Iqbal Quadir
Iqbal Z. Quadir (Bengali: ইকবাল জেড. কাদীর) is an entrepreneur and promoter of the role of entrepreneurship and innovation in creating prosperity in low-income countries. He has taught at Harvard Kennedy School and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the brother of Bangladeshi-American entrepreneur and artist Kamal Quadir.
Iqbal Quadir | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 13, 1958 (age 65) |
| Alma mater | Swarthmore College (BS '81), Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (MA '83, MBA '87) |
| Known for | Founder of Grameenphone |
| Relatives | Kamal Quadir (Brother) |
"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 (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.