Fazle Hasan Abed

Abed was born on 27 April 1936 in the village of Baniachong, located in what is present-day Habiganj District, Sylhet, Bangladesh. He belonged to a Bengali Muslim family of zamindars, known as the Hasan family, and was one of eight children of Siddiq Hasan and Syeda Sufia Khatun. Abed's maternal grandfather, Syed Muazzemuddin Hossain, had served successively as ministers for agriculture and education for Bengal during the last years of British rule. His paternal great-uncle was Sir Syed Shamsul Huda, a member of the Imperial Legislative Council.

Abed passed his matriculation in 1952 from Pabna Zilla School. After passing intermediate from Dhaka College, Bangladesh, in 1954, he left home at the age of 18 to attend University of Glasgow, UK where, to break away from tradition and do something radically different, he studied naval architecture. He realized there was little work in shipbuilding in East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh) and a career in naval architecture would make returning home difficult. With that in mind, Abed joined the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in London, completing his professional education in 1962.

Abed returned to East Pakistan to join Shell Oil Company and quickly rose to head its finance division. His time at Shell exposed Abed to the inner workings of a large conglomerate providing him with insight into corporate management, which would become invaluable to him later in life.

It was during his time at Shell that the devastating cyclone of 1970 hit the south and south-eastern coastal regions of the country, killing 300,000 people. The cyclone had a profound effect on Abed. In the face of such devastation, he said the comforts and perks of a corporate executive's life ceased to attract him. With friends, Abed created HELP, an organisation that provided relief and rehabilitation to the worst affected in the island of Manpura, which had lost three-quarters of its population in the disaster.

Soon after, Bangladesh's own struggle for independence from Pakistan began and circumstances forced Abed to leave the country. He found refuge in the United Kingdom, where he set up Action Bangladesh to lobby the governments of Europe for his country's independence.

Abed held the following positions:

1972–2001 – Executive Director, BRAC

1981–1982 – Visiting Scholar, Harvard Institute of International Development, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

1982–1986 – Senior Fellow, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).

1982–1986 – Member, Board of Trustees, BIDS.

1982–1986 – Chairperson, Association of Development Agencies in Bangladesh (ADAB).

1986–1991 – Member, World Bank NGO Committee, Geneva, Switzerland.

1987–1990 – Chairperson, South Asia Partnership.

1987–1990 – Member, International Commission on Health Research for Development, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

1990–2009 – Chairperson, 'Campaign for Popular Education' (CAMPE), an NGO network on education.

1992–1993 – Member, Independent South Asian Commission on Poverty Alleviation

1992–2009 – Chairperson, NGO Forum for Drinking Water Supply & Sanitation

1993–2011 – Chairperson, Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK), a human rights organisation

1994–2019 – Member, Board of Trustees, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Dhaka

1998–2004 – Member, Board of Governors, Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Sussex University, UK

1998–2005 – Member, Policy Advisory Group, The Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest (CGAP), The World Bank, Washington, DC.

1999–2005 – Member, Board of Governors, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Los Banos, Philippines.

2000–2005 – Chair, Finance & Audit Committee, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Los Banos, Philippines.

2000–2019 – Chairperson, Governing Body, BRAC.

2001–2008 – Chairperson, Board of Directors, BRAC Bank Limited.

2001–2019 – Chairperson, Board of Trustees, BRAC University.

2002–2008 – Global Chairperson, International Network of Alternative Financial Institutions (INAFI) International.

2005–2019 – Commissioner, UN Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (CLEP)

2010–2011 – UN Secretary General's Group of Eminent Persons for Least Developed Countries (LDCs)

2012–2019 – Member, UN Secretary General's Lead Group of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement

2015–2015 – Chairperson, Board of Directors, BRAC Saajan Exchange Limited

2015–2019 – Chairperson, Advisory Board, Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements.