Karimi’s mission in life is to serve the world by creating spaces where growth thrives, and meaningful change is catalysed. She helps organisations, leaders and individuals navigate complexity and change by leveraging her background as an executive and years of experience in consulting across diverse sectors. Her areas of expertise include process design and facilitation, strategy, leadership, social impact, entrepreneurship and coaching.

Karimi has worked as a CEO, providing strategic direction while delivering results in changing markets and leading cross-regional teams. She also serves on the board of a non-profit establishing education programmes in Cape Town and is part of the fundraising committee for the Red Cross Children’s Hospital Trust.

She is passionate about female empowerment and serves as the chair of Business Engage in the Western Cape, representing the 30% club and it’s work in creating representation of women in leadership and on Boards. Karimi speaks regularly on topics related to trust and psychological safety, women in leadership and innovation. She has dedicated her career to enabling learning and growth for individuals, for leaders and for businesses.

Education & work

Karimi completed her undergraduate degree in Information Systems and spent her early career specialising in Information Technology. For her MBA, Karimi specialised in social innovation and entrepreneurship, exploring how to create social value in sustainable and innovative business models. This led to a career in SMME development, where she worked across the full spectrum of developing businesses. This ranged from playing an advisory role to the enterprises, to designing and delivering programmes that develop enterprises, and then heading up the consulting organisation that advised corporate clients.

She has extensive experience in client delivery and has delivered complex programmes into different environments with top-tier clients in various sectors. This has included broad advisory and strategic consulting with a recent focus in the financial services sector and multi-year partnerships in banking and insurance.

She has actively led and been involved in social initiatives in both her professional and personal life, combining her passion for social impact with her vocational skills through various projects supporting leadership development and entrepreneurship.
Karimi believes in the power of catalytic change, and revels in seeing how the right incremental shifts can create long-term sustainable impact. This drives her work as coach and mentor for leaders in different stages of life.

Qualifications & Certifications

• Master of Business Administration Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town
• Bachelor of Business Science in Management Studies–Information Systems – University of Cape Town
• Coaching Practitioner – South African College of Applied Psychology, Cape Town
• Board Masterclass – Business Engage / 30% Club Southern Africa