Shiza Shahid

An activist for female education, social entrepreneur and investor, Shiza Shahid is best known as the co-founder and former CEO of the non-profit Malala Fund and as the mentor of Nobel Prize winner, Malala Yousafzai. A world-renowned impact leader sets her focuses on making high-quality education accessible to children internationally, a topic she often focuses on as an after dinner speaker. An inspiring and empowering figure within the business world, Shiza can also offer incredible advice surrounding business management, leadership and teamwork.

An activist even in her early teenage years, Shiza was completing volunteer work and working in female prisons by the time she was 14. Notably, she offered her service after an earthquake struck Kashmir in 2005 that killed over 85,000 people. After completing a scholarship at Stanford University, Shahid returned to Pakistan to act upon the Taliban’s ban against women’s education. She later moved to Dubai where she became an expert analyst at McKinsey & Company’s Office working in strategy, transformation in Telecom, energy and banking in the Middle East.

In 2012, Shiza came into contact with Malala when she discovered her YouTube videos based on empowering women and child education in Pakistan. After organising a meeting, Malala was shot by Taliban members and therefore Shahid flew over to Birmingham to see her. The two then later co-founded the Malala Fund in 2013 to combine efforts towards equality within education. Shiza also founded The Collective in 2015 which created a community of influencers who strive for social change before co-founding the world’s first funding platform dedicated to enabling start-up companies with transformative solutions.

In between delivering lectures and speeches at some of the world’s most prestigous universities and attending international corporate events to present her views on women empowerment and the importance of education, Shiza has also gone onto co-found yet another organisation. Launched in 2019, Our Place is a consumer goods business that makes kitchen products inspired by multi-cultural traditions in a bid to bring the world closer together.

An empowering female figure within business and activism, Shiza Shahid is an ideal speaker for audiences of all varieties. Someone who is passionate and determined to make a difference to the world, Shiza’s enthusiasm inspires whoever she addresses and leaves the most incredible impact on them.