Leadership

F. Zafar is Founder and CEO of EmTech Advisory Group and an advisor to boards and executive teams on governance and strategy for intelligent transformation. He works with institutions as AI, data, and automation move from experimentation into core decision-making—helping leaders set direction early and govern responsibly before scale creates irreversible risk.

He previously served as Head of Corporate Innovation at Bessemer Trust and held senior leadership roles at AllianceBernstein, partnering closely with executive leadership on multi-year enterprise transformation across strategy, operating models, and technology-enabled change. He began his career in management consulting at Booz Allen & Hamilton.

He brings a board-level perspective to transformation, shaped in part by his graduate study in corporate governance under Ira Millstein at Yale, with a focus on decision authority, accountability, risk, and long-term institutional value. His work emphasizes stewardship—aligning innovation with mission, fiduciary responsibility, and durable outcomes rather than short-term experimentation.

He holds an MBA and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Yale University, where he was a Graduate Fellow and served on the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Alumni Board. He has completed executive education at Berkeley, Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, and Wharton, and is a frequent speaker on governance, AI, and enterprise transformation.