Iqbal Z. Quadir ( bn, ইকবাল জেড. কাদীর) is an entrepreneur and promoter of the role of entrepreneurship and innovations in creating prosperity in low-income countries. He has taught at
Harvard Kennedy School
The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
and at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
. He is the brother of
Kamal Quadir.
"In 1993, before others imagined the possibility, and only one percent of Americans were using mobile phones, Quadir saw mobiles as productivity tools to lift up the poorest in the world." Between 1993 and 1997, Quadir founded Grameenphone in Bangladesh to provide universal access to telephone service and to increase self-employment opportunities for its rural poor.
In 2007, he founded the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
(MIT), of which he is now founder and director emeritus. A year earlier, he co-founded, and continues to edit, ''Innovations'', an MIT Press journal.
Early years
Quadir was born in
Jessore
Jessore ( bn, যশোর, jôshor, ), officially Jashore, is a city of Jessore District situated in Khulna Division. It is situated in the south-western part of Bangladesh. It is the administrative centre (headquarter) of the eponymous district ...
,
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
. He moved to the United States in 1976 and later became a naturalized U.S. citizen. He passed his Secondary School Certificate from
Jhenidah Cadet College
Jhenaidah Cadet College (JCC), which is an English version military boarding school, similar to West Point Military Academy, is located in the outskirts of Jhenidah in Bangladesh. It is one of twelve cadet colleges of Bangladesh. It has depar ...
,
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
. He received a B.S. with honors from
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...
(1981), an M.A. (1983) and an M.B.A. (1987) from the
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a Private university, private Ivy League rese ...
.
Career
Quadir served as a consultant to the
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
in Washington, D.C., (1983–1985), an associate at
Coopers & Lybrand
PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...
(1987–1989), an associate of Security Pacific Merchant Bank (1989–1991), and vice president of Atrium Capital Corporation (1991–1993).
From 1993 on, Quadir changed his focus to his underlying aspiration, to create universal access to digital telephone service in Bangladesh and to increase self-employment opportunities for its rural poor. To that end, he founded the New York-based company Gonofone (Bengali for "phones for the masses"). To further his vision, he went on to organize a global consortium involving
Telenor
Telenor ASA ( or ) is a Norwegian majority state-owned multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations worldwide, ...
, Norway's leading telecommunications company; an affiliate of micro-credit pioneer
Grameen Bank
Grameen Bank ( bn, গ্রামীণ ব্যাংক) is a microfinance organisation and community development bank founded in Bangladesh. It makes small loans (known as microcredit or "grameencredit") to the impoverished without requi ...
in Bangladesh (winner of the 2006
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
); Marubeni Corp. in Japan; Asian Development Bank in the Philippines; Commonwealth Development Corp. in the United Kingdom; and International Finance Corp. and Gonofone in the United States. He attracted these investors by complementing his vision of connecting all of Bangladesh with a practical distribution scheme whereby village entrepreneurs, backed by micro-loans, could retail telephone services to their surrounding communities. In fact, Quadir coined the phrase "connectivity is productivity" to explain the unique impact of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), particularly mobile telephones, in improving economic efficiency.
The resulting company, Grameenphone, received a license for cell-phone operation in Bangladesh in November 1996; it started operations in March 1997. Currently, the largest telephone company in Bangladesh with about 55 million subscribers, Grameenphone generates revenues close to $2 billion annually. With infrastructure investments of more than $3 billion, the company is providing cellular coverage throughout Bangladesh. Grameenphone's success has been lauded as a model for a novel approach to improving economic opportunity and connectivity and empowering citizens in poor countries through profitable investments in technology. According to Economist
Jeffrey Sachs
Jeffrey David Sachs () (born 5 November 1954) is an American economist, academic, public policy analyst, and former director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, where he holds the title of University Professor. He is known for his work ...
Grameenphone ‘opened the world’s eyes to expanding the use of modern telecommunications technologies in the world’s poorest places.’
From 2001 to 2005, Quadir served as a Fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School and taught graduate-level courses of technology in developing countries. At the same time, he was also a Fellow at the Center for Business Innovation at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (now
Capgemini
Capgemini SE is a multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company, headquartered in Paris, France.
History
Capgemini was founded by Serge Kampf in 1967 as an enterprise management and data processing company. The compa ...
).
In 2005, Quadir moved to MIT. In 2007 he founded the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship. The center is based on the belief that economic development and good governance in low-income countries emerge from entrepreneurship and forward-looking innovations that empower ordinary citizens. It supports promising entrepreneurs through a fellowship for MIT students who are committed to building and scaling ventures in the developing world. Quadir no longer leads the Legatum Center.
Quadir coined the phrase ''invisible leg'' to describe how technological innovations change economies in terms of the distribution of economic and political influence.
In an effort to apply his development approach to electricity production in Bangladesh, where 70% of the population does not have access to the national electricity grid, Quadir founded Emergence BioEnergy, Inc., in 2006. This and another project (namely, removing arsenic from water) were featured in an article entitled "Power to the people" in the March 9, 2006 issue of ''
The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...
''. In 2007, Emergence BioEnergy won a
Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
Asian Innovation Award. After a decade of working on the development of these projects, however, he became dissatisfied and shut down both of them.
Current projects
Quadir and his brother Kamal cofounded
bKash
bKash ( bn, বিকাশ) is a mobile financial service in Bangladesh operating under the authority of Bangladesh Bank as a subsidiary of BRAC Bank Limited. This mobile money system started as a joint venture between BRAC Bank Limited, Bangl ...
in Bangladesh in 2009.
bKash
bKash ( bn, বিকাশ) is a mobile financial service in Bangladesh operating under the authority of Bangladesh Bank as a subsidiary of BRAC Bank Limited. This mobile money system started as a joint venture between BRAC Bank Limited, Bangl ...
, the country's leading mobile financial service, currently provides mobile banking and payment services to 28 million subscribers.
In 2004, he and his siblings founded the
Anwarul Quadir Foundation to promote innovations for Bangladesh. In 2006, the foundation established a $25,000 global essay competition, the Quadir Prize, through the Center for International Development at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
. In October 2007, the foundation made its first award to two recipients. In April 2009, Stephen Honan was the winner of the second award. Mr. Honan developed an innovative way to extract arsenic from drinking water and soil.
Recognition
In 1999, Quadir was selected Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum based in Geneva, Switzerland. In 2006, he became the 12th recipient of the Science, Education and Economic Development (SEED) Award from the Rotary Club of Metropolitan Dhaka, for initiating universal telephone coverage to Bangladesh. He appeared on CNN and PBS and was profiled in feature articles in the Harvard Business Review (Bottom-Up Economics, Aug 2003, & Breakthrough Ideas for 2004, Feb 2004), Financial Times, The Economist, and The New York Times, and in several books. In Spring 2007, Wharton Alumni Magazine selected Quadir for its list of 125 Influential People and Ideas. In 2011, he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Swarthmore College
and the honorary degree of Doctor of Science from Case Western Reserve University.
See also
*
List of TED speakers
This is a partial list of people who have spoken or otherwise presented at official TED conferences such as TED, TED@, TEDActive, TEDCity, TED-Ed, TED-NY, TEDGlobal, TEDSummit, TEDIndia, TEDSalon, TEDWomen, TEDYouth, TED Fellows Retreat, and TED T ...
References
External links
Iqbal Z. Quadir’s MIT PageMIT Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship* (TEDGlobal 2005)
Official Quadir Prize: Global Essay Competition Webpage at Harvard UniversityAnwarul Quadir Foundation
Official Quadir Prize: Global Essay Competition Webpage at Harvard UniversityDiffering Visions" Boston Globe, November 18, 2007
* [http://www.boston.com/ae/media/articles/2008/03/24/a_bottom_up_plan_to_turn_bangladeshs_economy_upside_down/ “A bottom-up plan to turn Bangladesh's economy upside-down Iqbal Quadir wants to help the rural poor” Boston Globe, March 24, 2008]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quadir, Iqbal
1958 births
American Muslims
Bangladeshi emigrants to the United States
Harvard Kennedy School staff
Living people
Bengali Muslims
20th-century Bengalis
21st-century Bengalis
Swarthmore College alumni