Safi Qureshey

Early life and education Qureshey was born in Karachi, Pakistan, on February 15, 1951.

Career

AST Research

In 1980, he and two colleagues, Albert Wong and Tom Yuen formed AST Research, in Irvine, California. Qureshey served as the company's CEO. The name AST came from the first letters of their first names. and Qureshey stepped down as CEO.

Quartics After leaving AST, Qureshey founded Quartics, an Irvine, California–based semiconductor startup developing systems-on-a-chip (SoC) for wireless video transmission. The company's products were chips that allowed PCs to transmit content to televisions, and HD video codecs. Qureshey served as the company's CEO until November 2008.

Irvine Ventures In 2000, Qureshey launched the Irvine Ventures incubator with a $50 million investment. The group works with UCI and other local research institutions to launch new companies.

Government service In 2003, Qureshey was named by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to his transition team, to help him put together his new administration. Qureshey was also a member of President Clinton's Export Council, where he traveled to emerging countries with successive Secretaries of Commerce to promote international business.

Patents Qureshey holds a number of patents related to web audio broadcasts and playback onto connected devices.

Philanthropy In 2004, the LA Times called Qureshey "one of Southern California's leading Muslim philanthropists". He has worked to use new media and television to fight illiteracy. He founded the Active Learning Initiative Facility (ALIF) in Pakistan, which brought Sesame Street characters to that country to facilitate learning. The Qureshey Research Laboratory (QRL) at University of California, Irvine UCI, completed in 1997, was named for his daughter after a large donation from Qureshey.

Qureshey also founded and served as the first President of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Southern California chapter. The group consists of South Asian entrepreneurs and mentors.

In 1998, Qureshey received the American Muslim Achievement Award for outstanding contributions to work community and humankind, from the Los Angeles–based Muslim Public Affairs Council.