Iqbal Quadir Biography

Iqbal Z. Quadir is the founder of Gonofone and Grameenphone. Inspired by his upbringing as an impoverished youth in rural Bangladesh, he recognized the need for better communication between citizens and providers of goods and services. He completed two Masters Degrees at the University of Pennsylvania and worked for several international financial companies before founding Gonofone and Grameenphone. Through Grameenphone, Quadir used mobile devices to provide a national communication system to the people of Bangladesh. Quadir has taught at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At MIT, he established the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship. He created numerous foundations to benefit the rural poor in third world nations, one of which funded an essay competition that led to the genesis of a method that extracts arsenic from water and soil. Financial Aid from first world nations frequently fails developing nations in the long term due to the fact that the source of funding is a crutch rather than a solution to the problems the citizens of the country face. Quadir's efforts to empower the underprivileged have allowed millions of people to earn a larger income which in turn enables them to provide basic comforts for their families.