Dr. Asyia Kazmi, OBE (Order of the British Empire)

Dr. Asyia Kazmi, OBE, is the CEO Designate of WISE – the World Innovation Summit for Education, a Qatar Foundation initiative that drives innovation, research, and policy to address global education challenges.
Prior to joining Qatar Foundation, Dr. Kazmi served as the Global Education Policy Lead at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she focused on effective instructional practices, education advocacy, edtech, and AI. She led the Foundation’s India portfolio, improving literacy outcomes by 16% for 8 million children in Uttar Pradesh, and established an edtech and AI portfolio that significantly enhanced learning for 2.5 million children.

With nearly 30 years of experience in education, Dr. Kazmi began her career as a mathematics teacher and coach. As a management consultant at PwC, she led the Girls’ Education Challenge, a $1 billion fund launched by the UK government to support the education of 1.5 million girls across 17 countries. She has held senior roles in three UK Government departments: as a Senior Education Adviser at DFID, a Project Director in the Department for Education, and a Senior Her Majesty’s Inspector at Ofsted, where she inspected schools, local authorities, and teacher education innovations, and trained headteachers and inspectors.

Dr. Kazmi holds a Master’s in Applied Mathematics from Imperial College London, a Doctorate in Education from the Institute of Education, University College London, and two PGCEs—one in mathematics teaching and another in leadership development and educational consulting.

She was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s 2022 New Year Honours List for her services to education, particularly girls’ education.