Momi Gul Khattak on turning Leadership Lessons into Community Impact

For Momi Gul Khattak, Resuscitation Manager at Hamad Medical Corporation in Doha, leadership and learning have always gone hand in hand. In her role, she trains healthcare providers across Qatar in essential life-saving techniques through certified continuing education programs. “It’s a privilege to educate others and equip them with the skills to save lives,” she says.

But for Momi, lifelong learning goes beyond the hospital. When she joined the HEC Paris Executive MBA, her goal was to equip herself with the framework and tools to identify problems and create meaningful solutions. “I wanted to get ahead in life, but not just professionally. I wanted to learn how to think like an entrepreneur, someone who identifies problems and finds solutions,” she explains.

That mindset came to life during the Outdoor Leadership Seminar (OLS), a transformative two-day experience designed to push EMBA participants outside their comfort zones. Set amidst HEC’s forested grounds, the seminar challenges participants through intense physical and team-based exercises, all guided by leadership experts. For Momi, the experience was eye-opening. “It felt like a true reset, reconnecting me with myself and nature in a way I hadn’t experienced before.” she recalls. “The main challenge was adapting quickly to physical tasks and group dynamics in unfamiliar settings. But I discovered resilience in uncertain situations and realized how I even surprised myself by step into a facilitator’s role within a team, calmly even under pressure.”

That realization soon inspired something much larger.

Momi and her brother, originally from Peshawar, Pakistan, had already co-founded the Child Protection and Rehabilitation Trust (CPRT), a grassroots initiative that helps children from garbage-collecting communities access education and stability. “When we started back in 2012, we adopted about 35 to 40 children,” she says. ‘’My brother, Dr. Altaf Qadir Khattak, the founder of CPRT, envisioned a compassionate mission to rehabilitate underprivileged children by restoring their right to a normal childhood through access to basic education, while simultaneously empowering their families by supporting small-scale businesses to achieve sustainable livelihoods.”

Today, the organization has grown into a network of 10 centers in Peshawar, Pakistan supporting over 500 children.

“I was so inspired by the OLS that I decided to integrate its principles into our CPRT camps,” she says. “I highlighted how the seminar’s experiential activities build confidence, teamwork, and resilience. I shared practical examples and showed how activities could be adapted safely and meaningfully for them.”

This idea became the foundation of her capstone project, which focuses on developing a resuscitation-focused healthcare consultancy model for low- and middle-income countries. As a pilot initiative, she plans to train CPRT teachers to become “resuscitation champions”, equipping them with the skills to teach basic life-saving techniques to the children they care for—many of whom live in underdeveloped areas. “It’s about building a lasting cycle of knowledge, empowerment and resilience,” she explains.

For Momi, the EMBA journey has been about far more than building a business, it’s been a journey of purpose and leadership growth, focused on creating meaningful impact in healthcare and education while giving back to the community. 

It has given her the structure, confidence, and network to scale her impact. “I really believe that for entrepreneurship, my net worth is my network,” she says. “HEC has helped me see that leadership isn’t just about authority- it’s about service, empowerment, and creating opportunities for others.”

“Why limit yourself when you can be  more?”