Dr. Zaheer Ahmad is a multi-award-winning Diversity and Inclusion thought leader. Currently, he is the Global Head Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Haleon. Before this, he was Head of Strategic Delivery for the central D&I dept at EY. He was responsible for leading the Race, Innovation, and Thought leadership strategies for the firm and chaired the firmwide Race Working Group.
Zaheer is a highly decorated former police officer, he served in various departments including Uniform Policing, Force Intelligence Bureau, and Murder Investigation. He is a former member of five National Police boards including the Ministerial Progression Board and National Equality Diversity and Human Rights Board. He has contributed towards several high-profile reports including “The Parker” report, a UK Government-backed review of ethnic diversity representation in FTSE 250 boards.
He is the recipient of over 35 national and international awards and accolades. He is a winner of the Global Equality and Diversity, European Diversity “Hero of the Year”, and British Diversity “Head of Diversity of the Year” awards. He was named top 20 industry professionals in the Global Diversity List and voted the most inspirational and influential D&I leader by industry professionals.
FMM: Share your background.
I’m a first-generation migrant of Pakistani heritage, raised in Dubai, back when Dubai was a very different place to what we see today. I came to the UK as young man with very little knowledge of English language and absolutely no idea of what I wanted to accomplish in life.
My career started with selling popcorn in a cinema, I went to watch a movie and came out with a job. Fast forward a year and add 3 promotions, I became one of the youngest managers in the company, leading the HR department responsible for 80 staff.
Ever since I was child, I wanted to be a police officer to serve the community and of course, catch bad people.
Whilst I waited to receive start date from the UK police service, I also worked in HR for a coffee chain.
My policing career was quite frankly amazing! It included stints in operational policing, Criminal Investigation, Murder Investigation, and Intelligence departments. My achievements here included a commendation for being the best performing officer in London, numerous community awards and a national honour (MBE) conferred by the Her Majesty the late Queen.
I also led various Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) projects to make the police service more representative of the communities it serves, and I suppose that’s when the “DEI leader” in me started forming. I also co-founded a National Employee Resource Group which I led for over four years. My corporate D&I journey started when I joined EY (one of the Big4) as Head of Strategic Delivery for its Central D&I department leading on Race, Innovation and Though Leadership Strategy. Here, I also chaired the firm-wide Race Working group.
FMM: As an advisor to an independent task force (supported by the UK Government), what is important to you today?
I am committed to creating a fair and equitable world where everyone regardless of their difference is able thrive and succeed. I care deeply about helping all minorities and ensuring we root out all kind of discrimination.. because everyone should be able to live a fulfilling life regardless of their gender, race, sexual orientation or any other difference.
My lifelong mission is to pass on a better world to future generations, better than the one I inherited.
FMM: You are the recipient of over 35 national and international awards and accolades. What makes you a leader in this space?
Firstly, it’s about who I am and my values. I have always been a value-driven person, these values were first instilled in me by my parents, and I still adhere to. Values such as fairness, equality and integrity. These values guide my decision making, interactions with others and how I lead teams. Role modelling these values at work and in personal life is incredibly important to me.
Secondly, I don’t shy away from engaging in difficult conversations, I certainly don’t like to sugar coat things to please people. I was raised by South Asian parents; you can’t argue with them and must diplomatically get your points across. I believe we must face into the realities of our world which according to various data sets is not delivering the same outcomes for underrepresented groups. This approach I believe helps us get an up-to-date understanding of the size and scale of the challenges and develop solutions that create long term sustainable impact.
Finally, I am constantly thinking about new and cutting-edge solutions to solve workplace D&I issues. Tried and tested ideas are great, but they don’t excite me, not anymore. For example, mentoring programmes, unconscious bias training has been around a long time and their impact is questionable. These along with other similar D&I interventions are unlikely to grab my attention, but I will happily chat to people for hours about the role of technology in D&I, innovative solutions such gamifying the D&I learning, sophisticated dashboards to provide end to end D&I data and insights.
FMM: What trends are you seeing as it relates to Diversity and Inclusion?
Addressing the under-representation challenge is a key theme across all organizations, many employers have publicly committed to increasing the number of minorities in the workforce. However, Inclusion remains a massive challenge. Creating and sustaining Inclusive culture where everyone can bring their authentic self and have sense of belonging is proving to be more complex than many anticipated. This for me is where many are lagging because this requires everyone to embrace difference and its positive effect on the organization.
We are also seeing increased demands from governments on companies to diversify and more stringent rules from regulators which is helping to push D&I at the top of senior leaders’ agenda. Another step in the right direction is investors and shareholders are taking a keen interest in D&I and now expect businesses to have a robust D&I plan in place.
FMM: You have contributed towards several high-profile reports including “The Parker” report, a UK Government-backed review of ethnic diversity representation in FTSE 250 boards. Share key points.
In 2015, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) commissioned the Parker review Committee to consult on the ethnic diversity of UK boards and the first report was released in 2016. The review was chaired by Sir John Parker until March 2022 and is now chaired by David Tyler.
This independent review considers how to improve the ethnic and cultural diversity of UK boards to better reflect their employee base and the communities they serve. The report sets out objectives and timescales to encourage greater diversity, and provides practical tools to help business leaders to address the issue.
In 2017 report, a series of recommendations were made and a “One by ‘21” target was set. The aim was for all FTSE 100 boards to have at least one director from an ethnic minority background by December 2021. A “One by 2024” target was set for all FTSE 250 boards.
The latest report published in March 2023, showed that 96 FTSE 100 companies met the target, with at least one minority ethnic director on their boards, up from 89 last year. This is a significant increase from 2016, when only 47 FTSE 100 companies had a director from a minority ethnic group.
FMM: Share your upcoming speaking engagements.
I am currently scheduled to speak at University of Liverpool about “D&I efforts in Healthcare” and at the Diversity Network’s largest event on “How to accelerate your organizations DE&I commitments in tough times.”