Ajaz Ahmed
Doctor of the University (HonDUniv)
Year conferred: 2002
Ajaz Ahmed is the co-founder and chairman of AKQA, a services company employing more than 250 people in London, San Francisco, Washington D.C. and Singapore. AKQA provides marketing, mobile, e-commerce, customer services solutions to clients including Microsoft, BMW Group, Nike, Orange and Sainsbury’s.
Ajaz failed to find motivation at university and dropped out of Bath University in 1994 only to set up AKQA a year later at the age of 21. Within five years of its launch, AKQA expanded to San Francisco, Washington D.C. and Singapore. AKQA has been twice named the "most respected agency" in a poll of 100 agencies carried out by New Media Age magazine.
AKQA is most famous for designing the graphical user interface for the Xbox 360. The agency's other notable projects include Nike Route Finder for Nike's Run London event, which uses Google Maps technology to allow runners to create and share their running route. AKQA has written and directed a short-film featuring the English and Manchester United footballer Wayne Rooney kicking a can of Coca-Cola, the Star Wars music video Nerf Herder, and a feature-length mockumentary called Unflinching Triumph. This film was rated the number one piece of viral content on the web by The Wall Street Journal in a feature article.
AKQA re-designed the Domino's Pizza on-line ordering service. A reported 58% rise in sales resulted from the re-launch, according to an article by the BBC. The Orange Integrated Shop developed by AKQA won the CNET Telecommunications Sector Technology Project of The Year in 2006.
