2024 Groundbreakers Speakers

annual Forbes 30/50 mentorship Summit in Abu Dhabi.

Huma began her career in public service as an intern in First Lady Hillary Clinton’s office in 1996. After four years in the White House as Special Assistant to the First Lady and Trip Director, she worked in the U.S. Senate as Senior Advisor to Senator Clinton and went on to be Traveling Chief of Staff for the Clinton 2008 presidential campaign. In 2009, she was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of State under President Obama where she oversaw long-term strategic planning and operations for the Secretary of State, which resulted in nearly a million travel miles over four years. Her work earned her recognition as one of the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders and on TIME magazine's 40 Under 40 list. She served as Vice Chair of Hillary for America in 2016, an effort that resulted in the first woman to be elected as nominee of a major political party. Her work with Secretary Clinton continues today and she is advisor to the Hillary Rodham Clinton Leadership Institute at the Clinton Foundation.

In addition to her long career in public service, Huma’s passion for storytelling led her to write her memoir “Both/And” in 2021 as well as contributing to “Listening in the Dark: Women Listening to their Intuition,” edited by Amber Tamblyn and published in 2022. As a consulting producer for HiddenLight Productions, she helps bring untold stories from diverse voices to a global audience. Her role as a regular MSNBC contributor and co-host of "Morning Mika" allows her to draw on her expertise in government and politics to provide unique insights into current domestic and global events.

Huma also plays a key role as Vice Chair of the annual Forbes 30/50 Summit, bringing together leading female voices in policy, the arts, NGOs, and business to share their experiences to rooms filled with powerful icons from Forbes' 50 Over 50 List and barrier-breakers from the 30 Under 30 List, which provides an important framework for long-term mentoring and networking partnerships.

Huma serves on the board of Vital Voices Global Partnership, an NGO which has been investing in women leaders for 25 years as they seek to address the world’s greatest challenges. In 2022, Huma received the Golden Heart Award for Outstanding Leadership from God's Love We Deliver, an organization dedicated to fighting hunger and malnutrition. In 2023, Huma was awarded the Celebrating Women Award from the New York Women’s Foundation.​

Huma was born in the United States and raised in Saudi Arabia. She graduated from George Washington University with a B.A. in Journalism and Political Science. She lives in New York with her son Jordan.