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Zehra OdunayoZO

Zehra Odunayo

Strategy Consultant | People, Growth & Change

€970/day
London, GB
8-15 years

Average response time: 1 hour

About Zehra

I help organisations grow with intent — making sure the humans in the mix are not treated as an afterthought.

My work sits across people, change and growth. I come in when teams are navigating a knotty challenge: unclear direction, competing priorities, shifting culture, stakeholder complexity, or a need to understand their employees, audiences or communities more deeply.

I combine research, strategy and creative problem-solving to bring clarity to complex, people-centred work. That might mean shaping a people or culture strategy, developing audience insight, building engagement approaches, facilitating workshops, or turning messy inputs into practical recommendations teams can actually use.

I’m flexible in how I work: project-based, as an associate, or embedded part-time in a team for a defined period. What I bring is structure, curiosity, honesty, warmth and the ability to help people move forward together — without losing sight of why the work matters.

Bring me into the room when the challenge is messy, the humans matter, and the answer needs to be both strategic and usable.
  • English

    Native or bilingual

Can work on-site
London (up to 50km), Brighton (up to 10km)

Experience

  • MBBWConsults
    Independent Strategy Consultant
    CONSULTING AND AUDITS
    October 2022 - Today (3 years and 10 months)
    • Context: Independent consulting practice supporting purpose-led organisations, agencies and community-facing teams with strategy, engagement, insight and change work.
    • Role: Diagnose ambiguous organisational and market challenges, shape project briefs, design research and engagement approaches, synthesise complex inputs and translate findings into senior-ready strategies, frameworks and recommendations.
    • Impact: Helped clients turn audience, employee and community insight into clearer strategies, engagement models, transformational priorities and practical decision-making frameworks.

    Notable projects:
    • African Leadership Centre / King’s College London: Designed an 18-month insight and engagement roadmap for the “1-Million Learners by 2035” mission, covering audience segmentation, proposition development, brand narrative, partnership strategy and market activation. Led a multi-country learner research programme and translated findings into personas, opportunity areas and senior recommendations.
    • Omnicom Group: Supported the development of a more joined-up employee engagement and inclusion approach across a complex agency network, conducting stakeholder interviews, mapping maturity and shaping recommendations for future operating rhythm, governance and network activation.
    • City of London Corporation: Developed a stakeholder partnering approach for an EEDI team working across a complex public-sector landscape, including stakeholder mapping, engagement rhythms, ownership recommendations and practical tools to support more consistent internal consultancy
    Change Management Strategic Storytelling Corporate strategy
  • BANK OF ENGLAND
    Senior Transformation Consultant, People Strategy & Insights (PS&I)
    October 2024 - October 2025 (1 year)
    • Context: Created a transformation-focused role reporting to the Director of People Strategy to help shape a new function spanning talent, development, inclusion, engagement, business partnering, data, and strategy.
    • Role: Led current-state assessment, stakeholder engagement, narrative development and operating model design to reposition the function as a more strategic partner to senior leaders.
    • Impact: Built a clearer transformation roadmap and decision-making framework, supporting data-informed strategy conversations with 150+ senior leaders and HR business partners.
  • Bank of England
    Interim Head of Culture Diversity Equity & Inclusion
    July 2024 - December 2024 (5 months)
    • Context: Stepped into a divisional leadership role during a sensitive period of internal culture tension and external scrutiny.
    • Role: Provided strategic direction to an eight-person team, maintained delivery across high-profile programmes and advised senior leaders on complex communications and employee experience issues.
    • Impact: Re-established team cohesion, maintained strategic momentum and built confidence with senior stakeholders by bringing clarity and judgement to ambiguous, high-stakes decisions.

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Education

  • CIPD Chartered Member Level 7
    CIPD Chartered Member Level 7
  • BA, Philosophy
    University of Nottingham
    2015

Skill set

Categories