# About Ali Asif

> Kellogg MBA 2027, ex-PwC, general manager of Northlane Solutions, and an AI-native operator who runs companies by directing AI agents.

Ali Asif is the founder of Procul Solutions, a Saudi AI company he owns outright, and general manager of Northlane Solutions, an aviation infrastructure company in Al Khobar. He is a Kellogg MBA, Class of 2027.

I'm an AI-native operator. I run companies by writing down how the work should go and then directing AI agents to do it, with a person signing off on anything that matters. I'm a Kellogg MBA, Class of 2027, I'm general manager of Northlane Solutions in Al Khobar, and I own Procul Solutions.

## Where I started

My first business was an online shop in Saudi Arabia, which I ran from 2017 to 2022 and then sold. During those years I studied for ACCA and finished a BSc in Applied Accounting at Oxford Brookes, working full time. I started at Marafie Consultancy in Riyadh, went to PKF in Dhahran, then spent three years at PwC in Al Khobar and was promoted to assistant manager. I'm a CPA, an ACCA member and a CFA Level I candidate.

That background matters to everything below. Audit trains you to ask where a number came from. I ask it of my agents all day.

## What I built

In March 2026 I set up Northlane Solutions. It bids on airfield lighting and helipad packages for Saudi clients and works to GACA, ICAO Annex 14 and FAA standards. I built its operating model on AI agents from the start. Today there are 26 role-specialized agent definitions, 13 of them on Northlane bid, client and compliance work. A person approves every price and every document that goes out. About 90% of my own operating workload runs on the system.

Procul Solutions is where my accounting background becomes a product. Many Saudi companies still close their books by hand, month after month, with ZATCA e-invoicing and Zakat on top. After three years at PwC I know how much of that work is matching and tidying that agents can do. So through Procul Solutions I'm building ProCul, an agent-native accounting product: it keeps its own double-entry ledger, matches payments to invoices, prepares the VAT return and the monthly close, and leaves every entry as a draft for an accountant to approve. It's the kind of AI-native ledger Rillet is building in the US, made for Saudi rules. It's in early build with no customers yet. Alongside it, my first outside client at Procul Solutions is a 400-person engineering group where 17 estimators now use a drawing-to-costing system I designed.

## How I actually work

I don't write code by hand. I design systems and direct AI tooling, mainly Claude Code, to build them. I decide what gets built, how the parts connect, which model does which job, and where a human has to approve. Small models extract and classify, the strongest model judges, and nothing publishes without a verifier.

I test the agents harder than I'd test a person. On one review task, a model scored its own draft about 11 points higher than a blind panel did. That is one task, so I treat it as a warning and not a law. Since then, blind panels gate anything that ships.

I also keep a running log of the AI field. I read model cards, repos and lab posts, not tweets about them. That log is the AI radar on this site.

## Now

I'm at Kellogg for my second year, majoring in Finance and Strategy, and splitting time between Chicago and Al Khobar. I'm building the link between US venture and Saudi capital: founders, funds and operators who want a person on both ends who has run real work. If that's you, start at [work with me](/work).

## Timeline

- 2017: Online consumer e-commerce business, Saudi Arabia. Founder. I built and ran my first company, an online consumer business, for five years before selling it.
- 2018: Oxford Brookes University. BSc Applied Accounting. Earned alongside full-time work in Saudi Arabia.
- 2018-12: Marafie Consultancy, Riyadh. ACCA apprentice. Advisory work during my ACCA apprenticeship.
- 2020: PKF International, Dhahran. Senior. Senior, promoted in my first year, on reporting conversion and valuations.
- 2022: Bicoli.sa, Saudi Arabia. Founder. A bootstrapped print-on-demand clothing brand that I ran with a small team.
- 2022: PwC, Al Khobar. Senior Associate, then Assistant Manager. Three years in Valuations and Advisory, ending as Assistant Manager.
- 2025: Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern, Evanston. MBA, Class of 2027. Full-time MBA with majors in Finance and Strategy, now in my second year.
- 2025-09: The AI log. Author. A running log of the AI field, read from primary sources and written up with my own take.
- 2026: Drawing-to-costing system, Saudi Arabia. Designer. A system for an outside engineering group that turns drawings into a reviewed estimate.
- 2026-03: Northlane Solutions, Al Khobar. General manager. An aviation infrastructure company that bids on giga-projects and government work, run on an AI operating model.
- 2026-03: Northlane agent model, Al Khobar. Designer and operator. About 26 role-specialised AI agents do the reading, sourcing and estimating behind every bid.
- 2026-07: Procul Solutions, Al Khobar. Founder and owner. My second Saudi company, registered with MISA and owned outright.
- 2026-08: ProCul accounting product, Al Khobar. Founder. An agent-native ledger for Saudi companies, where agents post, match and prepare the close and a person approves every entry.

## Companies and ventures

- **Northlane Solutions** (General manager): Northlane is an aviation infrastructure company in Al Khobar. It bids on airfield lighting, helipad and obstruction-lighting packages for Saudi clients and works to GACA, ICAO Annex 14 and FAA standards. I built its operating model: AI agents handle the reading, sourcing and estimating, and a person approves every price. It has priced government aviation bids and reached the final four of 30 bidders on a multimillion-dollar helideck package for a giga-project. It also holds an exclusive Saudi agency for an Italian airfield-lighting manufacturer, and I lead a team of seven.
- **Procul Solutions** (Founder and owner): Procul Solutions is my Saudi company in Al Khobar, holder of a MISA investment registration issued in July 2026, and I own it outright. It sells AI systems to Saudi companies (the first client is a 400-person engineering group, in daily use by 17 estimators). It is also the home of ProCul, the accounting product I'm building: an agent-native ledger for Saudi companies, the kind of AI-native ledger Rillet is building in the US, with ZATCA e-invoicing, Zakat and a monthly close that agents prepare and an accountant approves. It is early, and I haven't proven yet that companies will pay for it.
- **Mizan** (Originator): Mizan is the scoped version of agentic accounting, tax, Zakat and audit testing for Saudi firms, with a licensed human as signer of record. A 44-agent research run in June 2026 rated it a strong build. I haven't built it. The accounting product I'm building now, ProCul, runs through Procul Solutions.

Canonical: https://heyaliasif.com/about