Ziad Ahmed is an American activist, public speaker, and incoming college student. He hails from Princeton, New Jersey. ^[1] He is Bangladeshi-American. In April 2017, Ahmed gained national media attention after being accepted into Stanford University by writing #BlackLivesMatter 100 times in his application.

Ahmed grew up in Princeton, New Jersey and attended Princeton Day School. An ambitious student, Ahmed has started several organizations and has been involved on several political fronts. Ziad holds the position of Secretary and Treasurer of the Class of 2017, leads as the Secretary General of the PDS Model UN Delegation, mentors younger students in Science and Math, writes for the school newspaper, is a full member of Mu Alpha Theta, and plays for the varsity squash team. He has also founded the Muslim Club in order to promote constructive dialogue about Islam.

From September of 2015-February of 2016, Ahmed was the Co-Head for Youth for O'Malley that supported Martin O'Malley's Presidential Campaign. After interning for his local Congresswoman's District office for several months, Ahmed participated in the State Department's VSFS Program where he led social good campaigns to combat online extremism through P2P solutions. He presented his findings at the United Nations General Assembly. Ahmed worked in Muslim outreach during the latter months of Hillary Clinton's Presidential Campaign.

Ziad, along with two of his colleagues, founded JÜV Consulting., a youth consulting confirm. He serves as the Chief Visionary Officer of the company and works to empower teens with the opportunity to communicate directly with businesses about what exactly appeals to youth. Ziad firmly believes in the power of young voices and is confident JÜV will be a great success. The company has already grown to have over 50 teen consultants worldwide and around 10 clients. JÜV Consulting has even been profiled by Bloomberg Businessweek.

Ahmed says that his unapologetic progressivism is a central part of his identity.

In 2013, he founded Redefy, an organization that is dedicated to defy stereotypes, embrace acceptance and tolerance, and promoting gender equality.

His work for Redefy has been commended by likes of PBS, MTV, and President Barack Obama.

Ahmed has traveled around the globe to speak about his activities to a variety of audiences.

These events include MUPPIES 2015 Annual Conference, AMHP's #MuslimYouthIdentity Event, the Bangladeshi Computer Literacy Program's Annual Fundraiser, and many local events.

Ahmed's most notable speaking engagement to date was his TEDxTalk in Panama City, Panama.

Ahmed tweeted that he responded to one of the questions on the Stanford University application by writing Black Lives Matter over and over again 100 times. He was surprised to be accepted after submitting the essay. It was written in response to the essay question: "“What do you care about and why?” Ahmed said that "To me, to be Muslim is to be a BLM ally, and I honestly can't imagine it being any other way for me."