Shafaq Fatima - Director of Operations
Shafaq Fatima is an international operations leader, HR strategist, and EdTech innovator whose career is grounded in one defining belief: education should be a right, not a privilege. From an early age, Fatima recognised that traditional education systems often excluded the very people who needed them most. This realisation shaped her life's mission—to build learning ecosystems that are inclusive, adaptable, and accessible to all.
With a degree in Business Administration and multiple professional certifications, including SAP and CPD-accredited specialisations, Fatima has built a career that spans diverse geographies and sectors. She has worked across the UAE, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, South Africa, the United States, and Pakistan, gaining firsthand insight into the economic, cultural, and structural barriers that affect learners in different regions.
Her professional journey has taken her through telecommunications, oil and gas, EdTech, and global service industries, where she developed a powerful understanding of operational systems, human behaviour, and institutional capacity-building. Across each industry, one truth became clear to her: every learner has unique strengths—and education must evolve to recognize, support, and amplify those strengths.
Today, as the Chief Operating Officer at the Metropolitan School of Business and Management UK (MSBM UK), Fatima leads the organisation's global Operations and Human Resources Strategy, overseeing teams and learners spread across multiple continents. Her leadership is marked by:
- A commitment to inclusive growth, ensuring MSBM's programmes reach underserved communities
- Operational frameworks that support scalable, tech-enabled education delivery
- HR strategies that prioritise diversity, creativity, and a strong learning culture
- A vision for EdTech that breaks economic, geographic, and intellectual barriers
Fatima's work plays a crucial role in positioning MSBM as a global leader in accessible, career-focused professional education. Her approach balances operational excellence with human-centred innovation, enabling the institution to reach tens of thousands of learners while maintaining compassion, quality, and cultural sensitivity.
Beyond her executive role, Fatima is also an artist and writer. Her creative work fuels her professional philosophy—reminding her that learning is not merely transactional but a deeply personal, emotional, and transformative experience. Whether through her art or her operational leadership, she continues to reimagine what education can be when empathy meets innovation.
Shafaq Fatima's story is a testament to her unwavering mission: to make learning the great equalizer, empowering individuals across continents and communities to build better futures, regardless of where their journey begins.
