ABOUT
ZAISHA

I attended an all-girls grammar school where most students followed parent-fuelled ambitions of becoming doctors or lawyers, but despite the expectation to assimilate, being one of  few Black girls there, I rebelled, longing for a different, more authentic path. I was determined to find success doing something I genuinely loved — music. Following in the steps of a then role model, I planned to develop my music production skills and start a record label, but after my GCSE composition (one of the many I used to make in Fruity Loops) was disqualified, I didn't have the grades to study Music Technology at A-level. Disheartened at sixteen, I yielded to the conventional path and went to study A-levels that seemed 'wise'.

At sixth-form college, through an ex-banker turned economics teacher, who took us to visit a trading floor, my new career path was born - one that combined relationship-building with the intellectual challenge of understanding how global events shape the economy. With my sights set on a career in investment banking sales, I chose to study Economics at university.

2007 - 2011 ∣ BSc Economics - University of Surrey - 2:1
2009 - 2010 ∣ Researcher - 4CAST (1-year Work Placement)
2011 - 2013 ∣ Fixed Income Financing Sales - Barclays Capital

After two years of study and a year-long placement at an economic forecasting firm, 4CAST, I secured a summer internship in Sales at Barclays Investment Bank. Following an intensive ten-week programme, I received an unconditional offer to join their graduate scheme. After graduating with a 2:1 in Economics, I spent two years on the trading floor, managing relationships and trading debt financing products for fund managers, institutional investors, and hedge funds. Despite the external validation (and great salary!), I felt a paralysing loss of my creativity and passion for life. In August 2013, I decided the cost was too high and left the bank to rediscover of a path that felt true to me.

2013 - 2014 ∣ Food Busker & Cru Kafe
2014 - 2015 ∣ HR Consulting Executive - CEB (now Gartner)
2014 - 2016 ∣ Founder & Curator - BLVCK+WHITE*
2015 - 2016 ∣ Strategist - Bow & Arrow (now AccentureSong)
2016 ∣ Producer - ALT Culture: ALTHaus*
2017 - 2018 ∣ Product Manager - MotionWise
2018 ∣ LeConscient: Life Design (personal project)*
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*self-initiated personal projects

During a holiday to Brazil in 2013, as I was leaving the bank, I reflected on the point where my path had shifted and what had been lost. Returning to basics, three things consistently surfaced as essential to me: people, music, and nature. I began to imagine a cultural & hospitality space where creatives & music lovers could connect, create, and feel at home.

With no background in music or hospitality, I was mentored by JQ, a former Michelin-starred chef experimenting with intimate food-and-music experiences, and I volunteered to help produce his events. This led to joining his coffee startup, Cru Kafe, as its first employee, where I helped grow the business from idea to a thriving venture and discovered a love for product development. This insight guided a transition into strategy and innovation consulting, spending 2 years between CEB Gartner and Bow & Arrow.

Simultaneously, I rebuilt my relationship with music, by creating BLVCK+WHITE, a curation platform spanning weekly playlists, a YouTube channel and a series of event that acted as an early experiment in music-centred gatherings.

In 2016, drawn to Berlin’s creative and tech scenes, I moved there for two years. During that time, I worked as an independent consultant and product lead supporting tech startups take new products to market. Alongside this, I produced ALTHaus, an event encouraging people to take leaps toward meaningful, creative work, which later evolved into creating Life Design, a self-guided journal for creatives & entrepreneurs.

These experiences came together to form practice rooted in human-centred design and storytelling and ultimately led me back to London, where my first business, Pitchsmiths was formally born.

2018 - 2021 ∣ Founder, Designer & Storyteller - Pitchsmiths
2020 - Present ∣ Director - Rooted
2023 - 2023 ∣ Sabbatical: Afro-diasporic cultural, community & land practices
2024 - 2025  ∣ Designer & Project Manager - HOME


Pitchsmiths began through sheer hustle — from handing out quirky “Pitch Don’t Kill My Vibe” business cards at Web Summit to grab founders’ attention, it grew into a consultancy supporting over 150 startups, mostly in the social innovation space (which felt like home). I developed my own practice and courses in human-centred design and storytelling, delivering them within organisations such as the World Food Programme Innovation, NESTA, and Humanitarian Grand Challenges.

While seeking to deepen my practice to better account for the complexity of human experience in design process, I encountered Rooted and its founder, Julian, whose work explored the role of design in racial inequality through an equity-centred approach that centres context, culture, history, and trauma in the design process. After several coffees, I was invited to co-lead the organisation and shortly after we were awarded our first funding round, we went full-time, grew to a team of 13 at our peak, and delivered work with local councils, charities, and institutional funders.

After some time exploring racial and social justice through a systems change & design lens, my curiosity pulled me towards what felt most natural to me - the power of the community in shaping our future world. This curiosity was the catalyst for a nine-month sabbatical of research and cultural immersion across Brazil, Colombia, Jamaica, and Costa Rica, exploring how Black & indigenous communities have long innovated around alternative values, ways of being, and collective wellbeing.

This chapter has been born from a calling to engage with the world and the impact I wish to have on it, in a new and different way.

This season ahead is the recognition the cultural arts aren't simply passions in my life but holds the potential - through sound, colour, form and feeling - to catalyse movement within and around us and provoke meaningful change.

It's been a ride, but I know that every single step has played it's part in alignment to myself and who I am becoming.