Ziad Ahmed is a 23-year-old recent graduate from Yale University, now living in NYC. He is an American-Muslim-Bangladeshi entrepreneur/speaker.

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Ziad is the CEO/Founder of JUV Consulting (www.juvconsulting.com), which is a purpose-driven Generation Z marketing consultancy. He founded the company in 2016 in response to realizing the extent to which his generation is misunderstood today. Since then, JUV has worked with 20+ Fortune 500 companies, has established full-time offices, and has grown its network of young folks to over 3,000 members. JUV has been featured by

by Bloomberg Businessweek, Business Insider, The New York Times, The TODAY Show, and many other notable sources. Ziad was named to the Forbes #30Under30 list at nineteen-years-old in 2019 in the category of marketing/advertising for his work with JUV. He is a sought-after voice on the power of Generation Z -- and has spoken to audiences at American Express, VidCon, Verizon's BUILD Series, and beyond. He fundamentally believes that the primary source is always the best source, so his work seeks to champion that.

 

Ziad also founded redefy (www.redefy.org), a youth non-profit committed to creating resources that make communities more inclusive, in 2013. He founded the organization after noticing how people were being inhibited by society's unfair expectations, and so he created a platform to redefine perspectives positively and to defy stereotypes. Redefy has since reached hundreds of thousands of young people digitally, has established chapters in 10+ countries, and has been honored as a part of the Facebook Community Leadership Program. Ziad currently serves as the Chairman of the organization as the day-to-day operations are always ran by high schoolers given the mission of the non-profit. Through Redefy, Ziad has been recognized as a leader in his field through being included in conversations at the White House about discrimination, chosen as a member of many organizing committees of social movements, and invited to meet many high profile leaders. His work has been commended by President Barack Obama personally, PBS, CCTV, and other notable sources. Additionally, he has been the recipient of the Diana Award, the National Youth Activist Award in Social Justice, and the Princeton Princeton Prize in Race Relations. MTV has even named him of one of the top nine teens changing the world, and a High School Trailblazer. Business Insider has also named him one of the top 15 young prodigies changing the world. 

 

Insofar as community service, Ziad has sat on multiple youth boards, served on the Executive Board of Not in Our Town (a Princeton-based racial justice non-profit), and volunteers at many local organizations. As part of his interest for social change, Ziad has also been a member of Corner House’s GAIA Team in order to be further involved in promoting understanding within the Greater Princeton Area. His commitment to community service has led him to win multiple Presidential Service Awards as he completed over 600 community service hours during his high school career. Ziad has served on the Marketing Advisory Board for DoSomething.org, worked with Women's March Youth EMPOWER as an advisor, and and continues to lead as a part of Yara Shahidi's #Eighteenx18 initiative. Ziad focuses a lot of energy on youth voter engagement, progressive advocacy, and uncomfortable conversations that drive us forward.

 

Ziad has also worked for the Martin O'Malley 2016 Campaign for President, holding the role of Co-Head of YouthForOMalley. Furthering his political engagement, he has also interned with Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman in her district office. He has also interned for the US State Department as a VSFS Intern working on its P2P project to harness the power of social good campaigns to combat online extremism. At the State Department, Ziad became a lead intern of eleven other interns focusing on the long-term strategy of the initiative, and spearheaded the beginning of the process to create an app to allow young people all around the world to engage in the important work. As a result of his leadership, he was given the opportunity to present his work at a UN General Assembly Side Event about the P2P Project co-hosted by Facebook, the US Department of State, and Edventures. He also joined the Hillary 2016 team as a volunteer, working directly under the Muslim Outreach Director. Ziad was a Founding Member of Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman's Youth Advisory Council, and is often talking to political teams about better ways to work with young people as partners. Ziad did a lot of work around getting more young votes to come out to the polls in 2018, and he certainly will not be sitting out in 2020.

 

Ziad graduated cum laude from Yale University with honors in Political Science, writing his thesis on social media's impact on US foreign policy in the Middle East specifically. During his time at Yale, he served on the Executive Board of the Yale International Relations Association (YIRA), as the Executive Director of the Yale Model United Nations Institute (YMUNI), as an award-winning competitor of the Model United Nations Team (MUNTY), as the Strategy Director of MUNTY, as a teacher for Hemispheres (a group that teaches New Haven public school students about international relations), and as an active member of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) and the Yale College Democrats. In New Haven, Ziad has worked as a TD Community Engagement Fellow at LEAP, a non-profit enriching thousands of low-income students, working on communications projects. He graduated from Princeton Day School in June 2017 cum laude with the Alumni Service Award, and was heavily involved with Model UN, Muslim Club, Student Government, science/math mentoring, fundraising for community organizations, and social justice organizing. 

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Ziad is keen to use his voice to provoke dialogue, progress, and change, and has done so through writing, speaking, and creative expression. His writing can be seen via Teen Vogue, The Huffington Post, YR Media, Medium, or Redefy. As Ziad continues to try to use his voice to advocate for justice, he speaks for international audiences. He has given speeches at various conferences, spoken at forums such as the Council on Foreign Relations, and has presented at numerous community events. He has also given four TEDxTalks: at TEDxYouth@ISP, TEDxAAS, TEDxTeen, and TEDxYouth@Harlow. Ziad has appeared on CNN as well as numerous other networks -- and continues to be featured by major outlets frequently.

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Ziad's journey of his willingness to push the envelope in order to stand up for what he believes in has caught the attention of many -- including the likes of The Washington Post, NBC News, TIME, The Young Turks, AJ+, Fusion, The New York Times, and BBC. 

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Overwhelmingly though, Ziad is just your average young person grappling with identity, struggling to balance it all, pursuing his passions, and spending way too much time on Instagram (@ziadahmed).