OPEN Silicon Valley is hosting a series of webinar to highlight candidate who have dedicated their time to serving communities they live in. This is an opportunity to meet the candidates and learn what drives them to public service and how they aspire to make positive impact in the communities they serve.

Omar’s parents immigrated to the United States from Pakistan in 1983. His first exposure to politics was going with his siblings while in elementary school to protests against the Iraq war. Throughout his upbringing, his family would never shy away from politics and the belief that the most patriotic thing a person could do was fight to make government better. This ethos stayed with him as he went to De Anza Community College where he managed a student budget of $1.2 million. It was also then that he was appointed one of the youngest commissioners in Sunnyvale city history to the Parks and Recreations Commission. He completed his degree in public policy at Cornell University. He intend to use the knowledge he gained from those experiences, and from working for Assembly member Evan Low and Congressmember Mike Honda, for the City of Sunnyvale.