Zahra Esmail
Director
Zahra Esmail is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Vantage Point, a non-profit organization that strengthens and supports other non-profits in British Columbia. Zahra has worked in the non-profit sector for over 20 years with experience in international development, housing and homelessness, community development, microfinance, governance, and fundraising.
Zahra is an active volunteer in the community. She is Co-Chair of the Fresh Roots Urban Farm Society Board of Directors and is Chair of the Board Governance Committee of Cuso International. Zahra is also Chair of BC’s Poverty Reduction Advisory Committee, an independent committee that advises government on policy developments related to poverty reduction and prevention. She was appointed to the British Columbia Institute of Technology’s Board of Governors in July 2025.
Zahra was recognized as one of Business in Vancouver’s Forty Under 40 in 2019, was nominated for a YWCA Women of Distinction Award in 2022, and received a King Charles III Coronation Medal in 2025. Zahra gratefully resides on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples with her husband and school-age daughter.