Yassmin Abdel-Magied

Writer and former mechanical engineer turned social advocate Yassmin Abdel Magied is a Sudanese-Australian with a fire for social justice. She is the founder of Youth without Borders, starting the organisation at just 16 ears of age. Yassmin was voted the young Queenslander of the Year in 2010 and the Queensland Young Australian of the year in 2015. She is the author of several children’s books that explore the experiences of people from the diaspora. She is an extremely talented individual and has spoken at companies like Twitter, SAP, Visa and HSBC and her TED talk has amassed over 2 million views.

She began her career working in the oil and gas industry after graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering. The daughter of Sudanese immigrants, she quickly became familiar with stereotypes, unconscious bias, and negativity in the workplace that many migrants face. She decided to tackle the issues head-on with her writing, storytelling and speaking in order to be a force for positive change in society. Her writing has been published in famous anthologies like the Griffith Review, she has also had her work published in Harvard Business Review.  She has written 3 successful children’s books which have received huge amounts of praise from press such as the Guardian.

Yassmin has taken part in several public campaigns for leading brands, including a 12-month programme with LinkedIn as a changemaker to share content on unconscious bias at work, she has also worked with leading professional services group Ernst and Young on content aimed at C-level executives on inclusive leadership. Her infamous TED talk “What Does My Headscarf Mean to You” has collected over 2 million views in a short period, a testament to her talent and skill as a speaker. Moreover, Yassmin is frequently requested as a speaker at world-leading brands across a range of industries such as Unilever, the University of Oxford, and Footlocker. Yassmin, is also on the board of several organisations such as the Australian multicultural Council, Child fund Australia, lending her expertise to groups that look to be a force for good.