Mansoor Ijaz is founder and chairman of The Crescent Partnerships, a family of New York investment partnerships between Ijaz, Lt. Gen. James Abrahamson (USAF Ret), former director of President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, and Turkey's Global Group, a major Abu Dhabi investment group and the heir of a prominent European shipping family. Former CIA Director, Amb. James Woolsey, serves as vice chairman of Crescent's Board of Governors.
Crescent specializes in the use of quantitative modeling techniques to manage investment portfolios. Crescent's MENARA family of private equity funds, currently in formation, focuses on three strategic investment sectors: national security technologies, including internet security, satellite imaging and air and seaport cargo security, telecommunications, and real estate acquisitions. The firm is headquartered in New York with partner offices in London, Abu Dhabi and Ankara. Ijaz founded Crescent in 1991.
Ijaz received his SM degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985 where he trained as a neuro-mechanical engineer in the joint MIT-Harvard Medical School Medical Engineering Medical Physics Program. He received his bachelor's degree Magna Cum Laude from the University of Virginia in 1983, where he majored in Physics. He has applied the extensive modeling experience he
gained at MIT and Harvard to develop The CARAT System, Crescent's proprietary currency, interest rate and equity risk management system.
Away from Crescent's daily business affairs, Ijaz is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and appears frequently on a variety of financial and political news programs for CNN, CNN International, Fox News, BBC, Germany's RDF TV, Japan's NHK, ABC, NBC, MSNBC and CNBC. He has commented for Public Broadcasting System's Newshour with Jim Lehrer and ABC News Nightline with Ted Koppel, and served as Foreign Affairs and Terrorism Analyst for Fox News during 2002.
Ijaz has been featured twice in BARRON'S Currency Roundtable discussions. He has also contributed to the editorial pages of London's Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, Newsweek International, The Christian Science Monitor, USA Today and the Times of India.
As a private American citizen, Ijaz negotiated Sudan's counterterrorism offer to the Clinton administration in April 1997 and proposed the framework for a ceasefire of hostilities between Indian security forces and Kashmiri separatists in the disputed Kashmir region in August 2000.
Ijaz's father, the late Dr. Mujaddid Ahmed Ijaz, a prominent American physicist, was an early pioneer in developing the intellectual infrastructure of Pakistan's nuclear program. Ijaz earned All-American weightlifting status while attending the University of Virginia. Born in Florida in 1961 and raised in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, Ijaz lives in New York City today with his family.
His father videotaped his last will and testament to him thusly:
For Mansoor, 1992 was a watershed year. It was marked by personal tragedy and change, when his father died of brain and lung cancer. In a gesture mixed with symbolism and drama, Mujaddid had left a lasting message for his son – giving his dying instructions on videotape. In the tape, Mujaddid indicated that – since Mansoor had shown his capability to adapt to changes – he should dedicate himself to helping the Islamic world. Mansoor subsequently said that his father had passed the baton (given Mujaddid's expertise, outsiders may wonder what exactly the baton was), noting: "There was always a cultural gap between us…His death gave me a conscience". Although the father-son relationship had not been one of overtly displayed affection, not unlike most sub-continental father-son relationships, Ijaz had been a dutiful son and had always wished to please his father. It is no leap of faith therefore, to assume that his father's final dramatic gesture had a lasting impact on Mansoor. It is equally safe to assume that Mansoor was already on the radar of the American intelligence agencies because of his obvious brilliance, his parentage, his business skills and his connections. No doubt, they also noticed his growing contributions to the Democratic Party. Indeed, he was singled out in 1994 by the Democratic National Committee which had by then recognised that he was more than just a source of funds.