Dr. Zara Nanu, CEO and Co-Founder of Gapsquare, is awarded MBE for services on tackling global workplace inequalities
Dr. Zara Nanu, CEO and Co-Founder of Gapsquare, part of XpertHR, was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Jubilee Birthday Honours list in recognition of her services on tackling global workplace inequalities and promoting fairness and inclusion.
Zara founded Gapsquare after hearing that it would take 217 years before the Gender Pay Gap could be closed. At the same time, it was said that by 2030, we’ll be in self-driving cars, and we’d be on our way to Mars. Zara recognised that these incredible advancements were possible because of the use of data, AI and tech and to achieve similar leaps in progress for pay disparity and workplace inclusion, there was potential to harness the same innovations to accelerate much needed social change.
Zara’s commitment to ensuring diversity and inclusion began in her native Moldova where she worked to bring an end to exploitative people trafficking rings which forced women into sweatshops. It’s with this same determination that Zara has sought to bring equality to the workplace by founding Gapsquare in 2016; harnessing data and AI technology to help organisations put a stop to biases and prejudicial practices preventing equality.
As part of her commitment, Zara is focused on creating a better world of work, one that has fairness at its core and is not held back by patriarchal structures and works tirelessly to ensure that pay equality is placed firmly on the national agenda.
Zara recognises that there is no quick fix when it comes to resolving pay inequality, but it is vital that organisations take active steps towards building a better future. The impact of the pandemic means that the time it will take to close the global gender gap has increased by a generation from 99.5 years to 135.6 years. Because of this, Zara is on a mission to focus on change at a global level, bringing Gapsquare to the US, and continuing to work with leaders in the UK to deliver meaningful change for a fairer and more inclusive future of work.
Gapsquare provides business leaders with actionable insights about their company’s existing pay gaps through their flagship software FairPay® Pro. To date, the organisation has helped over 80 organisations across the UK create fairer workplaces, including working with Wieden + Kennedy, Condé Nast and Accenture. Zara is taking Gapsquare’s mission to end pay inequality global, working with business leaders to get pay equity on the agenda and implementing the pay technology in the United States.
A leading voice in the campaign for positive change and action, Zara is Chair of the Women in Business Task Group and a member of the Global Future Council on Equity and Social Justice at the World Economic Forum. She has also been recently appointed to the Shinkwin Commission focusing on diversity and inclusion in the workplace.