Naila Chowdhury

Naila Chowdhury is a leading management professional from Bangladesh. She has served in a UN agency as well as several multinationals, locally and globally (Norway, Thailand, Ukraine, Malaysia, and Pakistan).  She has closely worked with Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus for more than 15 years. Her core focus now is women’s health and economic empowerment through modern information and communications technologies. She is also an Advisor for Ashoka Support Network Members. She is an active Mentor for Youth and Women in constructive entrepreneurship, information communication technology (ICT), global networking and the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). She is presently one of the Founding Women Members of F4D in New York, USA and Board Director of Athgo International, USA. She has been involved in developing teams and providing technology driven entrepreneurial platforms for young people globally and powering individuals by creating opportunities to self-organize and succeed with minimal resources and options. Her career began with UNICEF-Bangladesh, and then UK-based Marie Stopes Clinic, promoting the education in reproductive hygiene & AIDS awareness among vulnerable women and adolescents.  She joined GrameenPhone in 1998 and was part of its growth into the largest mobile operator in Bangladesh. She had special responsibility as head of GrameenPhone’s Village Phone Project, supporting the grassroots women of remote villages as they extended telecom to the population.  This project allowed her to work closely with Professor Yunus; it won many prestigious awards. After several years abroad working for the leading Norwegian wireless company Telenor, she returned to Bangladesh to establish and run Grameen Solutions, the IT arm of Professor Yunus’ Grameen family of enterprises. She has also worked as an Advisor for Aktel -Axiata Bangladesh during it’s revamp and relaunch. She did her Masters Degree in Marketing from Dhaka University. She also has a Senior Executive Business Management Diploma from Singapore National University and an Executive MBA Diploma from the Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden.