A strategist, business-owner, and community volunteer, Zain Velji is a Partner at Northweather, a strategy and marketing firm focusing on charities, non-profits, causes, and advocacy. Zain is co-creator and host of the highly-rated political podcast The Strategists (and its sister podcast, You The People), which dissects the strategies of political campaigns and parties and was the inspiration of the CBC TV and radio panel of the same name. In 2017, Zain managed the re-election campaign for Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi.Zain has delivered keynotes internationally on topics including emerging technologies within today’s news environment, political strategy amidst changing value systems, and strategy imperatives for corporate and advocacy brands. He is also a political commentator whose work appears weekly on CBC television and has also appeared in Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, Christian Science Monitor, and Chinese State Television, alongside others and in 2019 was a panelist on CTV's National federal election coverage. Zain is Board Vice Chair for the YMCA Calgary, is the Board Chair for the Canadian Children's Book Centre, and is a member on the Education and Lifelong Learning Committee of the Calgary Foundation. He is also city lead for the Banff Forum, a leading Canadian public policy think tank.He received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Alberta, during which he was the recipient of the four-year Johnston Legacy Scholarship. In 2018, Zain was named one of Avenue Magazine's Top 40 under 40 and in 2020 was named one of the University of Alberta's Alumni Horizon Award.