New IBA Director Appointed

Professor G.M. Chowdhury has been appointed as the Director of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka. Having completed his higher studies at Aston and Kingston Universities in the UK, he joined IBA in 1985. He has over twenty-four years of experience as an academic and management consultant at home and abroad including as the Director, MBA Program of Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia (Dhaka campus).

In the larger university arena, Professor Chowdhury has been serving as the Provost of Salimullah Muslim Hall since December 2007. He played a pivotal role in crystallizing private-public partnership as the Founder President of University and Industry (U&I) Alliance - a research and management consulting centre of the University of Dhaka. He was also elected as Treasurer of the Dhaka University Teachers' Association (DUTA) in 2006.

Professor Chowdhury was born at Mirsarai, Chittagong. He is the son of late Badiul Alam Chowdhury, a renowned businessman of Chittagong and late Saleha Khatun Chowdhury. He is involved with a number of social and charitable organizations including the Rotary Club of Dhaka West (President 2008-2009), Chattagram Samity and Mirsarai Samity.

It may be mentioned here that established in 1966 with technical collaborations from Indiana University of Bloomington, USA, under a Ford Foundation financial assistance program, IBA had begun its journey with the regular MBA program. In 1992, an undergraduate business program (BBA) was introduced and later in 2008 the Executive MBA program was launched to cater for the special needs of the industry. The Institute also offers MPhil and PhD programs since the 1970s.

It is almost 40 years that IBA has been serving the business and industry in the country. The consequence of this long journey is a corporate world adored with a generous representation of the IBA. Some may call it first mover advantage. But the distinction of being able to put glitter in an erstwhile non-glamorous product segment in the country uniquely belongs to the IBA. We are proud of being a part of the history that saw this glorious transition of a product that we now call business education. Again, being a first move has never been a guarantee of an automatic place in the future. How many first movers of IBA's generation, within the country or across, have stayed the test of time? The corporate amnesia of the past legacy is very well known.

IBA is blessed with the advantage of being a part of the great alma mater Dhaka University that has allowed us to grow, at times even along the nontraditional path. This has been facilitated by the composition of the Board of Governors with representation from the corporate and academic world that have encouraged us to experiment with designs. This trust is our strength as we improve on our resources, tangible and intangible. IBA is one of the few places where faculties are evaluated alongside the students. Many of our young faculties are past students of the IBA who insist on raising the hurdles that they crossed. The senior faculty with greater exposure to education in cross-cultural environment has the unenviable job of taming this enthusiasm against the rising corporate hunger for better products as they turn global. Education, in particular Business Education, could not have been as exciting a vocation as today.

We are thankful to the growing number of competitors that forces us to continuously reexamine our theory of business with regard to our products, services and customers. Being in an island with all the resources is another name of imprisonment. Along this road of competitiveness we expect more competitors, even across the geographical boundaries. IBA is firmly committed to the availability of options in its endeavour to attain global competitiveness. Our attention to the details of our program is part of this awareness. Summing it up, IBA is a place where time never stands still. This is the lifestyle to which we were introduced as we joined the IBA at different points of time. This is one parameter that IBA need not change.

Professor Golam Mohammed Chowdhury

Director