A chemical engineer by training, she was heading an oil and gas consultancy firm based in Kuala Lumpur before her marriage to the Sultan.

Zara, who has a strong interest in foreign languages, studied at SMK Convent Ipoh and represented her school in squash and tennis from 1988 to 1990.

After completing her A-Levels at Prime College in 1992, she left for the United Kingdom to study chemical engineering at the University of Nottingham and graduated with first class honours in July 1995.

Zara joined the Business Evaluation Department in the Corporate Planning Unit of Petronas in December 1995 and was part of the team responsible for the successful establishment of the Kertih and Kuantan integrated petrochemical complexes, whose foreign partners included BP, BASF, Dow Chemicals and Mitsubishi.

Between February 1999 and October 2000, she was a product manager at Petlin (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, a Petronas joint venture with DSM of the Netherlands and Sasol of South Africa.

Between 2005 and 2007, Zara, who is a certified life-saver and adventure sports enthusiast, became the managing director of Forthwave Consulting Sdn Bhd, a hydrocarbon technical engineering and software development company in Kuala Lumpur.

Zara Salim Davidson is the great-grandchild of Kedah's 24th ruler Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah, Utusan Malaysia reported.

She has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) in April 2014[2] in recognition of her interest in the continued improvement of Malaysia's education and academic performance.