Photographic portrait of Riaz Shah
What motivates me is one question – how can we best prepare EY people for the future so that they can help EY clients thrive in uncertain times?

Riaz A Shah

EY Global Learning Leader – Talent

Innovator. Technologist. Passionate about education, entrepreneurship and empowerment. Chairman and co-founder of One Degree Academy. TEDx Speaker.

Areas of focus Innovation EY Tech MBA
Office London, GB

As EY Global Learning Partner, Riaz prepares 300,000+ people for the future of work through initiatives such as the EY Tech MBA and EY Badges.

Riaz, a qualified Chartered Accountant, joined EY in the UK in 1986 and was appointed as a Partner, Ernst & Young LLP UK in 1997.  He has had a varied career at EY, working with global clients in Assurance and Consulting. Prior leadership roles have included Assurance Managing Partner, Ernst & Young LLP UK; COO for Markets, Ernst & Young LLP UK; and EY Global Talent Leader for Assurance.

Riaz was the first EY Global Learning and Development Leader from 2008 to 2012. He led the development of EY’s first global programs, such as Global NextGen, markets learning and milestone programs.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an alumnus of Singularity University’s Executive Programme and a member of Harvard Business School’s Global Alumni Board.

How Riaz is building better working world

Riaz is focused on preparing all EY people for the future so they can better help EY clients deal with a rapidly changing and increasingly challenging world. 

A key theme is the “democratization of education” – working to make education opportunities previously only accessible to an elite few available to all – through internal programs such as EY Badges and the EY Tech MBA, which is the world’s first corporate MBA and is free of charge to all EY people.

Riaz is also passionate about education outside of EY.  He is the Founder and Chair of One Degree Academy, a state-funded free school in London which launched in September 2016 that aims to give access to a high-quality education to children from underserved backgrounds.  He also volunteers as Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee at Ark Schools, a leading charity that runs a group of UK state schools in disadvantaged areas.

Contact Riaz