Before Apricot
Azza never planned to build a nonprofit staffing organization. Apricot took shape because her experience, the moment she was living through, and a growing sense of responsibility all collided, and stepping away no longer felt possible.
For more than two decades, Azza worked in corporate technology, mostly inside fast-moving startups. She led global HR teams, oversaw recruiting and learning, supported companies through mergers and acquisitions, and later moved into sales and partner operations. Many of the companies she helped build were eventually acquired. Over time, she developed a clear understanding of how organizations scale, where pressure exposes weak systems, and what it takes to keep people going inside demanding environments.
The work was intense. Travel was constant. The pace rarely slowed. By 2022, after years of operating at that speed, Azza knew she needed to pause. Like many people emerging from the pandemic, she was exhausted and questioning what she wanted her work to contribute to the world. The targets had been met. The outcomes looked successful on paper. But the work no longer felt aligned to her.
That pause pulled her closer to nonprofit and international work. She was already serving on the board of an organization focused on reforming adoption systems in Egypt. Questions of access and justice were already shaping her thinking when October 7th unfolded.
When staying silent was no longer possible
For Palestinians, the violence that followed was not an isolated rupture, but part of a much longer history of displacement and loss. As the devastation in Gaza played out in real time, Azza watched public narratives strip away context and humanity. What stayed with her most was seeing professional peers, people she had worked alongside and respected, repeat those narratives without question.
Speaking out carried consequences as careers were threatened and people were targeted. Still, remaining silent began to feel heavier than the risk of saying something. Azza understood the position she was in. She had experience and a level of safety that many others did not. That awareness made inaction feel like a choice she couldn’t justify.
She began volunteering with Tech for Palestine, a global network of technologists, creatives, and professionals building tools to challenge misinformation and support liberation-focused efforts. In her role leading global volunteer engagement, she helped connect hundreds of people with projects that needed their skills.
One of those projects was Apricot.
Building Apricot in real time
Apricot was built around a straightforward idea: displaced and underrepresented people deserve to be treated as professionals, not as charity cases. Work is about more than pay. It’s about dignity and being given a real chance.
As the project gained traction, it became clear that Apricot needed to scale quickly and sustainably. Brandon, who was leading the project, and she began talking about how her background in building teams, systems, and operations could help scale a promising, newly formed non-profit into something much bigger. She joined as a co-founder because the alignment was undeniable.
Running a nonprofit staffing organization is demanding. Infrastructure, compliance, trust, and financial stability all have to be developed at the same time. Doing so while violence and displacement continued in the background added an emotional weight that never fully lifted. Some days were heavy with grief. Others were driven by urgency. People were counting on this work to hold.
What kept Azza grounded were the people. The talent Apricot supports individuals navigating instability. The internal team, many of whom are displaced themselves or closely connected to displaced communities, continues to show up with skill and professionalism. And the clients, leaders, and hiring managers who choose to work with Apricot because neutrality doesn’t sit right with them.
Those clients span industries and regions, from tech and media to fashion and retail, across the U.S., Canada, and beyond. Many return not only because the work is strong, but because the collaboration reflects the kind of leadership they want to practice.
The Impact of choosing differently
Over the past year, Apricot has helped more than 125 people re-enter the global job market. Along the way, the team has come face-to-face with how limited access to opportunity really is and how many systems are quietly designed to exclude people living in conflict or in diaspora. Payment barriers, compliance challenges, and structural friction have all had to be navigated carefully, often from scratch.
But, for Azza, the impact isn’t captured by numbers alone. It’s in seeing someone regain stability through work. It’s in watching a client rethink how and why they hire. It’s in proving, again and again, that there are ways to work differently.
The lesson has been simple but lasting: business is not neutral. Choices about hiring, partnerships, and where money flows all carry weight. When those choices are made with care, they can open doors instead of reinforcing barriers.
That, more than anything, is what Apricot is trying to build intentionally alongside the people it exists to serve.
By:
Fatima Ahmed
Mar 2, 2026
