Zain Verjee is journalist who was born and raised in Kenya. She is a former CNN anchor and correspondent, and has made a transition into the world of communications and creative entrepreneurship. Her communications firm, Zain Verjee Group, has worked with Bloomberg Media, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Equity Group Foundation of Kenya, World Health Organization, The MiSK Foundation, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa on their communications and public relations. Verjee is also a startup founder and content creator, co-founding aKoma Media, a continental network of workspaces for Africa’s creative and cultural economy, in 2015. Her other ventures include Amplify, a content creator fellowship with participants from East/West Africa and the US, in partnership with MasterCard Foundation. Verjee resides in the Los Angeles area and Nairobi, Kenya. She spent 14 years at CNN as an anchor and correspondent, living in Atlanta, Washington DC and London. Prior to leaving CNN in April 2014, Verjee was the anchor of CNN International's European daytime program "World One". She worked as a newsreader for The Situation Room, as a State Department correspondent, and as a co-anchor of CNN International's Your World Today with Jim Clancy.
Verjee joined CNN in 2000, prior to which she was a news reader on Kenya Television Network, Nairobi and as a radio DJ for 98.4 Capital FM. As the State Department Correspondent covering Condoleezza Rice, Verjee travelled the world covering US foreign policy. Among her many trips she covered the historic trip Rice took to Libya, and eventually was a lead reporter covering the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. In July 2006, she reported from the Korean DMZ, winning an award for the coverage. In September 2006, she conducted an exclusive interview with former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami on his first visit to Chicago. In November 2014, Verjee announced she was leaving CNN after 14 years to create her own media production company. Zain Verjee Group is based in New York and Nairobi with a focus on African businesses and lifestyle stories.
Personal life
Verjee is an Ismaili Muslim, a minority group in the Shia Sect of Islam. When she was 23, she published a children's book, "Live & On the Air". It explores experiences of a young girl who moves from rural Kenya to Nairobi to work as a broadcaster. In January 2014, Verjee reported that she had struggled with psoriasis since her childhood and though it affected the way she related with others, she won the battle against the disease through eating well and maintaining a good mental attitude.
