Zaid is a facilitator and writer who is passionate about bridging divides and cultural re-generation. His work is focused on supporting individuals, communities and institutions who recognize that new approaches are needed in order to shift contemporary intractable situations.
Zaid helped found Reos Partners in 2007 where he serves as Managing Partner of the London office. Reos Partners is an international organisation dedicated to supporting and building capacity for innovative collective action in complex social systems, with offices in Johannesburg, Sao Paulo, Cambridge (MA) and London.
Currently, Zaid is leading a number of multi-stakeholder initiatives focused on systemic change work.
In partnership with WWF-UK, he is working on launching the Finance Lab, an initiative seeking pragmatic answers to the question "what does a financial system that serves people and planet look like?". He is working with a Dutch government supported agency, TransForum, he is leading an initiative aimed at convening and launching alliances on metropolitan agriculture in several cities across the world, leading to the formation of a new type of university.
Zaid is also involved in supporting various coalitions to achieve systemic shifts. This includes the Climate Action Network, a worldwide network of over 365 NGOs working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change. Most recently, he started work with the global Muslim community, participating in and providing strategic advice for the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow, a global program, social network and grassroots movement meant to cultivate the next generation of young Muslim leaders.
Before helping to found Reos Partners, Zaid spent four years at Generon Consulting, where he worked on long-term projects that brought together business, civil society, government and communities to innovate within complex and difficult social situations. His work involved process design, facilitation, project management and documentation and his projects included sustainable food supply chains in North America and Europe, child malnutrition in India and aboriginal relations in Canada. He has spent extensive time in India working on the Bhavishya Alliance, a Change Lab aimed at reducing child malnutrition in India.
Zaid has a background in technology and has worked in the corporate and non-profit sectors over the last ten years. He left university where he was studying Physics to join the .com boom, where he set up his own company, Anthropic, focusing on the social implications of technology.
Zaid is currently writing a book entitled “Defending Culture” on active responses to the destruction of cultures. His most recent article Slouching Towards Flatland is part of a collection of articles questioning the MDGs, a number of contributions to the bestselling book Worldchanging: A Citizens Guide and Connecting to Source , an article on the U-Process for The Systems Thinker.
He is a contributing author to the groundbreaking site www.worldchanging.com, where he has written on social change, democracy, politics, education, the global food system and many other topics. His pieces have included a report on ten years of democracy in South Africa, Democracy Age 10, a progress report on the Lula government, in The Continuing Story of Lula as well as numerous shorter pieces. Zaid also writes for Shikshantar: The People’s Institute for Rethinking Development and Education in India.
A native Londoner, Zaid grew up in India, the Middle East and England. He currently lives in Oxford and is an Associate Fellow of The Institute of Science, Innovation and Society, Said Business School at the University of Oxford.