Ruzwana Bashir

Ruzwana Bashir (born 28 July 1983) is a British entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Peek, a travel company based in San Francisco, California. She was selected in 2012 for Forbes 30 Under 30 list on Technology[1] and in 2014 for Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People[2] as well as Vanity Fair's Next Establishment.[3]

Ruzwana Bashir
Born (1983-07-28) July 28, 1983
Skipton, North Yorkshire, England
NationalityBritish
EducationSkipton Girls' High School
Alma mater
OccupationEntrepreneur

Early life and education

Bashir was born and grew up in Skipton and attended Skipton Girls' High School in North Yorkshire.[4]

Bashir attended New College at the University of Oxford to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics.[5][6]

She was elected President of the university's debating society, the Oxford Union, in March 2004, beating James Forsyth.[4][7][8] She became the second Muslim to hold the position after former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.[5][6] She faced a tribunal, accused of irregular canvassing, in the shape of courting votes in her college on polling day.[6][7][8] Friends of Bashir commented that the opposition to her was really "because of the colour of her skin and because she is a Muslim".[9] The tribunal found Forsyth guilty of electoral malpractice.[6][7] The Guardian commented that "Frivolous complaints have become the raison d'être of the Oxford Union",[8] and subsequently the electoral rules of the Union were changed, so that others would not fall foul of the same problem.[8] During her tenure as president, Bashir's guest speakers included Senator John McCain, Michael Heseltine, Norman Lamont, Kenneth Clarke, John Redwood, David Trimble, Tom Ford, Hans Blix, and José María Aznar.[10] In 2004, Bashir met Boris Johnson (himself a former President of the Union),[11] and in October Johnson visited Oxford to speak at a debate entitled 'This House has No Confidence in Her Majesty's Government'.

After Oxford University, Bashir was a Fulbright Scholar at the Harvard Business School where she obtained an MBA.[12][13]

Business career

Bashir worked in private equity at the Blackstone Group and in investment banking at Goldman Sachs in London. She then worked at Gilt Groupe, and was part of the founding team at Art.sy in New York.[14][15]

In 2012, Bashir founded Peek, a marketplace for travellers and locals to book activities in holiday destinations.[16] Peek, where Bashir is CEO, has received financing by investors including Eric Schmidt, Jack Dorsey, and David Bonderman.[17] Bashir met Peek's co-founder and chief technology officer, Oskar Bruening, in New York and by the end of the day they decided to start a company together.[18] In November 2013, Bashir announced that Peek developed Peek Pro, a suite of backend tools to help tour operators run their businesses,[19] and in December 2013, Peek launched a mobile app version of its site.[20]

In 2014, Peek raised $5 million in funding.[21] In 2016, Peek raised a further $10 million and Trulia founder Pete Flint joined the Board.[22]

In 2018, the company raised a $23 million fundraising round and inked a partnership with Google.[23] In 2019, Forbes wrote that "Peek could be North America's next Travel Unicorn".[24]

Since founding Peek Bashir has been cited as one of the most powerful women in technology alongside Sheryl Sandberg and Marissa Mayer.[25] In 2014, she was named one of the Most Promising Women Entrepreneurs by Fortune,[26] one of the Most Influential Women in Business by the San Francisco Business Times[27] and one of Glamour's "35 Under 35 Who Are Changing the Tech Industry."[28] That same year, Peek was named one of the Top 50 Websites of 2014 by Time[29] and one of the World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Travel by Fast Company.[30] In 2016 Fortune magazine labeled Bashir "Silicon Valley’s Favorite British Import".[31]

Personal life

Bashir was reported in 2009 to be dating actor Toby Kebbell. Bashir and Kebbell met at a Christmas party.[32] They were pictured together in the Daily Mirror[33] and in February 2009 attended the 62nd British Academy Film Awards event together.[34] In 2014, Bashir was reported to be dating Ben Rattray and they were pictured attending the TIME 100 Gala together.[35]

On 29 August 2014, Bashir wrote an article in The Guardian[36] in which she told her story as a survivor of sexual abuse. Bashir's article was published in light of the 2014 investigations into the sexual abuse of 1,400 children in Rotherham, England between 1997 and 2013.[37] Bashir cited the underreporting of abuse in the British-Pakistani community and the taboos around shame that perpetuates it. She calls upon the communities to give victims the support they need to come forward and bring the perpetrators to justice.[38]

References
  1. Barret, Victoria (17 December 2012). "Forbes 30 Under 30 in Tech". Forbes. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
  2. Chafkin, Max. "Most Creative People". Retrieved 28 August 2014.
  3. Chafkin, Max. "The Next Establishment". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on 18 August 2014. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
  4. Obscure law costs Ruzwana top post, from the Telegraph & Argus, first published 27 January 2004, at thisisbradford.co.uk Archived 20 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Ihsan Islam, HISTORY MAN: Abandoning Cambridge for Oxford' in Daily Times of Pakistan, 15 October 2004, online
  6. Stewart Payne, Asian woman picked to lead Oxford Union, dated 12 March 2004 at telegraph.co.uk/
  7. Toby Moore, Racism? No, just brutal politics, article dated 12 March 2004 at timesonline.co.uk
  8. 'What the toffs did next' in The Guardian, 11 March 2004, online
  9. 'LA DONNA DELL'ANNO' at minervaonline.it (in Italian) Archived 22 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  10. Suzy Menkes, Tom Ford works his charm on students at Oxford Union in The New York Times dated 16 November 2004, online
  11. Tim Shipman, "Secrets of the Boris Johnson Dossier", The Sunday Times, dated 9 September 2018
  12. Ruzwana Bashir at fulbright.co.uk, accessed 1 April 2011 Archived 17 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  13. More Fulbright Awards for 2009/10 at fulbright.co.uk
  14. London Student Housing Conference Archived 22 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine at london.ac.uk
  15. Gianluca Longo, 'The newboy', in Evening Standard (London), 6 February 2009, p. 28
  16. Graham, Jefferson (20 December 2012). "Start-up travel site offers a Peek at hidden gems". USA Today. Retrieved 24 January 2013.
  17. Swartz, Jon (11 October 2012). "New travel site Peek backed by Dorsey, Schmidt". www.usatoday.com. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  18. Bashir, Ruzwana. "ENTER THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP: MEMENTOS OF MUSEUM-GOING". www.style.com. Style. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
  19. "RUZWANA BASHIR". Northstar Travel Group.
  20. Lawler, Ryan (12 December 2013). "Travel Site Peek Goes Mobile, Launches An iOS App For Booking Aspirational Experiences On The Go". TechCrunch.
  21. De La Merced, Michael J. (3 May 2014). "Peek.com Raises $5 Million in New Financing". The New York Times.
  22. Kolodny, Lora (28 July 2016). "Peek.com raises $10 million, strikes partnership to bring tour and-activity-booking-to-yelp". TechCrunch.
  23. Russell, Jon (19 June 2018). "Peek raises $23M and inks partnership with Google in push to digitize travel activities". TechCrunch.
  24. Robert, Yola (17 June 2019). "Exclusive: Peek Could Be North America's Next Travel Unicorn". Forbes.
  25. "Most Powerful Women in Tech". www.elizabethstreet.com. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  26. Leahey, Colleen (9 April 2014). "Winners of the 2014 Fortune Most Promising Entrepreneurs contest". Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  27. "2014 Influential Women". San Francisco Business Times.
  28. Fenn, Donna (10 January 2014). "35 Women Under 35 Who Are Changing the Tech Industry". Retrieved 10 June 2014.
  29. Aamoth, Doug; Newman, Jared (8 January 2014). "50 Best Websites 2014". Retrieved 10 January 2014.
  30. "The World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Travel". 8 January 2014. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
  31. https://fortune.com/2016/11/02/ruzwana-bashir-peek-silicon-valley/
  32. Marianne Macdonald, Toby Kebbell: the new boy Archived 23 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine dated 9 February 2009 at thisislondon.co.uk
  33. Bafta Dresses at mirror.co.uk 8 February 2009
  34. Toby Kebbell and Ruzwana Bashir at exposay.com
  35. https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/ruzwana-bashir-and-ben-rattray-attend-the-time-100-gala-news-photo/487373317
  36. Bashir, Ruzwana. "The untold story of how a culture of shame perpetuates abuse. I know, I was a victim". Retrieved 9 May 2014.
  37. Smith, Lydia. "Rotherham Child Sex Abuse: Only One South Yorkshire Police Grooming Investigation Led to Convictions". Retrieved 9 May 2014.
  38. "Ruzwana Bashir: 'Not victims, they're survivors'". Retrieved 9 May 2014.
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