Bangladesh’s Inspirational Leaders

Syed Manzur Elahi is a businessperson in Bangladesh and chairman of Apex Group. Elahi was born on February 16, 1942 in Kolkata, West Bengal, British India. His father Sir Syed Nasim Ali was Chief Justice of the undivided Bengal in 1946. He received his B.A. from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata. He earned his Masters from the University of Dhaka in Economics. He founded and is the chairman of Holiday Publications Limited.[3] He moved to Dhaka in 1962 from Kolkata. In 1972, he resigned from his job and started working as an agent for a French leather importer. In 1975, Bangladesh government started to privatize companies that were nationalised. He bought one such company, Orient Tannery, in Hazaribag, Dhaka for 1.2 million taka.

Sayem Sobhan Anvir is the Managing Director of the Bashundhara Group, a cluster of more than Top 20 industrial and business enterprises, in Bangladesh. Enterprises of the group have domination in real estate, construction inputs, heavy steel and engineering, paper and pulping, alternative energy, mass-media, maritime transportation, information technology, large-scale excavation and dredging, food and beverage, vocational and health education, utility service supplementation and international trading sectors.

Rubana Huq is a Bangladeshi businesswoman and poet. She is the current managing director of Mohammadi Group, a Bangladeshi conglomerate. She was featured in BBC 100 Women in 2013 and 2014. In 2019, she became the first elected female President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA). Huq served as the CEO of TV Southasia from 2006 to 2010. Huq won the SAARC Literary Award for her poems in 2006.[9] She wrote a book of poems titled Time of My Life. Huq is a member of board of trustees in Asian University for Women.

Muhammed Aziz Khan is a Bangladeshi businessman, founder and chairman of the Summit Group, one of the largest conglomerates in Bangladesh, whose power projects generate nearly 20% of Bangladesh’s electricity. Khan has led Summit Group from starting as Bangladesh’s first private sector power producer to a diversified group with investments across power, energy trading, port, telecommunications, hospitality and real estate.

Khan has led Summit in building partnerships with multinationals such as GE, IFC and Wartsila. While securing billions of dollars in financing for infrastructure projects within Bangladesh. Khan pledged to invest another $3 billion into Bangladesh’s energy sector.

Moosa Bin Shamsher is a Bangladeshi business magnate who is the chairman and CEO of DATCO Group and often credited as the father of the Manpower Export industry in Bangladesh, and has also achieved notoriety for purportedly being a prominent name in the international weapons industry during the 1970s and the 1980s. Moosa entered into commerce at a very young age, soon after the birth of Bangladesh as a new independent nation. He established the first enterprise of the DATCO In 2007, a renowned Malta based CA firm’s audit report revealed by FIU, states that he made $10 billion, mostly from the international arms trading by selling tanks; fighter planes ICBMs and power brokerage that he had carried outside Bangladesh.

City Group was established by Fazlur Rahman, a business magnate in the private sector of Bangladesh. City Group began on 6 February 1972 as a mustard oil company venture. After its first successful project, City Group invested in new fields, including manufacturing, industry and trading. More enterprises were established in the early 1990s; these included consumer goods, foods, steel, printing & packaging, shipping, power and energy, shares and securities, insurance, media, and healthcare.

Mr. M Anis Ud Dowla, the Chairman of ACI Limited, is one of the most successful personalities in Bangladesh business circle. He has maintained a high profile, and has provided leadership to business community in different capacities. Mr. Dowla served in the British Oxygen Group of UK in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Kenya for 27 years, including 12 years as Managing Director of Bangladesh Oxygen Ltd. In 1987, he became the Group Managing Director of the three ICI companies in Bangladesh. With experience gathered while working with British Multi-nationals for over 32 years, Mr. Dowla has continued to maintain the multinational culture and management style in ACI, with especial emphasis on quality, productivity and customer services.

Abdur Rouf Chowdhury is a graduate in Business management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. He has a wide range of experience in several industries including Automobile, Telecom, Pharmaceuticals and Petroleum. He was the Resident Manager of two American Pharmaceutical companies in Bangladesh. Being in the senior management position in Jamuna Oil Company he contributed for 15 years in the market development of Petroleum products in Bangladesh. Both Rangs and Sea Resources Groups comprised of 32 companies were formed under his dynamic leadership. The huge success of 35 companies of the two groups during a short span of time is an ample proof of his dynamic leadership and progressive mind. Currently he is the Chairman of Bank Asia Ltd. He also has his dynamic foothold in the print media; he is the Director of renowned English daily The Daily Star.