Naim is an urban management professional with over ten years of experience in the development sector. He is currently the Program Manager for CITIIS at NIUA. Prior to joining NIUA, he headed the Governance and Advocacy department of Sulochana Thapar Foundation (philanthropic arm of the US$ 4 billion Avantha Group) and Urban Governance department of Janwani (an initiative of the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture). In 2014, he was part of the three member team that developed a post graduate program on Urban Economic Development at the Symbiosis School of Economics; and he has been teaching urban governance, urban finance and urban development experience as a visiting faculty at the School since then. His research papers and articles have been published by UNESCO, Business Standard, Youth Policy Labs, CCDS and Cambridge Scholars among others. Naim is a World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Shaper, an Associate fellow of The Royal Commonwealth Society, a member of the Commonwealth Youth & Gender Equality Network (CYGEN) and an alumnus of AIESEC. He is also a recipient of the Nuffic NFP Scholarship on Inclusive Governance funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) on Smart Cities funded by the US Department of State.