User:Amistad.revive/sandbox

Biography

Sarmad Tariq also known as ‘The Chairman’ is a story teller/motivational speaker from Islamabad, Pakistan. After meeting a swimming accident at the age of 15 he was left shoulder down paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair (hence the title). Sarmad believes that his physical confinement is the reason to his spiritual liberation. Resilience being the key to his success.

Accomplishment

Among regular achievements he also holds the world record of longest non-stop drive by a quadriplegic and drove his hand controlled car for 33 hours, covering a distance of 1,847 km from Khyber to Karachi. On 30th January 2005 he was the first ever and only wheelchair bound athlete in Lahore Marathon, by finishing the race distance of 42km in seven and a half hours he qualified to represent his country in ING New York City Marathon 2005 and made history for Pakistan by returning with a finisher’s medal.

Author of a fiction novel "Natural Gases by Shuntoo". His passion to find his hidden abilities and stretching those to extreme limits has inspired many.

Career Sarmad works as life coach, motivational speaker and a writer with the aim to highlight the importance of human potential. He helps others realize the positive significance of limitations at organizational and personal level. He holds an MBA & majored in marketing and human resource management. He brings with him diverse working experience of more than ten years. While working for LMK Resources as team leader human resource department. He looked after recruitment and selection and contributed his thoughts to HR policy related matters. He is a certified support group facilitator from “Cheryl Watkins Institute of Chemical Awareness, USA. He regularly contributes content to Blue Chip Magazine, and on his personal blog.

As a speaker/trainer he has worked with organizations such as Novartis, Merck, Procter & Gamble, Telenor, Standard Chartered Bank, Unilever, Pakistan Tobacco Company, Lakson Tobacco, Glaxo Smith Kline Pakistan Ltd., Pepsi & Nokia Siemens Network Pakistan. He is also on the board of trustees of not for profit organizations such as Hashoo Foundation.

On March 26, 2004 he drove a distance of 1,847 km nonstop from Khyber to Karachi in his hand controlled car. He covered the distance in 33 hours and made a world record by being the first ever quadriplegic to cover the distance in such short time. The objective of his drive was to raise awareness about the latent potential of physically challenged. He is also the first ever Pakistani wheelchair bound athlete to complete a full marathon distance of 42.192 kilometers in Standard Chartered Lahore Marathon on January 30, 2005. And was the only wheelchair athlete to represent Pakistan and complete the New York City Marathon in November 2005. As an athlete his adventures continue.

Sarmad is a quadriplegic (paralyzed shoulder down), on a wheelchair for the past 21 years. He is married, and lives in Islamabad.