Non-binding request for Amna Zaidi
Amna Zaidi
Amna Zaidi equips leaders to navigate complex transformation with clarity, control, and real-world insight from global financial institutions.
5.00 of 5
Top rated!
Why you should book Amna Zaidi for your next event
- Brings over 20 years of senior finance experience from NatWest, Lloyds, and Deutsche Bank into practical, actionable keynotes.
- Challenges conventional frameworks and exposes where governance and controls fail under real pressure.
- Delivers engaging sessions grounded in lived experience, giving leaders tools they can apply immediately.
Non-binding request for Amna Zaidi
Business transformation advisor and keynote speaker on leadership in high-stakes environments
Amna Zaidi is a business transformation advisor and keynote speaker who helps organisations navigate complexity with confidence. With more than two decades in banking and financial services, she has led major finance and risk transformation programmes in highly regulated environments where every decision matters. Combining deep technical expertise with practical insight, Amna equips leaders to rethink how transformation is approached, delivered, and sustained. Her engaging keynotes resonate with senior audiences operating in high-stakes environments where effective governance, strong leadership, and resilience are essential.
Amna Zaidi – Business Transformation Speaker
Amna Zaidi is a trusted voice in business transformation, leadership, and governance. With a career spanning over 20 years in banking and financial services, she has operated at the centre of complex, high-pressure environments where transformation is both critical and highly scrutinised. Her experience includes senior roles at NatWest Group, Lloyds Banking Group, and Deutsche Bank, where she led large-scale finance and risk transformation programmes.
Her work has consistently focused on strengthening governance structures, designing control environments that work in practice, and ensuring that transformation efforts deliver meaningful and lasting value. She understands what it takes to operate in organisations where decisions are visible, accountability is high, and failure carries significant consequences.
Leading Transformation That Holds Under Pressure
Amna’s approach to transformation challenges conventional thinking. She addresses a common gap in organisations: frameworks that appear robust on paper but fail when tested in real-world conditions. Her insights are grounded in hands-on experience, making her perspective both credible and immediately applicable.
She works closely with boards and executive teams, offering guidance in situations where complexity is high and the right path forward is not always clear. Her focus is not just on implementation, but on ensuring that change is sustainable, effective, and aligned with strategic goals.
In her keynote sessions, Amna explores themes such as:
- How to design governance and control frameworks that withstand real pressure
- Why transformation programmes fail to deliver expected value
- The role of leadership in navigating uncertainty and complexity
- How to influence decision-making in high-stakes environments
A Global Speaker with Practical Impact
Amna Zaidi is a sought-after global speaker, delivering keynotes and executive sessions to senior leaders across international organisations. She is known for her ability to speak the language of finance while making complex ideas accessible and engaging.
Her speaking style is direct, insightful, and grounded in lived experience. She challenges audiences to rethink assumptions while providing practical tools and frameworks that can be applied immediately. This balance between challenge and practicality makes her sessions both thought-provoking and highly valuable for leadership teams.
She is often invited to speak when organisations are facing difficult questions, navigating uncertainty, or undertaking transformation initiatives where the stakes are particularly high.
Academic and Industry Contributions
Alongside her advisory and speaking work, Amna contributes to the development of future leaders. She is an Associate Lecturer at Cranfield School of Management and teaches on University College London’s MBA programme. Her academic work reflects her commitment to bridging theory and real-world application.
She also serves on the ICAEW Audit Registration Committee, playing a role in maintaining standards within the profession. In addition, she holds Livery status with the Worshipful Company of Chartered Accountants, recognising her standing within the industry.
Author of Unwinnable No More
Amna is the bestselling author of Unwinnable No More, a book that explores leadership, transformation, and influence in environments where success can feel out of reach. Drawing from her own experience, she provides a perspective on how leaders can shift outcomes even in the most challenging circumstances.
Her work highlights the importance of clarity, resilience, and influence when navigating complex organisational dynamics. The book has resonated with leaders who are responsible for delivering results in environments where the path forward is uncertain.
Book Amna Zaidi for Your Event
Amna Zaidi is often brought in when situations are complex, the stakes are high, and straightforward answers are hard to find. She offers more than inspiration she delivers insight grounded in experience and shaped by years of working at the highest levels of financial services.
Whether addressing senior executives, leadership teams, or industry audiences, Amna brings a perspective that is both strategic and practical. Her ability to connect real-world challenges with clear, actionable thinking makes her a valuable speaker for organisations looking to strengthen their approach to transformation and leadership.
Customer Reviews
5 of 5
Must say, Amna Zaidi is one of the most outstanding professionals I have ever encountered. Her speech on negotiation and leadership was truly unforgettable, leaving a lasting impact on all who attended.
S Qvartskhava, Head of EducationAlterbridge University
5 of 5
Amna Zaidi’s unmatched quality of work shines in delivering critical messages with the best analogies, transforming the most challenging situations with professionalism, clarity, and a near-impossible simplicity that resonates with every audience member. Her expertise is so vast that words fall short, and her statements are so precise and poignant that they speak volumes without embellishment. Working with her has been a privilege, and her vision will continue to influence me in the long term.
Dr K Kucuk, ProfessorOxford University
5 of 5
Thank you for offering these sessions to the community. The feedback has been very positive, with many members expressing how much they’ve gained from your experiences. Your insights have sparked great discussions and provided practical takeaways. Members especially appreciate your authentic and relatable first-hand experiences, which make the sessions even more impactful.
C Burroughs, Head of CommunitiesNOVA
5 of 5
Amna joined our organisation as a member of NOVA, and her impressive skill set and experience were invaluable to the NOVA Community. She delivered a keynote and facilitated a discussion at one of our events at Old Sessions House in London, which was extremely well received by an audience of emerging and senior leaders from various industries. We look forward to welcoming her back in the near future.
B O'Connor, CFO & CeoNOVA
Rated 5.00/5 based on 4 customer reviews
Keynotes
Keynote by Amna Zaidi:
You Are Not That Leader
Why Leadership Is Not Fixed, and How to Design It Deliberately
Most leaders operate with a fixed view of who they are. In reality, leadership is shaped by pressure, expectation, and the demands of the role.
This keynote challenges the idea that leadership develops naturally over time. Instead, it introduces a more deliberate approach, helping leaders align how they show up with what their role actually requires.
Amna draws on her board-level experience and leadership framework to explore the gap between self-perception and real impact, and how to close it in a way that strengthens judgement, credibility, and long-term influence.
Keynote by Amna Zaidi:
The Negotiations No One Calls Negotiation
Intelligent Influence Under Pressure
Negotiation is not a separate activity in finance. It is how decisions are made.
It shows up in budgets, investment discussions, and stakeholder alignment, often without being recognised as negotiation.
Drawing on Intelligent Influence, her Harvard-style executive programme on negotiation and influence, and her book Judgment Under Pressure, which explores decision-making in high-stakes environments, Amna reframes negotiation as a continuous part of leadership.
Participants leave with a sharper understanding of how to influence outcomes, making conversations feel more natural, more strategic, and more within their control from the moment they return to their roles.
Keynote by Amna Zaidi:
When Everything Looks Right, But Isn’t
Why Finance Leaders Miss the Risks That Matter Most
Some of the biggest risks appear when everything seems to be working.
This keynote explores how blind spots form in governance, reporting, and transformation, and why organisations develop false confidence.
Amna shows how to identify hidden risks early and design control environments that hold in reality, not just on paper.
Keynote by Amna Zaidi:
The Pressure to Be Certain
How Finance Leaders Make Decisions in an AI-Driven World Without Full Visibility
Finance leaders are expected to be certain, even when the data is not.
As AI and advanced analytics accelerate decision-making, the challenge is no longer access to information, but knowing what to trust.
This keynote explores how to balance machine insight with human judgement, enabling leaders to make sound decisions and maintain credibility under pressure.
Keynote by Amna Zaidi:
Beyond Reporting: Where Finance Really Creates Value
Finance no longer just reports performance. It shapes it.
What finance chooses to measure and challenge influences how decisions are made across the organisation. Yet key priorities, including ESG and diversity and inclusion, often remain disconnected from those decisions.
This keynote explores how finance can embed these priorities into performance, accountability, and value creation, ensuring they influence how the business actually runs.
Amna Zaidi - Keynote Speaker || Business Consultant || Leadership Trainer
Watch Amna Zaidi in action
Books by Amna Zaidi
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Unwinnable No MoreChallenge The Rules Rewrite The WinBy Amna Zaidi
