Muhammad Abdul Mannan, MP was born in Village- Dungria, Upa-Zilla-Dakhin Sunamgonj, District- Sunamgonj, Bangladesh, in 1946. He received his early education in his village school and obtained "O'-l.evel from Pakistan Air Force school, in Sargodha, Pakistan in 1962. After obtaining graduation from Dhaka University he joined the former Civil Service of Pakistan (CSP) cadre in 1974 and served in the Government of Bangladesh in various positions, including as Deputy Commissioner of Kishorgonj, Mymensing and Chittagong Districts. He worked as Joint Secretary (Political) in Ministry of Home Affairs, Director General in the Prime Minister's office and Director General of NGO Affairs Bureau. He also served in the Bangladesh Permanent Mission in Geneva as Economic Minister. He retired from Government service in 2003 as Chairman of Bangladesh Small & Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC).

He joined Bangladesh Awami League in 2005 and was returned as Member of Parliament (MP)  on Bangladesh Awami League ticket in 2008. In the 9th parliament he served as Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts. Besides he served as member in the Parliamentary Standing Comittee of Ministry of Public Administration, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Defense. In the later position he represented the Honorable Prime Minister. He was elected to the Central Executive Committee of Bangladesh Awami League as member in 2010 and 2013.

Mr. Mannan is married; his wife Zolekha Mannan is a teacher in a women's college in Dhaka. His daughter Sara is a Doctor and lives in the U.S.A with her husband. His son Sadat is a Managing Director in the Barclay's Capital (Bank) in the UK and lives in London. Mr. Mannan is interested in Development literature and spends time working for the welfare of the rural people of Bangladesh. Having returned a second time as Member of Parliament in 2014 he was appointed in the new Cabinet of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as State Minister of Finance on 12 January in 2014. In April same year he was given the concurrent responsibility of State Minister the Ministry of Planning. After the Eleventh Parliament election, he was appointed minister of the Ministry of Planning on 7th January in 2019.

I am passionate about organizational project management and helping organizations across the globe achieve their business objectives. Throughout my extensive career, I have been involved with project / program management and organizational change management engagements across six continents, as well as worked with the senior leadership and country executives of Fortune 500 / Global 2000 companies, international not-for-profit associations, and governmental entities. I specialize in organizational maturity and strategic transformation, and I have assisted numerous organizations with successfully advancing and transforming their capabilities and effectively achieving business success. Additionally, I have spent more than a decade as an advisor to corporate boards of all sizes helping them to enhance their strategy development and execution capabilities.

Professor Shibli Rubayat Ul Islam, Dean, Faculty of Business Studies, University of Dhaka is a renowned educator in the field of Finance and Banking. He has been in the field of education for more than last two decades.

During this period, Professor Shibli has played an active role in many Business, Chamber, and Research related to Finance and Banking field at home and abroad. He is the author of the Finance and Banking text book for the secondary students published by the National Curriculum and Textbook Board of Bangladesh.

Lila Rashid is a former Executive Director of Bangladesh Bank, she served the central bank from

April 1989 to March 2021. She completed a Masters in Physics from the University of Dhaka,

Bangladesh, an MBA from the University of New Orleans, USA, and a PhD in Economics from

Jawaharlal Nehru University, India.

During her career she worked in different departments of the central bank in various capacities.

Some notable departments were Foreign Exchange Policy Department (FEPD), Human Resource

Department, Banking Regulation and Policy Department (BRPD), Financial Institutions

Department, Agricultural Credit Department, Payment Systems Department and SME & Special

Programs Department of Bangladesh Bank. She extensively worked with the Payment Systems

Department of the Bank for a few years to improve payment eco-system in Bangladesh that

included digitalization and automation of the system.

Formulating policies for the microfinance sector and helping the government in establishing the

Microcredit Regulatory Authority (the MRA) are among her notable career contributions. She

assisted the National Steering Committee of the Government in institutionalizing and bringing

NGO-Microfinance organizations of Bangladesh within a legal framework. She received ‘Gold

Medal’ from Bangladesh Bank in 2008 for outstanding performance and contribution at national

level.

Aside from various article and journal publications, Lila Rashid has also published two books on

financial matters titled Microfinance Regulations for Development- Global Experiences (2011),

and Institutionalising Microfinance in Bangladesh-Players, Games & Outcomes (2019), both

published by The University Press Ltd (UPL), Dhaka.

Mr. Sohail R. K. Hussain joined as Managing Director & CEO of Meghna Bank Ltd on 22nd of April, 2020.

Mr. Hussain brings with him over 30 years of experiences and expertise in Corporate, SME, Green, Retail and infrastructure financing. He is a pioneer in digitalization, redefining strategies, merger & acquisition, advisory, and structured finance transactions.

Mr Hussain is also recognized for his instrumental role in transforming two leading Private Commercial Banks in Bangladesh - Eastern Bank Ltd & The City Bank Ltd.; from a branch centric model to a business matrix and centralised model, which has proven to be very effective.

He served The City Bank Limited (CBL) as Managing Director & CEO, from November 2013 to January 2019. During his tenor CBL established strong relationships with major multilaterals such as IFC, ADB, DEG, OeEB, NORFUND, FMO, IDB and many of the major ECA Finance agencies. Under his leadership, the bank obtained many prestigious awards such as Asia Money Best Bank, Finance Asia Best Bank, Euro Money Best Bank, ICMAB Best Corporate etc.Previously Mr Hussain also served Eastern Bank Ltd, Standard Chartered Grindlays Bank, and ANZ Grindlays Bank.

He was also the Vice Chairman of Association of Bankers, former Board of Directors in City Bank Capital Resources Ltd., City Brokerage Ltd, VIPBL, IIDFC. An MBA from the Institute of Business Administration, Mr. Hussain, obtained trainings on banking & leadership from both home & abroad.

Mr Sydul H Khandaker is the Managing Director of UCB Fintech Company Limited. Prior to joining UCB Fintech, he played the role of Chief Executive Officer of Nagad, where he played a critical role in launching the new brand

Mr Sydul H Khandaker has 19 years of experience in various industries including Fintech, Telecommunication, Manufacturing and Advertising. He started off his career in Coats Bangladesh Limited in 2001 as a Supply Chain executive and progressed in different organizations, eventually becoming Head of Commercial Procurement in the Supply Chain Division of Airtel Bangladesh Limited. Mr Sydul also was the CEO of Freefall Studios Limited, which is one of the largest media production house in Bangladesh. Mr Sydul graduated in Bachelor of Science in Statistics from the University of Chittagong

Md. Sabbir Hossain is the Deputy Managing Director (DMD) and the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of BRAC Bank Limited. 

He has more than two decades of diversified experience in technology and operations. He joined Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) in 1994 and contributed for more than 23 years in building state-of-the-art technology and operational processes. During his tenure with SCB, Sabbir was the Head of Banking Operations, Branch Operations, Personal Banking, Proximity Banking, Country Technology, Operational Risk and Service Quality, and finally, took over as Head of Corporate, Institutional, and Commercial Banking Operations before leaving in December 2017. 

He was the Country Head, Operations and Technology in Citibank N.A. for a brief period. Before joining BRAC Bank, he was the COO in MetLife. 

Sabbir graduated from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in Electrical & Electronics Engineering and completed his MBA from North South University. He is also an alumni of J-PAL at MIT. 

Sabbir leads the Operations, Technology, and General Services functions of the bank.

Mr. Syed Abdul Momen took over as the Head of SME Banking on July 13, 2017.
Syed Abdul Momen joined BRAC Bank in August 2005. He has 13 years of multifaceted experience in the Banking Sector primarily concentrating in Technology, Operations and Business Functions.
During the first 2 years in BRAC Bank, he restructured technology infrastructure and played a crucial role in the Core Banking Platform migration. In August 2007, Momen was posted in BRAC Afghanistan Bank as Chief Operating Officer (COO) on a 2 year secondment. During his tenure in Afghanistan, he looked after the bank's SME Business & expanded bank's network in three provinces. He has also contributed in the development of SME Banking Policies & Guidelines of Central Bank of Afghanistan.
After his return from Afghanistan in 2009, he joined BRAC Bank's SME Division and ran a special collection project, which was portfolio's prime concern. After successfully driving the countrywide collection initiative, he was appointed as the Head of Small Business in July 2010 and since then he is leading the industry's largest small business portfolio. His team was awarded Chairman's Excellence Award in 2012 for extraordinary business achievement.

Mr. Momen started his career in ANZ Grindlays Bank in 1999 where he played an instrumental role in the migration of Core Banking Platform in Middle East & South Asia region including Bangladesh, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Nepal, Sri Lanka after the acquisition of Grindlays Bank's operation by Standard Chartered Bank. He was also instrumental in Standard Chartered Bank's IT service delivery & business process centralization Project.
Mr. Momen is a Computer Communications Graduate from Middlesex University, UK with distinction. During his 13 years of banking career, he attended numerous seminars, trainings and workshops in and out of country.

Tom Wujec Is a technology pioneer, TED speaker, entrepreneur, writer, and facilitator who helps people solve complex problems and create wickedly great outcomes. Tom has worked with more than 100 companies on four continents to find ways to solve their unique challenges.

For over 25 years, Tom has created digital tools, like Academy Award-winning software Maya and Sketchbook Pro (used by 40+ million designers globally) to help organizations design and engineer better cars, stronger buildings, and more beautiful and sustainable consumer products. As an Autodesk Fellow and Singularity University Professor, Tom has consistently worked at the leading edge of exponentially growing technologies.

Over 10 million people have watched his popular TED Talks. Every day, over 40 million people use software developed by Tom to build and design leading-edge products. As an author of six best-selling books and creator of design-thinking business tools, Tom uniquely brings together the worlds of emerging digital trends, business transformation and creative collaboration to help you do business better.

Dr. Ferdoush Saleheen Ph.D. (Malaysia), MS (USA), MBA (Australia)

Supply Chain Transformation Consultant 

Founder, Dr. Saleheen & Associates & 

Former Head of Supply Chain- Akij Group, Kazi Farms, LG Butterfly, and Meena Bazar. 

Dr. Ferdoush Saleheen is amongst a very few in the supply chain industry in Bangladesh who has transformed end-to-end supply chain in Household Electronics, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Food & Beverage, and Poultry industry and worked both in manufacturing and retail platform having more than 18+ years’ experience. 

He managed operations from US $ 30 million to the US $ 450 million, lead a team of more than 200+ and worked from planning, procurement, commercial, international trading, production, warehouse, and transport operations, etc. 

In his immediate responsibility, he was the Chief Supply Chain and RTM Officer of Akij Food & Beverage Limited. Before that, he served as Head of Supply Chain at LG, Kazi, and Gemcon Group at Meena Bazar. He also served as Chief Business Officer at Buhler Bangladesh. 

Apart from corporate, he brings 8 years’ academic career working as an adjunct Assistant Professor at BRAC University and Bangladesh University of Professionals teaching at a Masters and MBA students.  

He has 22 academic publications with top-line publishers in the world such as Scopus, Web of Science (WoS), Springer, Nova, IGI, IJSCM UK to name a few where he published journals, books chapters, and conference papers. 

He earned a Ph.D. degree in SCM from an AACSB accredited Malaysian Govt. University, Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) along with a Master’s degree in Logistics from the Department of Industrial, Manufacturing, & Systems Engineering at The University of Texas, Arlington and an MBA from Victoria University Melbourne, Australia. His Ph.D. dissertation was “Performance Evaluation of Integrated Supply Chain Management for Manufacturing Industry”. 

Currently, he is a full-time consultant on Supply Chain Transformation helping Bangladeshi corporate houses, along with involved into research and academic works both in Bangladesh and foreign Universities. He is a member of APICS US chapter since 2008. 

Ejazur Rahman is most sought after resource in consulting and learning with respect

to people and process development for business organizations. His inspirational and high

impact delivery has made him unique within the learning & development industry in

Bangladesh. He is a Certified NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) Master Practitioner. After his

16 years of very successful corporate career in Bangladesh and abroad, he decided to

dedicate his strength and expertise in developing human resources and helping organizations

to shape a sustainable future.

He has been providing his services in Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Philippines,

Indonesia and several other countries in Asia as a consultant/trainer. His training & consulting

specialization include - Leadership and Management Development, Supply Chain

Management, Team building, In-house and outdoor training in various areas of soft and

technical skills (i.e. Communication, Sales, Negotiation, Corporate Values, People motivation),

Shaping Strategic management of a business organization, Creating appropriate overall supply

chain structure and optimizing business performance.

Mr. Ejaz has trained over 22,000 people face to face from over 675 business and non-business

organizations at home and abroad.

Shaikh Yusuf Harun has taken over the charge of the Executive Chairman of Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) on July 7, 2021. Prior to that he discharged his duties with a distinguished career spanning over three decades during which he held various high level positions including Senior Secretary at the Ministry of Public Administration, as Secretary at the Medical Education & Family Welfare Division, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and Additional Secretary at Appointment, Promotion & Deputation (APD) wing of the Ministry of Public Administration for more than two years. He acquired dexterity in Human Resource Management by working at this pivotal post of Civil Service. Moreover, he worked for more than three years as Director General at Prime Minister’s Office. During this time, he had the opportunity to work on industry, health & agriculture sector, non-government organization, investment, private sector development, Public Private Partnership (PPP), Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA), Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority (BEPZA). Besides, he acted as Joint Secretary (College) at the Ministry of Education in Education System Management.

Apart from this, he gained long expertise as Deputy Commissioner of Gopalganj & Dhaka district, for five and half years. He also worked as Additional Deputy Commissioner and Upazila Nirbahi Officer at two upazilas. During this period, he achieved practical experience and efficiency in Project implementation and development administration through collaboration and co-ordination among public representatives, government and non-government organizations. He has keen interest to serve the country and its people with integrity, honesty and dedication.

A result oriented, well rounded and highly competent professional who can deliver to the highest standards. An excellent communicator and able to build sustainable relationships across all levels of an organisation both internally and externally. A proven ability to work under pressure in a target orientated manner whilst remaining calm and focused.

Md. Sukur Ali is an experienced civil servant of the Bangladesh Civil Service (Admin) cadre. He Joined the civil service in 1993 and is currently working in the Ministry of Finance as Joint Secretary to the Government of Bangladesh. He has the versatile knowledge on project management, coordination, and administration etc. He did MBA with specialization in Finance and HRM from Bangalore University, India and also did Bachelor and masters in Agriculture. He visited USA, UK, Japan, South Korea, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand and India for the purpose of attending training and workshops/seminar. He is a member of PMI Bangladesh chapter from 2018 and is certified Project Management Professional (PMP) in September 2021.

Mr. Forhad Zahid Shaikh is the most notable one in the sector of e-Governance specially digitalization of Public Services in Bangladesh with his remarkable contributions in digital service process simplifications, design, architecture, policy, strategy and innovations. Currently Mr. Forhad is leading the Digital Service Accelerator as “Chief e-Governance Strategist” a2i, ICT Division of Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology formerly had been playing role as "ICT Manager" in the a2i, Prime Minister's Office of Bangladesh for more than 10 years. Several innovations and significant initiatives made his 22 years’ service tenure remarkable and placed him as one of the front-line leaders towards establishing Digital Bangladesh. With his prudent leadership of Digital Service Accelerator, a2i , ICT Division for providing dedicated digitalization assistance and advisory supports, 28 Ministries/Divisions and 137 organizations are currently in action of Digital Government Applications and e-service delivery system  development and implementation for which they successfully designed and simplified  1624 public services  through Digital Service Design Lab.

 He has been working in a2i since 2008 (more than 13 Years) contributing immensely to the field of Digital Service innovations, Service reengineering, Designing and Piloting them to introduce new digital era within the Government. He is the lead focal of National Tele-health Service Coordination Unit for Covid-19, Maa Tele-Health Platform for pregnant & lactating mother, “Probash Bondhu” Call Center for migrant workers and BSMMU- a2i Specialized Tele Health Center. In the last few years, his innovation and designed methodology “Digital Service Design and planning Lab” (DSDL) has been considering as an innovative, popular and effective methodology of public service digitalization/e-Service/e-Government application design, development and implementation for the capacity enhancement of Service provider organizations by direct involvement of civil servant officials and service recipients.

Apart from this, Mr. Forhad has exemplary innovative achievements in digital transformation for the government. He played lead roles and had core contributions in many new concept developments, design, develop and implementation of some successful and remarkable e-Service/e-Governance pilot initiatives for the Government which had been scaled-up and implemented at national level with upgraded versions. Examples include, under his leadership DSA was assisted all Ministries/Divisions to conduct the “Digital Service Roadmap 2021” planning workshops which was being combined into a national level “Digital Service Roadmap” plan to accelerate the digital transformation for the Government. District Portal – A CMS bases centralized web portal for all Districts  in 2009-10 (scaled up as National Portal Framework), NESS – e-Filing system for DC and Upazila Offices in 2010-2014 ( Upgraded and scaled-up as “Nothi”), ELRS & DLRS – Digital Land Record System (“e-Porcha”) in 2010-2014 (Upgraded and scaled-up in all districts) , e-Purjee – Digital Service for the Cane growers (Scaled-up to all state owned Sugar Mills), which was briefed by Honorable Prime Minister H.E. Sheikh Hasina in National Parliament session,  Idea Bank – National Innovation Repository  (2014 - 2015), ekPay – National Payment Aggregator Platform (2016 - 2018). Besides this, Mr. Forhad has brilliant track record in providing advisory services as specialist in designing, planning and piloting of e-Service/e-Governance to the foreign Governments like Fiji and Philippines on United National Development Programme (UNDP) invitation.

Prior to a2i, he has around 10 years indigenous professional career in ICT Industry having profound experiences with different IT Companies in Bangladesh since 1999. He Introduced Concept and programmed first Bangla e-mail in 2001 (Deshmail). He was also Involved in core development of first two e-Commerce site in Bangladesh in 1999-2000 (Munshiji.com, Raspitnetshop), first Online news portal in 2002 (www.Bangladeshinfo.com).

He graduated from University of Pune, India on Computer Science, completed his MBA degree majoring in MIS and then obtained his MPhil degree on Public Administration from Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh. Currently, he is pursuing his PhD degree in public administration from Jahangirnagar University on “National e-Service System (NESS)”. It is noteworthy that he has received “Movers & Shakars Award 2013 – Computer Jagat” for his magnificent contributions on the area of ICT4D in Bangladesh.