ICT Pioneer of the year 2021: Syed Mamnun Quader

Syed Mamnun Quader started his career in 1983 as a bank management trainee in London.

He also worked for Banque Nationale de Paris Plc in London, Banque Paribas in London and Investcorp Bank EC in Bahrain and thus acquired well rounded experience of retail, commercial and investment banking in his 25 years of career in the ICT industry.

His last assignment at Investcorp was as risk and controls manager of the Proprietary Trading Group of their Bahrain, London, and New York offices.

Quader's heavy involvement with technology eventually led him to think about setting up a software house in Bangladesh. In late 1995, he decided to come to Bangladesh and that was the beginning of his long entrepreneurial journey.

An MBA from Cass Business School, London, Quader is also a founding member and a former senior vice president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS).

He founded Southtech Limited in 1996 at a time when there was very little in terms of software development in Bangladesh.

Southtech Group now comprises six entities, two within Bangladesh and four overseas.

Quader is an iconic figure and a pioneer in the Bangladeshi tech industry. He inspires startups and a number of his former employees are now successful entrepreneurs in their own rights.