Dr. M. Yaqub Mirza has been President and CEO of Sterling Management Group, Inc. (“SMG”) since 1998, of Sterling Advisory Services, Inc. since its inception, and President and CEO of MarJac Investments, Inc. (“Mar-Jac”) since 1995. From 1987-1995, he served as Executive Vice President of MarJac. MarJac makes proprietary investments in U.S. and foreign securities and provides international business management services. MarJac and its affiliates operated in the United States, Canada, Chile, Egypt, Malaysia, Turkey and Zimbabwe.
Dr. Mirza also served as Vice President (1984-1994) and President (1995-2000, the year it was dissolved) of the Saar Foundation, a Virginia not-for-profit corporation. Since 1984, Dr. Mirza has been actively negotiating mergers, acquisitions and sales of various sized companies and real estate projects located in different parts of the world. After many of the acquisitions, Dr. Mirza is involved as director and officer in the development of the acquired company or real estate project by evaluating top management to maximize efficiency and profitability and then restructuring, streamlining or expanding the same. In addition, Dr. Mirza has more than 20 years of experience in stock investments and portfolio management involving assets ranging from $1-$10 million.
Dr. Mirza has served as a Trustee and Treasurer and later as Chairman (1987-February 2003), and is now an Advisor to the Board of Trustees of the Amana Mutual Funds, which are registered with the Securities & Exchange Commission as an open-end investment company and managed by Saturna Capital Corporation. In addition, Dr. Mirza currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Jugos Concentrados, S.A. (“Jucosa”), a Chilean producer of juice concentrates, traded on the Santiago Stock Exchange. He also serves on the Board of numerous other companies. He served on the Board of Mylex Corporation, a NASDAQ listed, world leader of RAID technology and network management products from December 1988 until September 1999 when Mylex was acquired by IBM for $240 million.