Bristol Legends News / Bristol Legends
Zara Nanu: celebrating Bristol’s ‘diverse, inclusive and prosperous’ businesses
When Zara Nanu reflects on her journey into business, one recurring theme stands out — purpose.
Bristol24/7 recently caught up with Zara after she was named one of the panellists of the Bristol Legends business panel — a celebration of the city’s most inspiring entrepreneurs and changemakers.
An academic, entrepreneur and campaigner, Zara Nanu has built her career on the belief of “equality and inclusion are not just moral imperatives but essential to a thriving economy”.
As a workplace equality advocate, Zara has lent her academic expertise to institutions such as Harvard University. Among other commitments, she is currently serving as a professor in practice at the University of Bristol’s Business School.
Zara was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Jubilee Birthday Honours list in recognition of her services on tackling global workplace inequalities – photo: Zara Nanu
But her strong academic background is only a small aspect of an impressive resume.
From her early work in South Bristol’s charity sector to founding one of the UK’s most innovative equality-tech companies, her journey reflects both purpose and progress.
Zara’s path into business began in 2015, after years spent working in the non-profit and policy sectors.
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“Before then, I ran a charity in South Bristol focused on impact,” she recalls. “Then I started a business focused around driving equality within large corporations around the world.”
That business became Gapsquare, a Bristol-based technology company using data analytics and machine learning to expose and close workplace pay gaps. Through its platform, FairPay® Pro, organisations could analyse pay disparities, model interventions and take meaningful steps towards equity.
Founded in 2016, Gapsquare quickly gained recognition for its pioneering use of data to tackle the gender pay gap.
Zara believes that the gender pay gap is a persistent issue that has plagued the workforce for hundreds of years, if not thousands. And one that will continue to endure without decisive action. She refers to figures from the World Economic Forum.
She said: “The World Economic Forum predicts it will take 217 years to close the gender pay gap, yet by 2030, we’ll be sending people to Mars and having self-driven cars.”
In 2021, the company was acquired by RELX, a leading FTSE 100 firm — a move that amplified its global reach.
Zara’s path into business began in 2015, after years spent working in the non-profit and policy sectors – photo: Zara Nanu
Her leadership has also been formally recognised at home with no less than an MBE in 2022. In 2024, her alma mater UWE Bristol awarded Zara an Honorary Doctorate of Business Administration for her outstanding contribution to tackling workplace inequalities and closing the gender pay gap.
Zara completed her PhD at UWE in 2011 before working with the Young Women’s Trust, where she supported women aged 18 to 30 seeking to escape the cycle of poverty.
Her motivation, she explains, stems from her experiences working with women’s charities across Moldova, the United States and the UK, where she saw first-hand the barriers women face in achieving economic independence.
That insight shaped her conviction that technology, when used ethically and intelligently, can be a force for equality.
Discussing her work on the gender pay gap, she said: “The gender pay gap is still very persistent, but we already have so much data showing its negative impact — on women, on pensions, on health, and on our economies. It’s about pausing and thinking about how we can take faster, data-driven decisions to narrow those gaps.”
Zara was awarded an honorary doctorate from her alma mater UWE Bristol where she completed her PhD – photo: UWE Bristol
In Bristol, Zara’s work resonates strongly with the city’s identity as a hub for ethical and sustainable enterprise.
Speaking as a panelist for Bristol Legends, she highlighted the need to celebrate positive stories in business.
“The media can be very negative, so pausing for a moment to celebrate the business owners making Bristol great — diverse, inclusive and prosperous — is really important,” she said.
Her admiration for Bristol’s business community stems from everyday inspiration, not just the “big movers and shakers”.
“When I started my journey in business, I was inspired by many women in South Bristol who were running their own enterprises and developing their work to create better communities around them,” she reflected.
“These were everyday women — women you walk past down the street or see at the GP — and they were really inspiring.”
Looking to the future, Zara believes Bristol’s strength lies not in competing with London, but in charting its own course as a model of ethical innovation.
“Bristol has the potential to become a hub for ethical, sustainable businesses — an example and beacon of best practice,” she said.
“Its unique selling point is that it has businesses that think about people.”
Zara believes business can be a vehicle for fairness, inclusion and shared prosperity.
Zara Nanu is one of the panelists of the Bristol Legends business panel in 2026 – photo: Milan Perera
Main photo: Milan Perera
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