People

Iqbal Quadir—President and Founder

EBI is headed by Iqbal Quadir, the visionary and catalyst behind GrameenPhone, the largest cellular carrier in Bangladesh that also provides nearly universal access to telephony for the rural poor. Quadir’s career has focused on leveraging emerging first world technologies for the benefit of bottom up, private sector driven, approaches to development. His goal is to apply the framework and principles that led to GrameenPhone’s success to the energy problem facing developing countries in South Asia and Africa. Quadir is also the founder and director of the Legatum Center for Development of Entrepreneurship at MIT.

E-mail: quadir (at) emergencebioenergy (dot) com

Firas Ahmad—Director

Operations and business development are managed by Firas  Ahmad. Ahmad was involved in the initial experiment that took place in Bangladesh and has since been managing day to day operations at Emergence BioEnergy Inc. He has travelled to Bangladesh several times and worked on the ground in the country with EBI’s various partners. Ahmad previously worked in Pakistan as part of a taskforce to reformulate primary education and health care services for the poor and as an Analyst for Abt Associates, an international consulting firm. Firas is a graduate of Geoergetown University and the Harvard  Kennedy School.

E-mail: firas (at) emergencebioenergy (dot) com