COACH | CREATOR | DANCER | SURFER
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About Farhana

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Entrepreneurs with business grants from C.E.O. Women
Farhana is an Award-Winning Social Entrepreneur, Coach, visionary and trusted thought partner with more than 20 years of creative entrepreneurship and leadership experience. 

Farhana is most passionate about helping creative leaders make meaningful transitions while helping them achieve their goals for social and planetary impact.   As the Founder of Surf Life Executive Coaching, she coaches creative leaders, entrepreneurs and their teams towards a business and life they love. 

Prior to Surf Life Executive Coaching, Farhana founded C.E.O. Women, a non-profit dedicated to helping low-income immigrant and refugee women become entrepreneurs.  Farhana started the organization with an initial grant of $1,000.  She and her team grew it into an organization with a budget size of almost 1M helping over 2,000 women over an 11-year period.  In 2008 she founded Bay Area Friends of the Congo, an all volunteer group led currently by Congolese-American activists, dedicated to raising awareness and ending the mineral conflict in Congo.  In 2011 she went on to found Brown Girl Surf TM,
an organization dedicated to building a more diverse, environmentally reverent, and joyful women’s surf culture by increasing access to surfing, cultivating community, amplifying the voices of women of color surfers, and taking care of the earth.

Farhana loves to dance, and is trained in the North Indian classical and Tahitian Ori traditions. She also has a natural wanderlust, and has traveled to over 50 countries.

She resides in Oakland, California and enjoys surfing all types of waves on California’s Northern and Central coasts.   She’s a graduate of Tufts University, is a certified professional coach through the Coaches Training Institute and a certified NeuroTransformation coach through BeAbove Leadership.   She is also an affiliate coach with Compasspoint Nonprofit Services and The Rockwood Leadership Institute.
She is a member of the William J. Worthen Foundation Collaborative, a curated network of specialty consultants and industry-wide experts in the fields of architecture and design.  She is also an Advisor with SFMade, providing coaching, support and guidance to San Francisco's vibrant manufacturing sector. She is a former member of the U.S. National Karate Team and served her country one year as an Americorps/VISTA.   In 2016, she was named one of Surfing World's 50 Most Intriguing People In Surfing.   

Farhana is the recipient of numerous awards and has been a featured speaker in places such as Patagonia, Women@Google, UC Berkeley, Tufts University, International Women in Business Conferences, and the Commonwealth Club.   Her work has been featured in media outlets such as BBC News, ABC News, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Women’s Health Magazine, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, and The Huffington Post to name a few.



Affiliations:

    Awards:

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  • Ashoka Fellowship 
  • Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year National Finalist (Supporter of Entrepreneurship Category) 
  • SBA Women in Business Champion Award
  • East Bay Business Times 40 Under 40
  • Jefferson Leadership Award
  • Stevie Awards Finalist
  • South Asian Bar Association Community Impact Award
  • KQED Women’s History Month Local Hero Award
  • Indian American Women Empowered Outstanding Young Leader Award
  • City of Oakland Women of Greatness Award
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                      Copyright Farhana Huq 2012 - 2023