Feature Asset Leader: Zara Majid
Zara Majid is a 16-year-old Trinidadian-born student, Woman Candidate Master, environmental advocate and youth leader based in the Cayman Islands. A Grade 11 student at Cayman International School, she is passionate about combining chemical engineering, technology and community action to develop sustainable solutions for small-island nations.
Zara represents the Cayman Islands internationally in chess and earned the Woman Candidate Master title at the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Budapest, where she competed as part of the Cayman Islands’ first women’s Olympiad team. She is the 2026 Cayman Islands National Female Chess Champion and will represent the country on Board One at the 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad. Committed to making chess more accessible to girls, Zara founded Queens of Tomorrow, a developmental programme serving young players across the Cayman Islands. She also helped co-found Checkmate Betul, where she’s now mentoring approximately 100 girls in rural India and serves as the Director for Communications for Queens United Chess, managing one of the first international girls’ chess podcasts reaching over 1500 listeners across more than 18 countries.
Beyond the chessboard, Zara is a leader of Protect Our Future, the Cayman Islands’ largest youth environmental advocacy organization. She has helped expand the organization to more than 180 young people across multiple schools, led environmental campaigns, organized major beach clean-ups, and represented youth perspectives through local media and the BBC. As President of Interact Central Cayman Islands, Zara conceived and spearheaded EcoFest 2026, Cayman’s first environment and climate fair, bringing together more than 40 organizations and over 450 attendees.
Zara is also the founder and lead developer of AgriConnect, a digital platform designed to connect Cayman’s farmers directly with consumers. Her environmental research has been accepted for publication by the University of the West Indies, and she was awarded a full Young Leaders Scholarship to attend the 2026 Yale Young Global Scholars programme.
Drawing inspiration from her experiences in Trinidad and Tobago and the Cayman Islands, Zara aspires to become a chemical engineer and develop renewable-energy and climate-resilience solutions tailored to Caribbean and other small-island communities. At the heart of her work is a simple belief: young people should not wait for opportunities or solutions to appear, they should help create them.
