Afreina Noor is a non-profit leader and C-suite advisor with over fifteen years of work experience across North America, South Asia, and Africa. She began her journey in 2006 by co-founding Pakistan's largest network of non-profits, rapidly expanding its reach to encompass 30 member organizations nationwide and 20,000 on-ground personnel. In 2012, she demonstrated her commitment to social impact by volunteering internationally with vulnerable and orphaned children in Botswana.

Stepping into the corporate world in 2015, Afreina was handpicked to lead a core team at the CXO level that spearheaded digital transformation and the creation of new digital verticals for a thriving company.

As a new immigrant in Montreal, she started hosting an online talk show, "Conversations with Women Immigrants in Montreal," while building a thriving virtual community on Facebook, “Women Who Freelance Montreal.” The group has organically grown to over 6,000 women freelancers and continues to embody the essence of women uplifting women.

In her latest venture as a communications and marketing expert, Afreina has spearheaded content marketing strategies and digital marketing portfolios for Oil and Gas companies with US$100 million in annual revenues in three global markets: the USA, Canada, and Saudi Arabia.

Afreina has contributed to Quebec's literary and mental health communities by serving as the Quebec Writers’ Federation Communications Officer and occasionally blogging for Vent Over Tea. She is the President of COCo and continues to serve on the QWF's Public Relations committee and the YES Montreal Fundraising committee. She is an international consultant for UNICEF and UNDP on national policies and frameworks for social policy.

Afreina sees herself as a storyteller, improviser and poet living downtown Montreal with her feline companion, Monsieur Pause-Uddin Siddiqui.

Afreina is a Fulbright scholar with a Master of Public Administration from UPenn.

"Trust thyself--every heart vibrates to that iron string" - Emerson

My existence is credited to the lands I have lived, nourished, and learned from.

In Gaborone, The San, the Balala, the Nama, and the Tswana; in Islamabad, The Punjabi, Sindhi, Balochi, Pashtun, and Muhajir; in Philadelphia the Lenni-Lenape People of Lenapehoking and the Poutaxa, and in Montreal—where I now live and create on traditional territories of many First Peoples—Tiohtiá:ke, which is what Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk)—and now many others—call Montreal. This place has been and continues to be a historical gathering place for many Indigenous peoples.

I am grateful to be part of a long and proud history of creating and sharing stories on these lands.

The Diary of a CEO

7 Good Minutes

UnF*ck Your Brain: Feminist Self-Help for Everyone

Non Fiction:

Self-Reliance and Other Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz

Fiction:

Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang

The House by the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

Saranjaam (Accomplishment) - Meesha Shafi