Zia Khan is the Senior Vice President for Innovation at The Rockefeller Foundation where he leads the Foundation’s work at new frontiers of ideas, coalitions, and solutions. He joined the Foundation in 2009 and before his work with Innovation, previously led the Foundation’s global program, strategy, research, and evaluation teams.
Before joining the Foundation, Zia spent a decade working as a strategy consultant at Katzenbach Partners where he founded and led the San Francisco office. He advised a wide range of clients on senior leadership team effectiveness, strategy, innovation, and organizational performance. He also co-authored the book Leading Outside the Lines with Jon Katzenbach.
Since joining The Rockefeller Foundation, Zia has led global initiatives in clean energy, innovative finance, food systems, livelihoods, water, data science, and cross-sector partnerships to advance the Sustainable Development Goals. He regularly writes about strategy, innovation, and leadership.
Zia serves on the boards of Atlas AI, Benefits Data Trust, DataKind, and Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture. He also serves on advisory boards for the University College London Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose and Stanford Social Innovation Review Books.
Zia holds a BS from Cornell University and a MS and PhD from Stanford University.