Mansoor Ijaz

Mansoor Ijaz (born 1961) is an American businessman of Pakistani Ancestry. He is an investment banker and media commentator, mostly in relation to Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan. He is the founder and chairman of Crescent Investment Management LLC, a New York investment partnership since 1990 that includes retired General James Alan Abrahamson, former director of President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative. Ijaz has had ties to former CIA Director James Woolsey. Ijaz is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Mansoor Ijaz was born in Tallahassee, Florida and grew up on a farm in rural VirginiaIjaz received his bachelor's degree in nuclear physicsfrom the University of Virginia in 1983 and master's degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985, where he was trained as a neural sciences engineer. His father, Dr. Mujaddid Ahmad Ijaz, was a theoretical physicist who played a major role in nuclear detterence development throughout 1970s and 1980s, and was a pioneering figure in the designing of the weapons.

Ijaz developed CARAT, a currency, interest rate and equity risk management system. He started his own investment firm in 1990. Away from Crescent's daily business affairs, Ijaz serves on the College Foundation Board of Trustees at the University of Virginia and is a member of theCouncil on Foreign Relations.

The memogate controversy (also Mullen memo controversy revolves around an alleged memorandum seeking help of the Obama administration (addressed to Admiral Mike Mullen) in the wake of the Osama Bin Laden raid to avert a military takeover in Pakistan Central actor in the plot included American-Pakistani businessman Mansoor Ijaz alleging that the former Pakistan Ambassador to the United StatesHusain Haqqani asked him to deliver a confidential memo asking for US assistance. The memo is alleged to have been drafted by Haqqani at the behest of President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari, but Haqqani and several senior Pakistani officials have consistently denied these allegations.(Source: Wikipedia)