Zahra is an AI and Frontier Technology Expert, Entrepreneur, Advisor, NED, Investor and Speaker who serves on several boards. She serves as a Board Advisor at NexaQuanta – an AI and Generative AI transformation consultancy providing responsible, safe, and cost-effective AI and Generative AI solutions, consultancy, and implementation services to global enterprises.
She serves as an Expert Member of the Technology Advisory Panel (TAP) at the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) where she advises the ICO on the privacy implications and nuanced applications of frontier and emerging technologies such as: AI, Generative AI, LLMs, next generation search engines, robotics, genomics, spyware, deepfake, quantum, metaverse, neurotechnologies, digital currencies, blockchain, child privacy and consent management.
She serves as a Senior Board Advisor and Investment Committee Member at TeamUp Ventures – a tech focused venture capital fund covering the MENA region. Her role involves advising on the due diligence of tech ventures and limited partners as well as introducing potential high-growth tech ventures and limited partners to the board. She serves as the Co-Founder, Non Executive Director (NED) and Investor at Seers – leading privacy and consent management platform. She led the development and growth of the B2B SAAS-based privacy compliance platform to help companies comply with global privacy regulations (i.e., GDPR, CCPA, PECR, LGPD) as well as the brand-building, marketing, growth and business development strategy and execution to develop Seers’ brand as a leading privacy and consent management platform. In the UK. In particular, she helped lead the development of the UK’s first and only Child Privacy Consent Management Platform (CPCMP). This unique CPCMP was developed with the assistance of the ICO under their “Regulatory Sandbox” programme to enable companies to comply with the “children’s code” and to protect children’s privacy online.
Zahra has a background in Management Consultancy with over a decade of experience at Accenture within the Financial Services – Capital Markets practice area. She helped global Investment Banking clients (i.e. Credit Suisse, UBS, HSBC, RBS, Lloyds Banking Group) in the planning, management and execution of complex, high-impact, strategic, change and digital transformation programmes using AI and machine-learning technologies in cutting-edge FinTech and RegTech solutions to ensure compliance with various regulatory requirements (i.e. KYC, AML, Basel 3, MiFID, Cross Border Sanctions) to achieve strategic business objectives and deliver high-performance.
She formerly led the British Pakistan Foundation as a CEO for a period of 3 years from May 2016 to June 2019 to transform the organisation into a leading BAME nonprofit in the UK via a brand-building, strategic, change and transformation programme to “engage, unite and empower” the over 1.8 million British Pakistanis in the UK to deliver key initiatives and programmes including: 300 events and initiatives across 11 regions of the UK, 900 mentorships, 150 work opportunities, launched 9 professional forums under 3 key programmes to deliver civic engagement, professional development, mentoring and entrepreneurship programmes engaging with and increasing membership to over 21,000 members across the UK. She led the development of the new organisational strategy and brand-building programme in collaboration with the Home Office.
Building Stronger Britain Together (BSBT) programme with M&C Saatchi. She led the delivery of the Home Office BSBT “civic engagement programme” for underrepresented women in Bradford in collaboration with M&C Saatchi and the QED Foundation in Bradford. She also led the delivery of the “entrepreneurship programme” for underrepresented women in Birmingham in collaboration with the Nishkam Civic Association and the Muslim Women’s Network UK (MWNUK) in Birmingham. She served on the board of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) “Grand Trunk Project” together with key governmental and civic organisations (i.e., Faith Forums for London, City Sikhs, Hindu Forum UK, Members of Parliament and House of Lords) to deliver community building and cultural initiatives across 11 regions in the UK on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the independence of the Indian sub-continent to foster greater engagement and
cultural dialogue amongst the key faith communities in the UK. She was invited to attend the Queen’s annual garden reception in Buckingham Palace in recognition of her contribution to this UK-wide “Grand Trunk Project”.
She serves as a Chair and President of OPEN London (London Chapter of OPEN Global – a premier, global nonprofit fostering entrepreneurship and professional development for people of Pakistani heritage and underrepresented communities with over 15 chapters worldwide). She co-chaired TIE London Women (leading global nonprofit fostering entrepreneurship for underrepresented communities with 60 chapters worldwide) to lead entrepreneurship and professional development initiatives for women including serving as a judge for the global pitch competition for female founders in London.
Zahra chaired a Europe-wide female founders support group initiative as a Google alumnus. She is a frequent speaker at global conferences on topics such as: AI & Responsible AI, AI Governance for Boards, child privacy, privacy and compliance, privacy framework for Boards, cybersecurity, technology, RegTech, FinTech, frontier tech, entrepreneurship, women in technology, women empowerment, underrepresented founders, rights of underrepresented communities etc. She has spoken at various global conferences including: FinCrime World Forum, PrivSec, London Tech Week, FinTech Week London, Google Women Techmakers European Conference, AMCOB, Women Tech Quest, Transpire Global Directors Network, Vermag Annual Reg Conference, Foundervine Ascend Demo Day, Channel 5 Immigration Debate etc.
She regularly serves as a judge at the Entrepreneurs Collective (leading UK accelerator for tech ventures) and Foundervine (UK government accelerator for underrepresented founders) Pitch Competitions. She has also been featured in Sifted, eWeek UK, Compliance Week and Google for Startups Yearbook for her contribution to the Technology sector as a female leader from an ethnic minority background.
Zahra has an MSc. Analysis, Design & Management of Information Systems, and an MBA (Essentials Certification) both from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She obtained the Financial Times Non-Executive Director (NED) Diploma. She completed 5 AI and Generative AI certifications from IBM: Watsonx.ai, Watsonx.data, Watsonx.governance, Watsonx.orchestrate and Watsonx.assistant.
