Alia Sheikh is a business operations Consultant and entrepreneur with over a decade of experience spanning three Big 4 firms, two self-built ventures, and advisory work across five countries.

She currently serves as NextGen Lead and Board Advisor to the Muslim Trade Forum, where she is responsible for building and driving the NextGen programme – developing the next generation of British Muslim business leaders and connecting them to opportunities across the global halal economy and 57 OIC member states.

Alia is the Founder and Director of Alia Sheikh Consulting Ltd, a leading UK-based Consultancy and executive talent platform serving SMEs in professional and financial services. Her practice focuses on the operational foundations that enable businesses to scale: systems architecture, commercial process design, and revenue performance. This is complemented by a curated network of senior C-suite professionals deployed to deliver strategic impact.

Prior to founding her Consultancy, Alia held Consulting roles at EY, Deloitte, and KPMG, advising major banking, capital markets, and financial services clients on operational transformation, digital strategy, and regulatory change. At EY, she worked directly with the COO of one of the UK’s largest retail banks on the rollout of an Open Banking digital gateway, co-managing a team of over 100 business analysts. She has also founded and operated a luxury consumer brand, managing the full value chain from product development and international manufacturing to go-to-market strategy.

Alia holds an MSc in Management from Imperial College Business School and a BSc in International Relations and History from the London School of Economics, where she was awarded the LSE100 prize for outstanding achievement. She is fluent in English, Spanish, and Urdu, and has lived and worked across the UK, the EU, the United States, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia.