Hafsa Ahmed
Hafsa Ahmed is a New Zealand academic, and is a lecturer in the Department of Global Value Chains and Trade at Lincoln University. In 2023, Ahmed was appointed a Member of the Order of New Zealand for services to ethnic communities and women.
Academic career
Ahmed is originally from Hyderabad, India, and has a BE and an MBA from Osmania University. She worked for HSBC Holdings in London before moving to New Zealand in 2007. Ahmed completed a PhD titled Organisational adaptation or environmental selection? An enhancement of the evolutionary change theory based on a study of the New Zealand electricity industry at Lincoln University in 2014, and worked as a research assistant at the university and as a policy advisor at Environment Canterbury. Ahmed then joined the faculty of the Department of Global Value Chains and Trade at the university. She specialises in 'stakeholder ecosystem management'. Ahmed is a member of the Association of Change Management Professionals, and is their New Zealand lead.Voluntary work
In 2016 Ahmed and her husband co-founded the Lady Khadija Charitable Trust, of which she is also a trustee. The trust is a registered charity that runs a variety of projects to support communities and individuals, such as leadership workshops for ethnic women, storytelling projects to deepen intercultural understanding of immigrant journeys, and exhibitions and events.Ahmed served as the Chair of the Canterbury Interfaith Society from 2021, and sits on the board of Ako Ōtautahi – Learning City Christchurch.