> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://handbook.aiql.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Founders

> Who founded and leads AiQL, and where they built before the company

AiQL has two founders.

Before AiQL, their work spanned two continents: 17 years of healthcare AI leadership, and a graph platform processing more than a billion nodes a day.

Domain and technical experts are listed under [Experts](/experts/overview).

## Syed Zaffer

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="Syed Zaffer" img="https://mintcdn.com/aiql-4d400fb1/moZttGPyDr2OvTg7/images/team/syed-zaffer.jpg?fit=max&auto=format&n=moZttGPyDr2OvTg7&q=85&s=8837f4309f3b2c0776ea11ee2a5e159b" width="362" height="362" data-path="images/team/syed-zaffer.jpg">
    Co-founder and chief executive officer
  </Card>

  <Card title="Previously">
    Built and led PwC Middle East's Healthcare AI Practice. That work covered national governments and regulators, insurers, and health systems.

    **PwC Middle East**, **Endeavor Health**, and **University of Chicago Medicine**
  </Card>
</Columns>

<Columns cols={3}>
  <Card title="17+ years">
    Healthcare AI
  </Card>

  <Card title="$15M+">
    Cost savings delivered
  </Card>

  <Card title="75+">
    Deployments across two continents
  </Card>
</Columns>

## Maxim Gladkov

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="Maxim Gladkov" img="https://mintcdn.com/aiql-4d400fb1/moZttGPyDr2OvTg7/images/team/maxim-gladkov.jpg?fit=max&auto=format&n=moZttGPyDr2OvTg7&q=85&s=e91559f03a99b056edcfb3cb62ea9d25" width="400" height="400" data-path="images/team/maxim-gladkov.jpg">
    Co-founder and chief technology officer
  </Card>

  <Card title="Previously">
    Built knowledge graph systems and AI in production at enterprise scale. At Pfizer, designed Neo4j knowledge graphs and agentic retrieval used by more than 500 people. At GoDaddy, built an email rendering engine that sends millions of messages a day. At Gartner, led a high-scale platform migration to Rails. Earlier, as CTO of Blondie, designed a graph platform that stores and processes billions of nodes daily.

    **Pfizer**, **Gartner**, **GoDaddy**, and **Blondie**
  </Card>
</Columns>

<Columns cols={3}>
  <Card title="12+ years">
    Building systems
  </Card>

  <Card title="1B+">
    Graph nodes processed daily
  </Card>

  <Card title="10M+">
    Operations powered daily
  </Card>
</Columns>

## Before AiQL

The founders also worked with a \$165M US state health marketplace, and with national health ministries and regulators in the Gulf.