Atif graduated in modern Languages and Social and Political Sciences from Clare College, Cambridge in 1998 and then spent a year teaching English in Japan. On his return to the UK he joined Unilever and spent four years working on Pot Noodle and Peperami. He moved to Diageo where he worked on Smirnoff Ice and then became Marketing Controller of the Cadbury Biscuit portfolio.

In summer 2005 Atif decided to leave alcohol and snack food behind and join ?What If!. Starting as an Inventor, Atif cut his teeth on a variety of global projects before becoming team leader for ?What If!'s Customer Experience team. Atif went on to lead ?What If!'s large and varied team of inventors in London spearheading launches for Samsung, PepsiCo and Innocent. In autumn 2009 Atif was appointed as Global Client Director.

During his career to date Atif has worked on all kinds but really loves anything his mum can buy in her local supermarket and if he had to name his favourite projects he'd plump for CNN - the future of news and PepsiCo - nuts.

Atif is driven by achieving turnaround growth for businesses - anything that involves ruthless simplicity, big engagement and an understanding of what makes people tick. His spare time is spent beating much thinner men on the squash court and developing his late interest in economics. He sharpens his inspiration skills each year as Assistant Director of the Brent Eton Summer School where he leads a team of talented young assistants in making sure 50 students from Brent leave the summer school with a fundamentally changed view of their own abilities.

It has been rumoured that Atif was once seen without Blackberry in hand, although this remains unconfirmed.