Iqbal Quadir facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Iqbal Quadir
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| Born | August 13, 1958 (age 63) Jessore, Bangladesh
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| Alma mater | Swarthmore College (BS '81), Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (MA '83, MBA '87) |
| Known for | Founder of Grameenphone |
Iqbal Z. Quadir (Bengali: ইকবাল জেড. কাদীর) is an entrepreneur and promoter of the role of entrepreneurship and innovations in creating prosperity in low-income countries. He has taught at Harvard Kennedy School and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"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.
Images for kids
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Five Nobel Laureates in Economics graced the inauguration of the Legatum Center in 2008. There was a panel discussion moderated by Quadir that involved four laureates. From left to right, Eric Maskin, Lawrence Klein, moderator Quadir, Robert Merton and Edmund Phelps.
