Kamal Quadir

Kamal Quadir is the founder and CEO of CellBazaar Inc., a communications company that has introduced a mobile phone-based electronic marketplace for developing countries. With twelve years of experience in finance, art, energy and animation, Kamal capitalized on the proliferation of mobile phones in Bangladesh (where the Internet and electricity have reached respectively .03% and 23% of the country’s 140 million people) to build a nationwide electronic marketplace which can be accessed by 23 million people. Under his leadership CellBazaar won the Best Use of Mobile for Social and Economic Development Award 2008 from GSM Congress and Asia Telecom’s Innovation of the Year 2008 Award. Previously, Kamal led the business development division of Occidental Corporation's energy initiatives in South Asia, worked in the New York City Chamber of Commerce and Insight Venture Partners. Kamal is a founding member of Open World Initiatives, a Lausanne, Switzerland based organization of young thinkers. He is involved with Anwarul Quadir Foundation which recognizes innovations in developing countries. He received the Tech Award 2007 for “Applying Technology to Benefit Humanity.” He is a First Mover Fellow of The Aspen Institute. In 2009, the World Economic Forum selected Kamal as a Young Global Leader. Kamal is a recognized artist in Bangladesh and his works are in the permanent collections at the Bangladesh National Museum. He has a BA from Oberlin College and an MBA from the Sloan School of Management at MIT.