Sonia Bashir Kabir is the Chairman and CEO of SBK Tech Ventures and SBK Foundation. She is a tech entrepreneur and an impact investor. She is also a board member of UNESCO’s Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education and Peace. She was the Managing Director of Microsoft Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and Laos. She was recognized as a SDG pioneer by UN Global Compact and is the Vice Chairman of UN Technology Bank. She pursued her graduate studies from Santa Clara University.
Editorial Advisory Board
Asif Saleh
Asif Saleh is the Executive Director of BRAC. He is a writer, technologist and a social entrepreneur. He was a policy specialist for the Access to Information (A2i) Program at the Prime Minister’s Office of Bangladesh. He was the Executive Director at Goldman Sachs and also worked for IBM, Glaxo Wellcome and Nortel. He is a Asia 21 Fellow of Asia Society and a Young Global Leader of World Economic Forum. He pursued his undergraduate studies from Stern School of Business at New York University.
Kazi Anis Ahmed
Kazi Anis Ahmed is a co-director of the Dhaka Lit Fest and the publisher of Dhaka Tribune. He is a writer and an entrepreneur. He is an adviser to PEN Bangladesh and the founder of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, the Dhaka Translation Center, and the Bengal Lights Literary Journal. He pursued his doctoral studies in literature from New York University.
Azmina Siddique
Azmina Siddique is an advocacy and policy adviser at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. She is a social scientist and a security policy specialist. Her research areas include political risk and countering extremism. She was the commissioning editor for Middle East and Islamic studies at I.B. Tauris Publishers. She pursued her graduate studies in security studies at King’s College London.
Senjuti Saha
Senjuti Saha is Director at Child Health Research Foundation (CHRF). She is a scientist. She is also a board member of the Polio Transition Independent Monitoring Board of the World Health Organization. Her research focuses on pediatric preventable infectious diseases. She led the decoding of SARS-CoV2 genome in Bangladesh. She pursued her in doctoral studies in molecular genetics at the University of Toronto.
Shazia Omar
Shazia Omar is a communication and stakeholder engagement specialist at the World Bank. She is an author and an activist. She was a communication consultant at UNDP, IOM, ILO, IFC and BRAC. She has written two novels. She pursued her graduate studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Samia Huq
Samia Huq is professor and Dean of General Education at BRAC University. She is an anthropologist. She is a research fellow at Centre for Peace and leads its collaborative project with World Faiths Development Dialogue at Georgetown University. Her research areas include secularism, radicalization, religious revival, social movements, gender issues and democracy. She pursued her doctoral studies in anthropology from Brandeis University.
Shahidul Haque
Shahidul Haque is the Bangabandhu Chair at University of Delhi. He is foreign policy and migration specialist. He is also a Senior Fellow at North South University, Bangladesh. He was the Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh. He chaired the 9th Global Forum on Migration and Development. He was a director at IOM and has co-authored a book on Migration Myth (Springer 2020). He received IOM Director General’s Award in 2005 and Honorable Mention for Robert B. Steward at Fletcher. He pursued his graduate studies in international relations from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University, USA.
Syed Akhtar Mahmood
Syed Akhtar Mahmood was Lead Private Sector Specialist in the World Bank Group, where he worked on private sector development for three decades. He is an economist. He co-authored the World Bank Group’s Private Sector Development Strategy of 2002 and served as global lead for regulatory reforms and public-private dialogue. His research interests include trade, competitiveness, investment climate, mechanics of policy reforms and political economy. He pursued his doctoral studies in economics from Oxford University and was a visiting fellow at Yale University.
Atiur Rahman
Atiur Rahman is the Executive Chairman of Unnayan Shamannay. He is an economist. He is also Bangabandhu Chair at University of Dhaka. He was the governor of Bangladesh Bank. He specializes in sustainable finance, financial inclusion and monetary policy. He pursued his doctoral at SOAS, University of London.