Thursday 1:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. - Plenary

BoP Global Network Award for the Base of the Pyramid Lifetime Achievement

The BoP Global Network and the University of Vermont’s School of Business Administration present the inaugural 2015 Base of the Pyramid Lifetime Achievement Award to Iqbal Quadir in recognition of his far-reaching insights and his persistent efforts to put ideas into action and to help others pursue similar goals. 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. He worked tirelessly for over two decades to provide the poor access to mobiles and to find them other means of economic empowerment. Quadir also has promoted his philosophy of entrepreneurial development in boardrooms and classrooms; as entrepreneur, teacher, author, editor, and speaker; and in newspaper, magazine, and book profiles.


Help celebrate and honor the 2015 BoP Global Network Awardee at the Plenary room on July 16th at 1:15PM.

Hosts: Stuart Hart, ESW President and Founder of the BoP Global Network; and Sanjay Sharma, Dean of the University of Vermont School of Business Administration

Awardee: Iqbal Z. Quadir, Founder, Grameenphone; Director Emeritus, Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT



Iqbal QuadirIqbal Quadir is a pioneer in creating inclusive ventures in low-income countries. In the 1990s, he founded Grameenphone in Bangladesh, now with over 52 million customers. Subsequently, he helped found bKash, which is dramatically improving financial inclusion in Bangladesh with 18 million subscribers today.

With this philosophy in mind, in 2005 Quadir cofounded Innovations, an MIT Press journal, and in 2007 founded the Legatum Center for Entrepreneurship and Development 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.

Awards & Achievements

  • Recognized by the World Economic Forum in 1999 as a Global Leader of Tomorrow for his innovative leadership approach in expanding horizons for the citizens of Bangladesh.
  • Received the Rotary Club of Metropolitan Dhaka’s 2006 Science, Education and Economic Development Award for generating Bangladeshi telephone access.
  • In 2007, the Wharton School recognized him as one of 125 Influential People and Ideas.
  • Received the 2012 Russell-Whitehead Business Humanitarian Award.