Nazir Ahmad

Business mentor, Change Agent, Consultant, Global soul, Muslim, Parent, Social entrepreneur

Globally-minded strategic advisor and leadership coach to individuals and organizations dedicated to healing the world. Inspired by his own childhood in Bangladesh and a family tradition of service, Nazir is passionately committed to the effectiveness of addressing social impact challenges across society. Naturally curious, deeply analytical, and big picture oriented, his professional and volunteer endeavors focus on ideas and opportunities that will improve people’s lives, livelihoods, and the planet. While clients of GivingWorks are in diverse areas of endeavor, each possesses the stature and potential to influence or implement systemic changes to advance the common good. Nazir guides and supports leading nonprofit and public sector organizations navigate through complex challenges and choices. Clients served include UNICEF, World Bank Group, AARP, Bipartisan Policy Center, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Vital Voices, Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, US National Commission on Energy Policy, the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, and the German government. In addition to institutional clients, he coaches philanthropists, activists, and social entrepreneurs redrawing the frontiers of possibility. As a student at Stanford, he co-founded the Overseas Development Network (ODN), which at its height encompassed branches in over 100 campuses. He also conceived and initiated the East Palo Alto-Stanford Summer Academy (EPASSA) and Bike-Aid -- the first-ever multi-route bike ride from coast to coast which continued for 17 years. Prior to GivingWorks, Nazir directed the global strategic marketing, innovation, and leadership practices at Strategic Decisions Group (SDG). His corporate strategy engagements focused on innovative business models for industries undergoing profound structural shifts. As lead strategy consultant to Bay Area Multimedia Technology Alliance (a NASA-Silicon Valley joint program), he led the design of alternative scenarios on the growth, usage, and societal implications of multimedia technologies. He collaborated with global consumer products and marketing companies (including Coca Cola, Nestle, Unilever, Sony, GM, IBM) to construct a dynamic systems framework to steward brand equity. He was the principal architect of “Project 50,” a roadmap to attain gender parity within a male-dominated Fortune 10 company. (It now has a female CEO and gender parity in the board). Nazir’s writings reflect versatile interests and a quest for systemic solutions to problems of diverse and complex origins. As an undergraduate, he conducted in-depth primary source research to unpack how missionary education and life experiences influenced the worldviews of certain nationalist leaders in southern Africa. His interdisciplinary undergraduate thesis was on the shifts in land tenure, food availability, and gender inequities when Britain colonized Bengal. He directed the publication of the first-ever directory of student internships focused on global poverty and injustice. For the president of Stanford, he prepared a white paper on the appropriate modalities and incentives for transdisciplinary “hard” science research in the 21st century research university, drawing on his interviews with top scientists on the faculty. He was the youngest member of an international panel to explore pivotal global issues at the turn of the 21st century. (The panel’s thinking was chronicled and published by MIT Press.) He was lead author of a roadmap for faith-based and secular NGOs to collectively advance global health which was launched in the Obama White House. Early in his career, he authored a book chapter analyzing how certain constructs of race, identity and altruism define the meta-narratives of multilateral institutions and the global media. More recently, he conceived and tested an innovative research methodology to uncover the hidden drivers of racial discrimination. He serves as Board Vice Chair and chair of the governance committee of the Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. He previously served on the national board of the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford and was founding board member of the Open Future Institute.

helping mission-driven people and organizations unlock their impact potential; instilling my 10 year old with courage and compassion; making the Earth a fitting habitat for the next generations.

Frugal innovation as a pathway to a sustainable future.

Coaching leaders, Global development, Partnership design, Philanthropy, Strategy design

Longtime listener; neophyte participant

correctly guessing the winner of US presidential elections (since 1988)