to counter the radical jihadist groups that had been carrying out a reign of terror in Afghanistan for years.

Humanitarian Work

During all of this time, Hamed was also giving talks throughout the United States on the absence of strong political movements in Afghanistan – with the exception of the Communist Party and some loose affiliations between some of the militia leaders. Then, he became the co-founder of the Campaign for a USA – Afghanistan Partnership. This was a nonprofit, which he co-founded in 2009, as a way to develop partnerships between the two countries and bring about peace.

The main goal of this nonprofit was to achieve sustainable security in Afghanistan as well as more prosperity. In fact, one of the first projects that the nonprofit started working on was a capital campaign whose goal was to rebuild various bridges and canals in Afghanistan’s Laghman province, worth about $1.7 million. This project received funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Bank, and the Provisional Reconstruction Team.

Finally, in recent years, Hamed Wardak has also started helping refugees. He started a clothing line through a venture named Ludas Athletics as a way to bring some more positivity to the plight that refugees face on a daily basis. A portion of the sales from the clothing line is dedicated to supporting his various philanthropic efforts across the globe.