Melody Hossaini

Melody Hossaini believes that everything starts with you as an individual – if you know who you are and what your purpose is, you can be happy, successful, and importantly, make a positive difference in our world. She is a Human Investor.

Starting as a war-refugee to being one of the most prominent social entrepreneurs in the world, Hossaini started her career at the age of 13 by becoming a co-founder of UK Youth Parliament (UKYP), and subsequently made history becoming the first female to chair its board of Trustees. During her 11 years of volunteering, she spearheaded several campaigns with Government to improve communities.

Hossaini has worked and been trained by 12 Nobel Peace Prize Winners, including Vice-president Al Gore on climate change at Cambridge and Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Peace Implementation in Los Angeles. She holds a 2:1 LLB Honours law degree from Oxford Brookes University.

She launched her social enterprise InspirEngage International in 2009 and took the company global from day one, achieving a portfolio in 100 countries, reaching over 1 million people. Her work brings together personal development and social impact and she designed the InspirEngage Bootcamps to maximise human potential. She is one of the most sought-after professional speakers, well-known for her realness, energy and thought-provoking content (including at TEDx Kuala Lumpur).

She has worked alongside some of the leading corporates such as Facebook, Philips and GE, and impact organisations such as United Nations and the British Council as well as an impressive range of educational institutions. Hossaini has trained hundreds of women to become economically active by launching their own social enterprise, and is a member of the prestigious CEO Champion’s Group of FTSE 100 companies helping women to prosper.

As a thought-leader, she is a Visiting Fellow at Birmingham City University, delivering lectures supporting young people to prepare for the future world of work by developing core life skills, and she is a proud Ambassador for the Prince’s Trust.

Hossaini is a Government adviser on enterprise and skills and has written for Forbes, Huffington Post, The Guardian and forewords for several books, as well as professionally commented and been interviewed on SKY, CNBC and the BBC (even appearing in HRH the Queen’s 2009 Christmas Day speech for her work).

Her focus on business that benefits the community has achieved widespread recognition. In 2015 the European Parliament awarded Hossaini ‘New European’s Most Influential Woman’ and most recently in 2016, Hossaini was recognised as ‘Young Global Leader’ for her contribution in shaping the socio-economic landscape. This followed previous awards including ‘Asian Woman of Achievement’ presented by Prince Charles, the ‘Woman of the Future’ presented by Princess Zara Aga Khan and ‘Volunteer of the Year’ by the Home Office.

In 2011, Hossaini made history being the first ever social entrepreneur to appear on BBC’s ‘The Apprentice’, making it to week 10 out of 12. Hossaini was born in Iran, grew up in Sweden, speaks 5 languages, and is mother to Kian Kennedy and Arielle Persia.