Sumaya Kazi (

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

: সুমাইয়া কাজী, born July 17, 1982) is an American

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

. At the age of 23, Kazi founded her first company The CulturalConnect. She later founded and was the CEO of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

-based technology company

Sumazi Sumazi is a social media and social intelligence platform for enterprises, brands, and celebrities. Its technology performs social data analysis across social networking services including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, to identify key people i ...

, a social intelligence platform used by brands, celebrities and enterprises. Kazi held one of the first

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

management positions at a Fortune 500 company leading social media at Sun Microsystems until its acquisition by Oracle.

Early life

Kazi was born in

Hollywood, California Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, ...

in 1982 and grew up in Moreno Valley, California. She started taking college courses at

Riverside Community College Riverside City College (RCC) is a public community college in Riverside, California. The college is part of the Riverside Community College District, as well as the larger California Community Colleges System. History RCC first opened in 1916 at ...

at the age of 11, advancing in mathematics while attending Landmark Middle School. Kazi attended Canyon Springs High School, where she was voted "Most Likely to Succeed" by her senior class. At the age of 16, she won the title of Miss Inland Empire (California) and later was a top five finalist in the California

Distinguished Young Women Distinguished Young Women, formerly known as America's Junior Miss, is a national non-profit organization that provides scholarship opportunities to high school senior girls. Depending on the schedule of the various state and local programs, youn ...

competition, winning her a scholarship toward college. She attended the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

graduating in 2004 with a degree in

Interdisciplinary Studies Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...

in Business. While a student, Kazi worked at the University Human Rights Centers on campus under the leadership of Professor

Eric Stover Eric Stover is an American human rights researcher and advocate and faculty director of the Human Rights Center at the University of California at Berkeley. Career Stover officially began his human rights work as a researcher at Amnesty Intern ...

, transcribing interviews of war-torn victims from Bosnia and Croatia. Kazi, along with her team, won first place in the

Haas School of Business The Walter A. Haas School of Business, also known as Berkeley Haas, is the business school of the University of California, Berkeley, a public research university in Berkeley, California. It was the first business school at a public university i ...

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of professio ...

E-Business

case competition In a case competition, participants strive to develop the best solution to a business or education-related case study within an allocated time frame, typically with teams of two or more individuals pitted against each other in a head-to-head or bro ...

, which served as a catalyst for her career in technology.

Career

Upon graduation, Kazi worked at Sun Microsystems where she was the senior social media manager for the

Global Communication Global Communication is an electronic music act, consisting of Tom Middleton and Mark Pritchard. Biography Global Communication's first LP, '' 76:14'', is an acclaimed album from the ambient and 1990s electronic music genres. Beyond their w ...

s division. Kazi, one of the first social media managers at a Fortune 500 company, was responsible for developing programs to capture, expand and socialize new and evolving media, analyst and influencer communities. While working at Sun Microsystems, at the age of 23, Kazi founded her first company The CulturalConnect, an online media company for young professionals aimed at redefining what success looks like in different ethnic diasporas. The CulturalConnect was made up of five online publications including: The DesiConnect, The MidEastConnect, The AsiaConnect, The AfricanaConnect, and The LatinConnect. In April 2011, Sumaya founded Sumazi, the social intelligence platform used by brands, celebrities and enterprises. Sumazi was a finalist at the

TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American online newspaper focusing on high tech and startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. In 2010, AOL acquired the company for approximately $ ...

Disrupt Startup Battlefield, where it won the

Omidyar Network Omidyar Network is a self-styled " philanthropic investment firm," composed of a foundation and an impact investment firm. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, Omidyar Network has committed over $1.5billion to ...

award for "Startup Most Likely to Change the World."

Awards, press and honors

* 2006:

BusinessWeek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

Magazine, America's Best Young Entrepreneurs Under 25 * 2007:

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

, Young People Who Rock * 2007: Brass Magazine cover story * 2007: Silicon Valley

Business Journal American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes The Business Journals, which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States, Hemmings Motor News ...

, Dynamic Super Connector * 2008: ABC7 KGO-TV, Bay Area Trailblazer and Community Leader * 2009:

UTNE Reader ''Utne Reader'' (also known as ''Utne'') ( ) is a digital digest that collects and reprints articles on politics, culture, and the environment, generally from alternative media sources including journals, newsletters, weeklies, zines, music, and ...

, Top 50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World * 2011: GenJuice, The Top 100 Most Desirable Mentors * 2012: YFS Magazine, 10 San Francisco Entrepreneurs to Watch * 2012:

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

, Female Founders to Watch from UC Berkeley * 2012:

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was esta ...

, Most Influential Executives on the Web * 2014: British Bangladeshi Power & Inspiration 100, Top 10 Inspirational Bangladeshis Around the World

Public speaking

Kazi is a frequent speaker and panelist at technology conferences and educational institutions educating audiences on topics such as

entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

work, intrapreneurship,

social entrepreneurship Social entrepreneurship is an approach by individuals, groups, start-up companies or entrepreneurs, in which they develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. This concept may be applied to a wide range of ...

young professional The term ''young professional'' generally refers to young people between 20 and 40 who are employed in a profession or white-collar occupation. The meaning may be ambiguous"I am not sure what "young professionals" means...''After the storm: Amer ...

issues,

diversity Diversity, diversify, or diverse may refer to: Business *Diversity (business), the inclusion of people of different identities (ethnicity, gender, age) in the workforce *Diversity marketing, marketing communication targeting diverse customers * ...

and

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and Reproducibility, reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in me ...

. She has presented at the World Islamic Economic Forum in Malaysia, Marketing 2.0 Conference in France, BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas,

National Society of Collegiate Scholars The National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS) is a national non-profit academic honor society for college students in the United States. NSCS has active chapters at over 300 colleges and universities in the United States, including the Distr ...

Conference in Florida,

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

Girl Geek Dinners Panel in Mountain View, Congresswoman Jackie Speier's Job Hunter's Conference in San Mateo among many other speaking engagements. Additionally, Kazi has been a speaker at several

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

conferences including TEDxYouth at Facebook
TEDxBayArea at Linkedin
an
TEDxWomen

Personal life

Kazi has practiced an

Intermittent Fasting Intermittent fasting is any of various meal timing schedules that cycle between voluntary fasting (or reduced calorie intake) and non-fasting over a given period. Methods of intermittent fasting include alternate-day fasting, periodic fasting, a ...

lifestyle since 2015. She has written a popula
how-to guide on her Intermittent Fasting schedule
and how she lost over 55 pounds as a result. She has been interviewed b
Quartz MagazineHVMN
an

about her success with Intermittent Fasting. Kazi is a

Salsa Salsa most often refers to: * Salsa (Mexican cuisine), a variety of sauces used as condiments * Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music * Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music Salsa or SALSA may also refer to: ...

and Bachata dancer. She was a competitive Salsa dancer with th
RicaSalsa
San Francisco-based dance troupe where they won 1st place at the United States Salsa Open Championships in the Amateur category.

References

External links

Sumazi websitePersonal WebsiteTEDxBayArea: Sumaya Kazi, "What You Don't Know But Should About Young Entrepreneurs"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kazi, Sumaya Living people 1982 births American women company founders University of California, Berkeley alumni American women chief executives Businesspeople from San Francisco American people of Bangladeshi descent American technology company founders Sun Microsystems 21st-century American women