Design, art and entrepreneurial passion | Meet The Team: Ali Belhaj Zahi

Photo by Arnel Hasanovic on Unsplash

Meet Ali Belhaj Zahi

From Tunisia, Ali’s history with design begins in his childhood, being passionate about design and illustration, always painting and doing art in his free time, which helped him build his personality and mostly, helped him decide on what to focus on later on in his life.

In 2012, he started university at the École Nationale d’ingénieurs de Sousse, studying Mechatronic Engineering. In his studies, he specialized in 3D Design, combining what he believed was a good career path but also a passion of his. But, among this love and enthusiasm for art and design, the passion for entrepreneurship was always there. So he took advantage of the fact that his university had a big focus on business, and on creating students who can run their own companies, and used that to develop even more his entrepreneurial hunger.

Later on, he discovered the Product Design “branch”, so he started ‘edventuring’ himself in the field after graduating

During his studies, he founded the Robotics Club in the Engineering School. With that club, he had the opportunity to work with kids, teaching them how to build their own robots and how to make 3D designs and 3D-print them. He was also an International Volunteer of the Mediterranean Network of Engineering Schools and Management “RMEI”, where he was responsible for the creation of a Weather Station Network, connecting different Mediterranean Institutions in order to sensitize young people about climate change. This project was awarded at the 3rd Michelangelo Workshop, in Rome in 2015.

Later on, he discovered the Product Design “branch”, so he started ‘edventuring’ himself in the field after graduating. His first job in the area was at Evocraft as a Product Designer. The company designed and manufactured educational robots for kids. While working there he had the chance to do product designing digitally but also in hardware, physically. He worked for Evocraft for 4 years, designing, developing and maintaining the corporate website, designing and prototyping Mobile Apps to control the robots and much more.

Representing Tunisia internationally

Meanwhile working, he never let his entrepreneurial passion fade away, and in 2018 he was selected as an Emerging Leader by the Policy Center for the New South to represent Tunisia in the Emerging Leaders Atlantic Dialogues 2018 Event in Morocco and to contribute to the 2025 Youth Vision. The young people who were selected were all young leaders from around the Atlantic basin who have demonstrated leadership and initiative in their fields, who were eager to network with their peers and older, and who sought to foster and strengthen ties across the Atlantic, meeting together in Marrakech to contribute to shaping the regional and global agenda in politics, finance, business, civil society and many other areas.

After his continued learning in the field, he moved to a company called LeaLab as a UX Designer. This was an opportunity for him to dive deep into illustrations, and product designing only in digital and really develop those skills. During his time there he did various online courses to keep improving his abilities. Working with several clients internationally, from Germany, France and all around Europe, he stayed at the company for 2 years.

Joining Edventures

So, after finishing his contract, in January 2022, he found out Edventures was looking for a Product Designer, and when he learned that our team is working towards making entrepreneurship learning accessible to everyone, he said he needed to give this a try. Because this was something that combined all of his passions, while also being able to provide something most people don’t have access to. Now, he has been a part of this ‘edventure’ (get it? are our edventures puns getting old?) for nine months and works daily to bring our product to life.

Interested in what it’s like working at Edventures? Curious about our other team members? Check out the latest #MeetTheTeam here: Anza, our AI Lead

If you want to learn more about Edventures and how we want to make entrepreneurship learning accessible to anyone, check out our website and social media channels here!