Zara Janjua

Most corporate stages are won or lost in the first ten minutes. A panel that drifts, an internal town hall that lands flat, an awards night that loses the room – these are the moments where leadership messaging on inclusion, wellbeing and culture quietly fails to register. Organisations need a host who can read the room, hold the line on substance, and make sensitive topics travel beyond the people already in agreement.

Zara Janjua is a BAFTA, NTA and RTS award-winning broadcaster who hosts and moderates corporate summits, internal communications platforms and conferences on inclusion, women in business, mental health and engagement.

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Why organisations work with Zara Janjua

She brings broadcast-grade interviewing into corporate rooms, drawing on more than 500 live hours of television and national news experience across BBC, ITV and STV.
She is the host NatWest chose for its Women in Business podcast, its skills development series, and its internal What’s The Chat? podcast, which makes her a credible anchor for organisations building long-running internal communications platforms, not one-off events.
She has chaired the Financial Alliance for Women Summit and the EBRD Conference on Skills Development in Central Asia, so she is briefed on how senior delegates expect inclusion and skills conversations to be handled at international level.
As a Scottish Pakistani broadcaster who reported from the New York Times Climate Hub at COP26 with interviewees including John Kerry and Al Gore, she carries cultural range and journalistic credibility into rooms where both are tested.
She is an appointed member of NatWest’s Ethnicity Advisory Council, which gives her a working view of how a major institution actually moves on inclusion, not just how it speaks about it.

Biography highlights

BAFTA, NTA and RTS award-winning broadcaster across BBC, ITV and STV.
Reporter for the New York Times Climate Hub at COP26.
Host of NatWest’s Women in Business podcast and What’s The Chat? internal communications podcast.
Highly Commended finalist, Women of the Future Awards, sponsored by Oxford University and the Financial Times.
Named in Scotland’s Top 100 Business Women, 2024.
Columnist for The Scottish Sun and contributor to The Guardian; founder of Scottistani Productions.

Biography

The corporate stage rewards a specific kind of host. Someone who can interview a senior leader without flattening them, hold a panel to its actual argument, and carry an audience through difficult subject matter without performing concern. Janjua has spent more than fifteen years building that craft in live television and national news.

Her broadcasting career runs across BBC, ITV and STV, with national news, daytime and comedy credits, and more than 500 live hours of TV. She reported for the New York Times Climate Hub at COP26, securing interviews with John Kerry, Al Gore, Stella McCartney and Vanessa Nakate. That same interviewing discipline now shapes how she chairs summits and moderates panels for commercial clients.

NatWest is the clearest signal of how she is used inside organisations. She hosts the bank’s Women in Business podcast, its skills development series and its internal What’s The Chat? podcast, and sits on its Ethnicity Advisory Council. That mix, external editorial work and internal communications anchoring, is the working pattern her corporate clients buy into.

She has also chaired the Financial Alliance for Women Summit and the EBRD Conference on Skills Development in Central Asia, and she was named a Highly Commended finalist for the Women of the Future Awards, sponsored by Oxford University and the Financial Times. Her recurring subject matter, women’s progression, inclusion, mental health and engagement, is held together by a journalist’s instinct for the question that actually advances the conversation.

Key speaking topics

Event hosting and moderation
Panel chairing and interviewing
Internal communications and employee engagement podcasts
Women in business and women’s progression
Diversity, equity and inclusion
Mental health in the workplace
Storytelling and business communication

Ideal for

CHROs, internal communications leads and DEI directors anchoring long-running internal channels.
Boards, summit organisers and awards committees commissioning a host for inclusion, women in business or skills conferences.
Financial services, professional services and public-sector organisations briefing a moderator on senior international panels.
International Women’s Day, employee resource group and culture-led event sponsors.

Audience outcomes

A panel or summit that lands its argument rather than drifting between speakers.
An internal communications moment that employees actually listen to, anchored by a broadcaster they recognise as credible.
Senior speakers drawn out on substance, not left to recite prepared lines.
Sensitive subject matter on inclusion, mental health or women’s progression handled with editorial care.

Available for

Speaking Themes

Languages

English

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Testimonials

Great presence, energetic style, full of talent!

BBC Studios Presents

Zara was our host/presenter at Business Gateway International Women’s day event. Zara was key to the whole day running smoothly using her expertise in presenting to ensure that our guests including the First Minister of Scotland were introduced appropriately. The day ran to time and she created seamless links between the different elements of the event. Zara is great to work with. Zara is well briefed and understands her audience, which gives Zara an added confidence when presenting, making her audience respond positively and warm to Zara from the beginning to the end of an event.

Susan Harkins

Head, Business Gateway - worked with Zara on International Women’s Day Event with Nicola Sturgeon

Zara brings a full range of skills to the table – from presenting and reporting, to researching and producing, and from writing and directing to editing and planning – and never fails to deliver, on time and to spec. She has an innate knowledge of the TV production industry and sets herself apart from most with her understanding of the needs and wants of an audience. Invaluable.

Angus Simpson

Senior Producer, The Fountainbridge Show STV

Zara is a real go-getter with an unbridled enthusiasm and drive to achieve and progress. She is always full of ideas on how a project could develop, eager to learn and develop editorial nuances and willing to muck in on whatever is required. Zara’s strongest attribute is the versatility of her skillset both behind and in front of the camera.

Andrew Chambers

Channel Editor, STV

I found Zara to be diligent with a professional attention to detail. She has a very engaging personality and her warm charm works well in interview situations.

Peter Martin

PLZ Productions

Zara is a uniquely versatile presenter, not only in the range of programmes she is able to present from news and sport to entertainment shows, but also in the fact she worked her way through the ranks as a producer and therefore has an invaluable understanding of the production process. She is easy to work with, industrious and applies herself to any given task. I would highly recommend Zara as an asset to any TV project and would gladly employ her again in the future.

Paul Hughes

Solid Media/Former Head of Programmes, STV

Zara is an engaging and professional presenter, with a natural ability to energize the room. She eloquently represents our brand, our messaging and values as an organization. Her background in journalism enables Zara to delicately draw out viewpoints from speakers and panelists to ensure that they shine. She is a natural communicator and researches the subject matter ahead of the event which enables Zara to be fully present at each event. We have worked together on numerous occasions and I would highly recommend Zara – she is a star!

Lily Cheng

Rising Network

We had the pleasure of having Zara as a host for our fundraiser fashion show in 2018. We got Zara at the last minute but she was extremely professional and got acquainted with the guests speakers very quickly. Zara was witty and entertaining. Our guests had nothing but praise for our host. We would love to ask Zara to host our future events.

Farah Khushi

Kushi Foundation

Zara was a confident, engaging and extremely likeable host for The Comedy Underground, a new stand up show for the BBC Scotland TV channel. She was extremely professional, courteous and someone all of us here at Dabster Productions would love to work with again. Not only was she very well prepared for the job, she was eager to learn and to develop and was happy to take on board notes and direction.

Richard Melvin

Director, Dabster Productions