Mohsin Zaidi
- Author of award winning book, A Dutiful Boy
- Advocate for LGBT rights, BAME representation and social mobility
- Named a top future LGBT leader by The Financial Times, and featured in The Lawyer Magazine Hot 100
In Person-Fee 🛈
Fee Range
$20,000 - $30,000
Virtual Fee:
$10,000 - $15,000
Travels From
New York
Mohsin Zaidi Speaker Biography
Mohsin Zaidi is a New York based, award-winning author, commentator and speaker. His critically acclaimed memoir, A Dutiful Boy (Penguin, 2020) won the American Lambda Literary Award and the British Polari First Book Prize. It was also named a Guardian, GQ, New Statesman and Attitude Book of the Year.
The Guardian describes it as 'a profound meditation on the power of the human heart to transcend the contradictions of diverse cultures and create something new...utterly compelling...providing a lesson of acceptance for us all, and for the future of our multicultural society'. The Times says it is a book that will save lives.
The first person from his school to go to Oxford University, Mohsin qualified as a lawyer at international firm Linklaters, and then became a criminal barrister at one of the top chambers in England. He also previously worked at a UN War Crimes tribunal in The Hague and clerked at the UK Supreme Court for Lord Sumption and Lord Wilson.
An advocate for LGBTQ rights, racial justice and social mobility, Mohsin sat on the board of Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ rights charity Stonewall and before that was on the board of London Pride. He is listed by The Financial Times as a top future LGBTQ leader. A regular commentator on Sky News, he also writes for The New York Times, the Guardian, GQ, CNN Style, The i Newspaper, Bustle, Mr Porter and Newsweek. He was also listed in The Lawyer Magazine Hot 100 and Attitude magazine named him a trailblazer changing the world.
Mental Health
Mohsin addresses the stigma around mental health within ethnic minority communities and draws a parallel between it and a cultural stigma around discussing mental wellbeing at work. Through very personal and at times harrowing tales, Mohsin articulates the case for honesty in personal identity within yourself but also at work and amongst colleagues.
Social mobility
The single most pressing issue of diversity facing society and businesses is the one to which we give the least attention. While measures of equity on race/gender/sexuality move in the right direction, the gap between rich and poor continues to widen. Through personal experience of growing up in a council house and going to school ridden with gang violence (a school from which he became the person to go to Oxford University), Mohsin addresses the issue of class bias and discusses what we can do about it.
D&I / Intersectionality
None of us are just one thing and Mohsin is the personification of an intersectional life. On race, Mohsin has the facts and figures to back up the experiences of ethnic minorities we so often hear about in the news. On class, he speaks candidly about the difference between the world he came from and the world he now lives in. On sexuality, he describes the struggle to accept yourself in the face of cultural stigma. But the strength in his experience lies in the intersectional tale it tells.
The power of representation
Through eye opening stories in a professional and personal context, Mohsin explains how diverse representation in key roles doesn’t just demonstrate a commitment to being an inclusive organisation but adds value to it.
Book group
Q&A with a senior person from the company around critically acclaimed memoir ‘A Dutiful Boy’ drawing on all the strands Mohsin writes and speaks on.
