From Nairobi to Wimbledon, and every seat at the table.

Most executives learn a business from one seat. I have learned it from all three: as an operator who built and sold his own ventures, a director who has sat on boards through growth, crisis and exit, and a VC partner who spent a decade deciding which businesses deserved backing at all.

FounderOperatorDirectorInvestor

Zarir 'Zed' Vakil at the Centre Court gates, Wimbledon

Message from Zed

The triple vantage point

The triple vantage point, seeing a business the way an investor would, running it the way an owner has to, and governing it at board level, is the whole of my method. Kenyan-born, of British Parsi heritage, I came to the UK at thirteen and made Wimbledon home. So I am no stranger to change, and I make sure my clients embrace it too.

A force for good

Bringing confidence and prosperity to your version of success is what drives me. Advising, navigating and inspiring is my force for good, so that you take real joy from your business: for yourself, your stakeholders, your family and your community.

The road here

A decade at H. Samuel, BAT and GKN taught me how big organisations really work. Co-founding the VC firm DCD London & Mutual taught me how outsiders judge a business, building and exiting a portfolio of six to eight companies at an average 5x return. Inside it, I ran New Horizons as founding CEO, winning an international master franchise and raising £8M. From 2001 my own vehicle, later ZED Portfolio, became my practice: sector-agnostic growth mandates, long fractional and interim tenures, and eight years as a non-executive director of WRLD Inc. through a $20M Series B.

Beyond business

Married, with two grown-up daughters and two thoroughly unbothered Shih Tzus, I am as content with a coffee and a day trip as with somewhere entirely unfamiliar. I am a REF-certified peer-to-peer forum leader, co-founder of PXO, a movement for portfolio professionals, and co-author of Portfolio Life, out in 2026.

“I collect nice people. Some become clients. All become friends.”

Zed

My Passionate Purpose Promise

Making a difference: my life’s work.

My Passionate Purpose Promise is made twice over: to stay true to my own passionate purpose, and to help you uncover and pursue yours. Everything that follows, and everything I do for a client, comes back to that.

At the centre of everything I do is a simple creed: to make a difference through servant leadership, a force for good that builds confidence and prosperity for my family, my clients, my friends and the wider community.

What I love is people: service to others, friendship and fun, and success and prosperity shared, not hoarded. What I’m good at is what I have been paid to do for three decades: growing businesses and their sales, simplifying the complex, sharpening product-market fit, and leading and coaching teams, as a fractional CEO or CXO, a non-executive director, a forum leader and a mentor.

And what the world needs, inspiring leaders, real human connection, and a fairer shot for those coming up, is exactly where I want my work to count.

Put those four together and both my purpose and my promise are clear: to turn hard-won experience into your version of success.

Discover your own Passionate Purpose

Note on origin. The “Purpose” Venn diagram used on this page is based on the original 2011 design by Spanish author Andrés Zuzunaga, first published in Borja Vilaseca’s book Qué harías si no tuvieras miedo (2012). It is often misattributed to the traditional Japanese philosophy of Ikigai, which is in fact a separate concept, focused on daily joy and longevity rather than professional or financial alignment.