The founders

Built by people who went looking for the way in — and decided to build a better one.

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Leo Zhu

Co-Founder & CEO

PlannerPath started from a simple, frustrating observation: paraplanning is a genuinely good career, badly short of people — and almost impossible to break into without a network, because a CV can’t show whether you can actually work a case.

Leo conceived PlannerPath and leads the company, technology and product strategy. He is responsible for the platform architecture, engineering, scoring infrastructure and technical roadmap, as well as the commercial development and scaling of the business. He designed the PCI — the PlannerPath Competency Index — on a single principle: a competency standard is only worth anything if people trust what’s behind the number.

Leo holds the Diploma for Financial Advisers (DipFA), completed at sixteen, and is an Associate of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (ACSI) and a member of the Worshipful Company of International Bankers.

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Leia Zhu

Co-Founder & Chief Partnerships and Professional Standards Officer

Leia leads institutional partnerships, professional-body engagement, learning-programme design and scenario-integrity review, drawing on her DipFA and ACSI background.

She co-designed PlannerPath Live, the company’s first in-person student programme, launching in the City of London in July 2026.

Leia holds the Diploma for Financial Advisers (DipFA), completed at seventeen, and is an Associate of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (ACSI) and a Committee Member of the CISI Young Professionals Network. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, holds the Freedom of the City of London, and is Founder & Director of Culture Meets Capital, a London-based policy, publishing and convening organisation. She is also an international concert violinist, represented worldwide by HarrisonParrott.

How the work divides

Together, Leo and Leia combine technology leadership with professional and institutional credibility: Leo leads the platform, product and business; Leia leads partnerships and safeguards the professional integrity of what the platform measures.

Launching in 2026

Every conversation is with a person.

No open sign-up funnel, no sales team. If you’re a firm or a university and measuring paraplanning talent properly matters to you, reach out directly.

Talk to the founders →