Iqbal Quadir

director, Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT

Iqbal Quadir is the director of the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as a founding co-editor of the quarterly journal Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization from MIT Press. In the late ‘90s, Quadir founded GrameenPhone and helped provide affordable telephone access to all Bangladesh. It is the cellular network in the country and has helped create one quarter million micro-entrepreneurs in the rural villages. Quadir has served as a vice president of Atrium Capital Corp., a consultant to the World Bank in Washington D.C., and a professor at Harvard. Since coming to MIT in 2005, his studies have focused on creating enterprises in developing countries. He is also a chairman of the judging panel for the Legatum FORTUNE Technology Prize, which awards $1 million to individuals or organizations that positively affect developing countries’ business, technology, and quality of life.