Finding the magic in mentorship

Omar Asghar ’94 currently lives in Toronto, Canada, but his career in the financial services industry has taken him around the world. He has resided in New York City, Dubai, and Southeast Asia. Throughout his career, Asghar has recognized the value of staying open to learning to encourage opportunities to grow. With a focus on continuous learning, he reconnected with the University of Rochester through The Meliora Collective’s mentorship program at its inception and has found fulfillment each year he has participated.

“Mentoring with the University of Rochester has been the most fulfilling thing I can do, and it is my own way of paying it forward,” said Asghar. He went on to explain that giving back does not have to be a monetary transaction, sharing, “Sometimes it’s just about being there for folks emotionally and helping them clear their heads and be accountable.”

Mentorship was a natural fit for Asghar, given his background in banking. He explains that banking is fundamentally a service industry, and throughout his career, he has had a fiduciary responsibility to give proper guidance and advice. “Anything to do with services has a degree of human behavioral understanding. And I think that’s where being a mentor allows me to understand human behaviors,” he explained.

Throughout his years of mentoring, he’s also found a tremendous amount of value in the process for himself. “I have learned a lot from the many mentees I’ve been engaged with. I’ve become friends with them, and one even asked me to join their company as a co-founder,” Asghar said. “Those are opportunities I hadn’t anticipated. I really just wanted to engage with folks with different backgrounds and aspirations, and to continue to learn.”

He believes everyone should be involved in mentorship in some capacity in their professional or personal lives. “I always tell my son: in life, you have friends who help to stretch your imagination, and you need that same guidance in your career.”

Asghar’s appreciation for the mentoring process and his joy for continued learning are what being Meliora is about. Since graduating from Rochester, he has demonstrated the ability to adapt across different industries and truly believes in the power of human connection and mentorship.

The first question he asks his mentees is, “What is your goal in life? Is it to create magic or generate wealth?” He feels that if you’re able to do the former, you’ll find it’s much easier to accomplish both.

–Benjamin Vandenberg, November 2025