10 INSPIRATIONAL BANGLADESHIS AROUND THE WORLD

1. Mohammed Yunus

Founder of Grameen Bank and Nobel laureate

Muhammad Yunus is a Nobel Prize-winning economist who pioneered microfinancing in Bangladesh. He founded the Grameen Bank, with which he shared the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize “for their efforts to create economic and social
development”.

2. Jawed Karim

Founder of YouTube

Karim is a co-founder of YouTube. Karim may have taken a back seat from the limelight but when YouTube was acquired by Google in 2007, Karim’s payoff was an estimated $65m.

3. Sir Fazle Hasan Abed 

Founder & Chairperson Brac

Sir Fazle established BRAC with the primary objectives of alleviating poverty and empowering the poor. Under his leadership, in the span of only four decades, BRAC has grown to become one of the largest and most diverse development organisations in the world.

4. Salman Khan

Khan Academy

Salman, a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School, has been listed as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. He is the founder of the Khan Academy, a non-profit educational website which is now the largest
virtual ‘school’ in the world with over 10 million students.

 5. Korvi Rakshand

Founder of Jaago Foundation

Korvi was listed in the “Top 99 under 33 Influential Foreign Policy Leaders” by The Diplomatic Courier, in Washington D.C. He has engaged 10,000 volunteers to work with Jaago on tackling issues from illiteracy, malnutrition in children to helping families build better lives.

6. Sara Hossain, Esq

High Court Lawyer and Human Rights Activist, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. Sara Hossain, Esq

A practicing barrister in the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, Sara is a vocal campaigner against human rights violations. Sara has represented, amongst others, slum dwellers seeking protection against forced evictions, women in protective custody, and journalists facing contempt of court prosecutions for reporting on judicial corruption.

7. Sakib Al Hassan

Bangladesh cricket player

Shakib is unarguably the best cricketer in recent Bangladeshi sporting record. Shakib is Bangladesh’s first and the 28th player in the history of test cricket to score a century and pick up 5 wickets in an innings in a test match in 2011 vs Pakistan.

8. Omar Ishrak

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Medtronic

Previously president and CEO of GE Healthcare Systems, a $12 billion division of GE Healthcare, Omar now heads Medtronic, the world’s leading medical technology company, with more than $16 billion in annual revenue, and operations reaching more than 120 countries worldwide.

9. Sumaya Kazi

CEO Sumazi.com

As founder of a web based social networking platform for professionals, Sumaya has been recognized by BusinessWeek as one of America’s “Best Young Entrepreneurs,” CNN heralded her as a “Young Person Who Rocks,” and by Silicon Valley Business Journal as a “Woman of Influence”.

10. Nishat Mazumder

Everest climber

Nishat, an accountant by profession, hoisted the Bangladeshi flag atop the 8,848-metre-high peak of Mount Everest, becoming the first Bangladeshi woman to make it to the top of the highest mountain in the world. She is a fantastic role model for girls all around the world to reach every height imaginable.