Ali Tauqeer SHEIKH has been the CEO & National Program Director since the inception of LEAD Pakistan in 1995.

A. T. Sheikh specializes in institutional development, institutional reforms and in change management. He has vast experience in training and facilitating multi-disciplinary expert groups on policy planning, leadership development and conflict management. He has studied at Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad, Australian National University, Canberra, and University of Miami, Florida, from where he obtained Master's degrees in International Relations and Strategic Studies. He has been a Fellow at the Institute of Soviet and East European Studies (ISEES) Miami; the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) in London and the Rockefeller Foundation in New York.

He has worked as Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad and served as Editor of the quarterly journal, Strategic Studies. He has written extensively on issues of conflict resolution, international negotiations and international treaties in several professional journals as well contributed to leading newspapers in the US, UK and Pakistan, and has contributed chapters to several books.

He has delivered lectures at a number of universities and institutions including Oxford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University), the Carnegie Endowment, the Kennan Institute of Advanced Russian Studies and the University of Michigan. He has lectured regularly at Quaid-e-Azam University and the Foreign Service Training Institute, Islamabad.

He has been a consultant/advisor to United Nations Development Program (UNDP); UN Educational Scientific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO); The Asia Foundation; and the Rockefeller Foundation. He has worked with the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) Islamabad, on the Regional Action Plan for Asia-Pacific region in cooperation with the UNDP; Asian Development Bank; United Nations Environment Program (UNEP); and the UN Environment and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).

He serves on the Board of several nonprofit organizations and is member of various commissions and national committees dealing with environment and sustainable development including the apex environmental body in the country, Pakistan Environment Protection Council (PEPC), chaired by the President of Pakistan. He is a member of the National Environmental Quality Standards Implementation Committee (NEQS - IC); Member of Steering Committee regarding the Preparation and Development of Management Plan for Khirthar National Park & Adjoining Protected Areas; Member of Advisory Committee on National Environment Policy of the Ministry of Environment; Member of Project Steering Committee of Pakistan POPs Enabling Activity: Preparation of the POPs National Implementation Plan under the Stockholm Convention. He also serves on Board of Global Compact in Pakistan.

He has been interviewed on several occasions by the national and foreign media on a range of environment and sustainable development issues.