Who was Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, who died in Titanic sub tragedy?

UK-based Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his teenage son were among the five people aboard a tourist submersible that imploded while voyaging to the wreckage of the Titanic last week. The father-son duo was killed in the unfortunate accident.

Shahzada Dawood’s father is a business tycoon and one of Pakistan's richest men.

Early life and rise of Shahzada Dawood as a billionaire

Born on February 12, 1975, in Pakistan’s Rawalpindi, Dawood studied law as an undergraduate at Britain’s Buckingham University. He went on to pursue a master’s degree in global textile marketing from Thomas Jefferson University.

The 48-year-old served as the vice chairman of his family’s business conglomerate, Engro Corporation. Dawood’s family business, headquartered in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, is spread across agriculture, energy and telecommunications sectors. According to reports, last year the firm reported a revenue of $1.2 billion.

Dawood cultivated “a culture of learning, sustainability and diversity” in his business, a few reports claimed. He joined the board of his family company Engro Corporation in 2003.

The scion was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2012.

“He has over two decades of experience in corporate governance and the transformation of industries, including growth and innovation opportunities through mergers and acquisitions of diversified public-listed companies across textiles, fertilisers, foods, and energy. Shahzada is a leading voice in the institutionalization of key international networks and contacts,” wrote the World Economic Forum on its website about Dawood.

He was also passionate about renewable energy and environmental conservation. As a trustee at the SETI Institute, he was also interested in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

It is worth noting that he was a philanthropist as well as he was involved in his family’s charitable ventures. While the Engro Foundation supports small-scale farmers, the Dawood Foundation is an education-focused non-profit.

Dawood’s 19-year-old son, Suleman, was studying business at Glasgow’s University of Strathclyde and had just completed his first year. Suleman had a great relationship with his father. In fact, they both had a shared passion for adventure and exploration. Perhaps their shared passion for science and discovery attracted them towards exploring the wreckages of Titanic.

The other three passengers on board the doomed Titanic sub were OceanGate CEO and founder Stockton Rush, British businessman Hamish Harding and French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet. Their deaths were confirmed by the US Coast Guard last week. As per the US Coast Guard, the Titanic sub’s implosion occurred when the craft was descending to the wreckage of the iconic steamship, which sits at almost 13,000 feet below the surface of Atlantic Ocean.