Syed Zafar is dedicated to improving intercultural communication. Born in Pakistan, Syed later worked in Saudi Arabia before immigrating to the United States where he began to see how his experiences integrating into different cultures could benefit his new home of Houston, Texas.
Syed is a passionate advocate for equality, clear communication, and education. Syed’s passion is working with small groups within corporations, academic institutions, and many not-for-profit organizations to improve communication and remove barriers between cultures. As a trainer, presenter, published writer, and speaker Syed has worked to improve intercultural communication for more than 25 years. He has presented over 600 programs on intercultural communication for groups across North America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and South America.
He worked as an intercultural communication trainer, providing insight and enlightenment gleaned through his global life experiences to groups of all sizes. Among his corporate clients, Syed has worked with Alcoa, Conoco Inc., Enron Corporation, Bechtel Corp, and Motiva Enterprises. Additionally, many academic institutions have benefited from Syed’s expertise, including Art Institute of Houston, Texas Education Agency, Rice University, University of Houston, and Texas A&M University.
A lifelong student, Syed attended many conferences as well as week-long intense cultural training at the Summer Institute of Intercultural Communication in Portland, Organ seven times over the past 16 years. In 2007, in pursuit of even more resources to improve intercultural interactions within his community, Syed completed his Cultural Detective Facilitator Certification. Syed has also used the power of the written word to impact cultural communication across the United States and was an active contributor to the Managing Diversity newsletter. One of Syed’s articles, “It’s About Time” was published in the book The Art of Time Management in 2005.
Syed was involved with SIETAR (Society of Intercultural Education, Training, and Research), for fifteen years where he held the role of board member and a term as President of his local chapter. Syed helped promote inclusive cross-cultural relationships and improve cross-cultural understandings.
Presenting, public speaking, and training came easily to Syed, who presented at the 2008 SIETAR global conference in Spain as well as co-presented with Joyce at the 1995 NAFSA (National Association of Foreign Student Advisors) conference in San Antonio, Texas. In 1996, Syed was awarded the Trainer of the Year award by the Houston chapter of American Society for Training and Development.
In his free time, Syed loves to hike. He enjoyed hiking the Inca trail to Machu Picchu in 2019. Syed has been regularly doing yoga for over 25 years. Moving forward, Syed would like to devote most of his time to helping people understand other cultures.