Zahin Hussain, "The Kamala Harris of Canada"- as I referenced in this episode due to her fearlessness, charisma, and work ethic of always leading by example.

In this episode, you will learn about Zahin's meandering yet north stared journey across continents and countries across the world. 

I met Zahin in March of 2019 in Seoul, South Korea on a work-related project on studying emerging markets. At that time, she was an MBA Candidate at Hanyang University, one of the leading private research institutions in Seoul, South Korea. She was also the Program Manager at HUGE Ventures, which designed and implemented an impact-focused entrepreneurship sandbox that provides tailored training, access to networks, and seed funding. 

In Zahin's earlier work traversing several Asian countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines, which we went into more details in this episode, she has worked at AIESEC Vietnam as head of Business Development. And in the Philippines, she worked as the Partnerships Manager, Youth of Asia at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), wherein she was exposed to several stakeholders including some leading members of Hanyang University (the President and Vice-President of the institution)  at the ADB Annual Meeting in Japan. This is also where she got to know about the University and its mission to invest in young people and the SDGs. 

With the relationship, she built through her exposure in her role at ADB, she was offered a role at Hanyang University, wherein she saw that as an opportunity to learn more about South Korea, as an economy that sky-rocketed into the 5th largest economy in the world and later on enrolled in the MBA program at the school. She continued making a difference at Hanyang by playing a significant role via HUGE Ventures (aforementioned) and many other related entrepreneurial ventures. 

We also talked about her experience in South Korea in general such as leading the first Asia Pacific Youth Exchange (APYE) program and lessons learned. 

In addition, we talked about her current role as a consultant at United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP), how she got involved, and some of the amazing entrepreneurs she has gotten to work with. 

Currently, in Canada, she has immersed herself in the Toronto entrepreneurial ecosystem, continues her consulting gig with UNDP, and now started a  weekly newsletter called Zany. 

Zany as she describes is a medium that she aspires to channel bottomless curiosities of diverse interests and experiences on various topics into stories and narratives. She is written about bitcoin, the stored value of bitcoin, Jack Dorsey moves on Twitter,  DeafTawk, and even beer. In her upcoming newsletter, she will be writing about Alimentation Couche-Tard and clean energy (which is good for the planet). You can subscribe here. 

Zahin ended with the importance of the concept of narratives and sharing stories and how that permeates across every discipline from governments to startups.  

She further shared that regardless of "where you come from and what you do understanding at every moment, you have the ability to write your own story, and as long as you are alive, you have the chance to write your own story as long as you are alive."