Zahra Hedges

Zahra Hedges is a transformation and strategy executive with over 20 years' cross-sector leadership experience spanning social enterprise, Scottish Government, national charity and private sector environments. Most recently Chief Executive of a national charity, she grew the organisation from £550k to £1.2m income, scaled the team from 3 to 12, and led the Scottish implementation of Planet Youth — securing £750k per year in Scottish Government funding for a nationally significant prevention programme. Before that, she led the £15m rollout of community mental health services across all 32 Scottish local authorities as a Senior Policy Adviser in Scottish Government. Zahra holds a Ministerial Appointment to the Skills Development Scotland board and an advisor to Scottish Water. She is an IoD Director of the Year (Third Sector, 2025) and a Polymath Scholar at the London Interdisciplinary School, where she is completing an Executive MBA. She brings to consultancy rare breadth: the experience of leading complex systems, managing public accountability, and delivering at national scale across the private, public and third sectors.