Saj Akbar

Saj Akbar spent nearly two decades in executive search before becoming an executive coach and tour guide. Her guiding is supported by Women in Travel CIC’s Enterprising Tour Guiding Academy Programme, sponsored by Trip.com. As a coach, she works with leaders in founder-led and PE-backed businesses, helping them reach their full potential. Whether it’s a CEO in a boardroom or someone who arrived in Manchester with little more than a vision, her interest is the same: what makes people good at what they do, and what it took to get there. Her immersive tour, Beyond the Bassline, is the project closest to home. Manchester’s music is famous; the people who made it, and the places they came from, get less attention. It winds through the Northern Quarter’s record shops, venues and cafés where migration and music meet, and tells the stories that rarely make the headlines. When we’re happy, we listen to the music. When we’re sad, we listen to the lyrics. Saj listens for the lyrics: the graft, th