In 2024, UTA acquired JUV Consulting, forming UTA Marketing's Next Gen Practice. As Head of Next Gen, I will be continuing to lead my team's award-winning work connecting brands with the zeitgeist at the intersection of content, community, and culture.

In 2023, we launched ZCON, the first major conference with only Gen Z speakers as a response to the fact that there is *still* so much talk about the power of young people, with very little empowering of young people. In our first year, we had thirty of the most influential Gen Zers take center stage -- literally and metaphorically. And, we had over 16 brand sponsors, over 500 attendees, and millions of online impressions. The conference really exists to be *the* convening on the present/future -- where CMOs are actually learning from the emerging leaders of our time on everything from the creator economy to change-making philosophies. It's also maybe the only conference where you will find a Fortune 500 CEO hula hooping at recess next to one of our generation's most impactful content creators. We have continued to build ZCON as a part of UTA -- with ZCANNES @ Cannes Lions as well as with ZCON 2024 in NYC. ZCON has been covered by Forbes, Variety, Fast Company, TIME, AdWeek, Cosmopolitan, TeenVogue, AdAge, WWD and more. ZCON has been sponsored by LinkedIn, Invisalign, EOS, Unilever, and more. ZCON has had speakers including the likes of Laurie Hernandez, Avantika, Josh Richards, Chloe Kim, Kahlil Greene, Clover Hogan, and more. You aren't going to want to miss out on the first conference of its kind -- created by the first generation of its kind.

One of 100 inaugural changemakers selected to be in the Obama Foundation's first #LeadersUSA class (2023-2024), a program designed to honor social impact leaders to accelerate our work further.

I served on the Executive Board of the Yale International Relations Association (YIRA) -- an organization with an annual budget of over $400,000, over 4,000 college and high school student participants, and over 250 active members. I specifically served as the Executive Director of the Yale Model United Nations Institute -- a YIRA program that brings high school students to Yale for a week in the summer to learn about international relations, public-speaking, and Model UN. I was responsible for planning/leading/executing all expects of the program -- which took place during August 2018. The program doubled the size of the previous year, brought speakers who have worked at the State Department/White House/etc., and offered over 33% of delegates financial aid (which is far more than any other YIRA program offers and a dramatic increase from years previous). Additionally (within YIRA), I compete as an award-winning member of the Model United Nations Team at Yale (MUNTY), served on the board of MUNTY as the Strategy Director, taught international relations to New Haven public school students as a teacher for Hemispheres, and staff our conferences (YMUN and SCSY) that take place on campus as a chair.

Serving as the 2018 Summer Digital Intern for the Soze Agency (the creative social impact agency that produces many of the largest social good campaigns) -- working specifically on Yara Shahidi's EighteenX18 campaign, which encourages young people to get more civically engaged leading up to the 2018 midterm elections. Specifically -- working on 18x18 social media accounts, digital/content strategy, and marketing/messaging. Devoting around 15 hours/week to this paid internship throughout the summer of 2018.

Contributing for Teen Vogue writing about my student experience, my identity as a young American-Muslim, and my perspective on news/politics.

Served as a Timothy Dwight College Community Engagement Fellow at LEAP as a Communications Fellow at LEAP, a non-profit in New Haven which focuses on student enrichment. Worked 5-8 hours weekly to automate processes, to spearhead communications strategy, to advise on social media, to work on development, and to build LEAP out digitally/creatively. Created partnerships between the Yale community, LEAP, and broader New Haven.

Founded the Generation Z marketing agency to reshape understanding of young people -- in response to a climate where so many are perplexed by the power of Generation Z. Specifically, serving as the CEO to grow the business, secure new/exciting clients, shape the vision/goals of the company, manage our executive team, and execute on our plans. In my capacity as CEO, I have grown our team to be a worldwide network of young people, our services to really respond to the needs of the market, and our brand to really position JUV Consulting as the authority on Generation Z. We have worked with over 20 Fortune 500 companies, PR giants, start-ups, non-profits, music labels, and more. As CEO -- I've met with hundreds of corporate leaders, spoken at private events for clients such as Unilever, and finalized contracts that grew our revenue 1000% from 2017 to 2018. Essentially, clients come to us to better understand how to market to Generation Z -- and we can offer real-time feedback on just about anything, can co-create with our clients, and can provide unique insights that teach our clients to ask the right questions. As a result of my leadership, I'm frequently invited as a speaker to present regarding Generation Z -- and we have also been featured in Bloomberg Businessweek, The New York Times, and other notable sources. We exist to empower young people, and as a purpose-driven company -- we are also forming partnerships with non-profits that serve youth from undeserved communities in order to empower as many voices from Generation Z as possible. We have been recognized on the Forbes #30Under30 list in 2019 for our work in Marketing/Advertising -- and have also been recognized by Forbes as one of the America's Best Startup Employers in 2020. We now also have have full-time offices -- and we are growing everyday. After eight years, JUV was acquired in 2024 by United Talent Agency, forming the Next Gen Practice of UTA Marketing.

Contributor/Blogger for the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/ziad-ahmed), with my first piece making the front page.

Volunteered for the 2016 Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign, focusing on Muslim Outreach (working directly under the Muslim Outreach Director, Farooq Mitha).

Worked on the joint venture between the State Department and Facebook known as P2P (Peer-to-Peer), which is an effort to harness the power of social good campaigns to combat online extremism. Interned through the summer through the VSFS initiative, but also worked at the office on certain days. Continued as a virtual intern through October, and led a team of 11 interns working to synthesize the campaign information from 160 universities to distribute to interagency officials. Also, initiated the process of creating an app to ensure the long-term success of P2P. Was given the opportunity to present at an event during UNGA (the UN General Assembly) to speak about my work with P2P in New York City on September 21, 2016 to a room full of industry leaders, foreign officials, and State Department employees.

Interned in Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman's district office focusing on organizational, engagement, and outreach tasks.

Spearheaded youth marketing efforts for the Martin O'Malley 2016 Presidential Campaign.

Founded the international award-winning organization, Redefy, that has grown to have hundreds of team members around the world, over 100,000 hits on its website, and many chapters all around the world. Our work has been commended by likes of PBS, CCTV, and even President Barack Obama personally. I have also personally been recognized by the Princeton Prize, as a Global Teen Leader, and as MTV High School Trailblazer as a result of my work with Redefy. As the Founder/President (June 2013 - August 2017), I was responsible for all aspects of the organization including various multimedia campaigns, large-scale events, online publication, advocacy, organizational management, social media, strategy, and all executive tasks of running a non-profit. We held conferences that had over 300+ attendees, created social awareness campaigns that reached hundreds of thousands of people, and established clubs in 15+ countries. Our work focuses on creating resources/information that make communities/schools more inclusive/equitable. As the Founder -- I created our vision, established our non-profit, recruited our team, built our infrastructure, ideated/executed our brand/messaging, oversaw all our events/campaigns/initiatives, acted as our spokesperson, and organized with thousands of young people to agitate for a better tomorrow. In 2018, we were selected as a part of the Facebook Community Leadership Program -- receiving $50K in funding to launch our #BurstYourBubble campaign. We have carried that momentum forward as the organization continues to expand our impact. I currently serve as the Founding Chairman of the Executive Board as our day-to-day operations will always be controlled by high schoolers as we feel that the work that we do is particularly vital in high schools -- where substantive conversations/activism are often lacking. I continue to oversee our vision, recruit our team, and ensure that we are doing our work responsibly/thoughtfully/boldly.

I still do lots of public speaking, I'm just no longer updating this! HIGHLIGHTS: - Speaker at TEDxYouth@ISP in Panama City, Panama. - Presenter at YTH 2016 in San Francisco, California. - Speaker at UN General Assembly Side Event hosted by the US Department of State, Facebook, and Edventures regarding their P2P (Peer to Peer) Challenge Extremism Project, which I worked on as an intern for the US Department of State. - Speaker at TEDxAAS in Moscow, Russia (title of talk: Let's Ask Some Hard Questions): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-AKRxRnS1k&t=1s. - Speaker at TEDxTeen in London, UK (title of talk: 237 People Changed My Life; Your Move): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3F58mk7IPc. - Speaker/Presenter at the Council on Foreign Relations Roundtable entitled "What U.S. Foreign Policymakers Should Know About Generation Z." - Speaker at TEDxYouth@Harlow in Harlow, UK (title of talk: Thriving Through Turbulence): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR7IWeqRQj8. - Speaker at Chinese Speaking Series entitled "For Knowledge/Truth" regarding the importance of pursuing passion in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Beijing in August of 2017. - Keynote Speaker at Columbia University's Brown Institute for Media Innovation (co-sponsored by Stanford University) at the launch of the LAMP's #22x20 initiative in September of 2017. - Speaker at Duke University's MSA South Conference (March 2018). - Speaker at the 2018 CECP Summit (May 2018). - Speaker for Viacom's Generation Change Panel at VidCon in LA (June 2018). - Speaker at La Ciudad de Las Ideas in Mexico (November 2018). - Panelist at SAP's Sapphire Now (May 2019). - Emcee at Hershey's Makers of Good Summit (June 2019). - Keynote Speaker at YMCA 175 in London (August 2019). - Panelist at DMEXCO (September 2020). - Presenter at Advertising Week (September 2020). - Panelist at Forbes CMO (November 2020). - Speaker at AdExchanger Industry Preview (January 2020).