Sumaya Kazi is an internationally recognized innovator, leader, speaker and award-winning entrepreneur. She has been featured in over 150 newspapers, magazines, radio interviews, and television spotlights in top-tier outlets such as Newsweek, BusinessWeek Magazine, CNN, ABC News and Washington Post. Sumaya frequently speaks at professional conferences and educational institutions inspiring audiences on topics such as entrepreneurship, non-profit work, intrapreneurship, young professional issues, social media, diversity and technology.

The Entrepreneur

Sumaya founded The CulturalConnect, an online media publishing company dedicated to young professionals around the world. The CulturalConnect has grown from one weekly e-magazine to five weekly e-magazines and has published over 700 interviews of awe-inspiring young professionals in the for-profit and not-for-profit industries to a readership in over 100 countries. Each weekly magazine and website delivers accessible, must-read profiles of the professional world’s often overlooked population of driven, innovative, progressive and successful under-35 leaders to an expansive subscriber base of up-and-coming individuals of the same type. She is currently working on her 2nd start-up.

For her passion and success around her entrepreneurial endeavors, Sumaya has been recognized by BusinessWeek Magazine as one of America’s ‘Best Young Entrepreneurs’, CNN as a ‘Young Person Who Rocks’, ColorLines Magazine as an ‘Innovator to Watch in 2008′ and has been recognized as a Who’s Who of Global Emerging Leaders among many other notable accolades. Sumaya was recently honored to join Nobel Peace Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus in a ‘Meeting of the Minds’, the youngest invited.

The Professional

By day, Sumaya works at Fortune 500 Sun Microsystems, a company that develops the technologies that power the global marketplace. Sumaya was recruited by Sun at age 22 and has since quickly moved up in her positions in the Executive Communications, Worldwide Operations and New & Social Media teams. As a Senior Social Media Manager in its Global Communications group Sumaya is charged with developing new and innovative programs to capture, expand and socialize new and evolving media, analyst and influencer communities.

Recognized by her colleagues as a Social Media ‘Maven’ and ‘Guru’, Sumaya has taken her knowledge and expertise in the media world and has integrated it within her work at Sun. Sumaya provides thought leadership and a young perspective on various issues for a major player in global business.

The Giver

Sumaya has a strong passion for progress and has been deeply committed to the nonprofit community for over 10 years. She has been actively volunteering in the areas of hunger, homelessness, blood donation, human rights, environment, and education. Outside of her work and entrepreneurial endeavors, Sumaya dedicates much of her remaining waking hours to service.

Sumaya serves as an entrepreneur mentor for Businesses United in Investing, Lending and Development (BUILD), a nonprofit social venture that empowers underprivileged and under-resourced high school students with an education in entrepreneurship. She first began mentoring three years ago when she learned about the opportunity through Sun’s Global Volunteer Program. She has been hopelessly addicted to mentoring since.

Sumaya provides weekly support and guidance to a team of high school students in building their after-school business. Her team has won first place in the Business Plan Writing Competition hosted by Stanford University. Additionally, one of her mentees was recognized by the National Foundation of Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) as its ‘Young Entrepreneur of the Year’. Sun Microsystems has recognized Sumaya as one of its ‘Top 25 Stellar Volunteers’ worldwide.