Conference Speakers

Dr. Wahiduddin Mahmud obtained his PhD in economics from Cambridge University, and was a Professor of Economics at the University of Dhaka. He was the Former member of the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh in charge of the Ministry of Finance and Planning. He is currently a member of the UN Committee for Development Policy (UN-CDP), Chairman of the South Asian Network of Economic Research Institutes (SANEI), and Senior Advisor to International Growth Centre’s research programme in Bangladesh. He has held teaching and research appointments at Cambridge, IDS at Sussex, World Bank, UNDP, and ILO. He had worked with International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) as a senior consultant. Dr. Mahmud’s involvement in national policymaking has been quite extensive. Together with Nobel peace prize winner Muhammad Yunus, he co-founded, and was chairman (2003-13) of Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), which is an apex institution for funding the microfinance programmes of MFI/NGOs in Bangladesh. He is also the founder-chairman of the Institute of Microfinance (InM), a sister organization of PKSF. He has published on a wide range of topics in economic development and economic policy perspective.

Professor Rehman Sobhan was educated at St. Paul’s School, Darjeeling, Aitichison College, Lahore and Cambridge University where he was awarded an MA in Economics. He began his working career at the faculty of Economics, Dhaka University in 1957 and retired as Professor of Economics in 1977. He served as Member, Bangladesh Planning Commission, in charge of the Divisions of Industry, Power and Natural Resources, and of Physical Infrastructure, as Chairman, Research Director, Director General and Emeritus Fellow, BIDS from and as a Visiting Fellow, Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford. He was a Member of the Advisory Council of the President of Bangladesh in 1991, in charge of the Ministry of Planning and the Economic Relations Division. He is the founder and Executive Chairman of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD). He has been the Executive Director, South Asia Centre for Policy Studies (SACEPS), a Visiting Scholar, Initiative for Policy Dialogue, Columbia University and a Senior Research Fellow, at the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance, Harvard University. Currently he is the Chairman of CPD.