Saadia Zahidi

Saadia Zahidi is a Member of the World Economic Forum Executive Committee, and leads its Education, Gender and Work System Initiative team to share new insights, gather best practices, promote change strategies, and empower leaders to drive progress. She founded and co-authors the Forum's Global Gender Gap Report, Human Capital Report, and Future of Jobs Report. She is also a member of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment. Saadia was named to BBC's 100 Women in 2013 and 2014 and won the first FT/McKinsey Bracken Bower Prize for authors under 35. Her book, Fifty Million Rising, on womenomics in the Muslim world was released in 2018.

Saadia Zahidi is a Member of the Executive Committee and Head of the Education, Gender and Work practice at the World Economic Forum. Under her leadership, her team works with leaders from business, government, civil society and academia to develop and implement strategies to close skills gaps, prepare for the future of work and foster gender equality. Saadia founded and co-authors the Forum's Future of Jobs Report, Global Gender Gap Report, and Human Capital Report, and her team is responsible for several other publications. In her previous roles at the Forum, she has led the civil society and international organization portfolios and served as an Economist with the Global Competitiveness Programme.

She was selected as one of the BBC's 100 Women and won the inaugural FT/Mckinsey Bracken Bower Prize for prospective authors under 35. Her book, Fifty Million Rising, on womenomics in the Muslim world, will be released in the fall of 2017. She holds a BA in economics from Smith College, an MPhil in International Economics from the Graduate Institute of Geneva and an MPA from Harvard University's Kennedy School. Her interests include the future of work, the impact of technology on employment, education and skills, gender parity and income inequality.