Prosperous businessman paves way for new entrepreneurs

Taseer Badar ’95 honored his mother and his university when he created an endowment — the Kausar Badar Family Business Honors Scholarship. Distributions from the $100,000 endowment, funded through the Texas A&M Foundation, will be used to provide scholarships to full-time students enrolled in the Business Honors Program pursuing an undergraduate degree from Mays Business School.

“I feel as though our Business Honors graduates can compete with the likes of those coming from Harvard and Yale. I want to do all I can to help our students and faculty feel equipped for any comparisons nationally.”

Taseer Badar ’95, CEO of ZT Wealth

Badar says he and his wife Zohra were eager to honor his mother in this way. “All my family has science background — doctors of nuclear medicine and engineering — so when I chose a different path, they were concerned that I was going to go hungry. But my mother believed in me, and I am tied to the health field from a different perspective.”

Badar moved to the U.S. from Lahore, Pakistan, at 11 months old, and says he has been “living the American dream” since. He got his first work experience mowing lawns in his hometown of Humble, Texas, and received a bachelor’s degree in management from Texas A&M. He now has 800 employees as president and CEO of ZT Wealth, which provides equity offerings in the health care, global commercial and residential real estate markets, and co-founder of Altus Healthcare Management Services. He has also developed several medical centers.

As a leader of numerous companies, Badar has received 18 Aggie 100 awards, which are given to the fastest-growing Aggie-owned companies.

“To establish an endowed scholarship at such a young age speaks highly of Taseer’s success and his generosity,” said Mays Dean Jerry Strawser. “Not only will our students benefit from his financial gift, but also from the opportunity to meet and know a great entrepreneur.”

Badar says his mentor is Ghulam Bombaywala, who has owned 80-something restaurants. “I really want to compete with the Ernst & Youngs, the top national firms. I want to produce high returns. I want us to be #1 and I want to bring a lot of good people with me.”

About Mays Business School

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,000 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in accounting, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and supply chain management. Mays consistently ranks among the top public business schools in the country for its undergraduate and MBA programs, and for faculty research. The mission of Mays Business School is creating knowledge and developing ethical leaders for a global society.