We are proud of the calibre of scholars and business leaders who are a part of our Sustainable Entrepreneurship MBA program. Today we welcomed to class our advisory board member, the inspiring Iqbal Quadir, as our guest entrepreneur-in-residence.

Iqbal talked about his personal journey and work as a pioneer in creating inclusive business ventures in low-income countries. 

In the 1990s, he founded Grameenphone in Bangladesh; it now has 50 million customers. Subsequently, he helped found bKash; bKash, with 17 million customers, is dramatically improving financial inclusion in Bangladesh. With this inclusive philosophy in mind, in 2005 Quadir cofounded Innovations, an MIT Press journal, and in 2007 he founded the Legatum Center at MIT. The Center has already trained 200 MIT students who aspire to create for-profit enterprises promoting prosperity in low-income countries.

Quadir’s work and thinking has been cited in over 70 books. He has published in the Financial Times, Forbes.com, Harvard Business Review, Science, Nature, Newsweek, and The Wall Street Journal. He holds an MBA and MA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a BS from Swarthmore College. He has received two honorary doctorate degrees and other honors for his work.