Shada Islam is an incredible Brussels-based communicator who has been at the forefront of European analysis for two decades. Shada has been tirelessly dedicated to promoting informed and constructive dialogue on issues including migration and gender in the European sphere. Shada has spent most of her professional life researching, writing, analysing and speaking about the European Union and its relations with Asia and Africa as well as EU Development Policy, Trade Policy and Migration.

Over the years, Shada has interviewed and talked to presidents, prime ministers, ministers, senior policymakers and business leaders as well as authors and academics. She makes sure to engage with youth, including students, and is a great believer in the transformational qualities of younger people and women. She has been and remains a strong advocate for an increased representation of ethnic minorities in EU institutions and is a leading voice for a fairer and more inclusive Europe.

She worked for nine years as Director of Europe and Geopolitics at Friends of Europe, an influential independent think tank based in Brussels. She now runs her own Brussels-based global strategy and advisory media company, New Horizons Project. She has recently started as a columnist for the Guardian Europe edition, and published an incredible reflection on how Europe has slowly become less welcoming in the years since she came here as a student.