Prof. Sheikh Morshed Jahan, an international development policy economist and professor of strategy, economics, and entrepreneurship at IBA University of Dhaka, carries 32 years of experience in business and development research, university teaching, corporate advising, and capacity building in Bangladesh and in countries of South, South-East, and Central Asia.

Prof. Jahan was an international consultant to UNDP (Singapore/Malaysia), UN-ESCAP (Bangkok), the World Bank (Washington DC), and ASEAN Economic Research Institute. United Nations has published his research works as part of several multi-country studies. Prof. Jahan led/co-led/served in 100+ projects involving research and surveys, consulting, market system and value chain development, intervention facilitation, and capacity building on behalf of multi-lateral and bilateral agencies (such as USAID, Ukaid, Danida, SDC, EKN, etc.) and MNCs and national businesses (such as Samsung, KNI Japan, G4S, Radio Today, etc.).

Prof. Jahan also led and worked in projects commissioned by different agencies of the Government of Bangladesh. On behalf of ICT Division (LICT/EDGE) and IBA-University of Dhaka, Prof. Jahan has been leading two high-impact World Bank-funded flagship programs involving capacity building of the IT/ITeS industry, namely CXO Strategy Conclave targeting the digital economy entrepreneurs, founders/co-founders, and C-suite executives and ACMP 4.0 targeting the industry’s mid-management professionals. He also co-led the project on Sustainable Business Model Development of Union Digital Centers under a2i. He also advised the CDCS® team working on the development of the largest national digital networking platform of women entrepreneurs commissioned under the BRCP1 project of the Ministry of Commerce.

Prof. Jahan served as a member of United Nations ESCAP Advisory Panel on SME Development and contributed to its Policy Guidelines for SME Development in Asia and the Pacific. He holds an MBA from IBA-University of Dhaka (where he topped the merit list with the highest distinction) and AM (international development policy) from Duke University, USA. He was a Joint Japan/World Bank scholar at Duke University, and a Commonwealth Fellow at IIM-A. His country work experience includes: Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Lao PDR, Cambodia, Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, the Philippines, and USA. As an international consultant to UNDP (Singapore/Malaysia)’s South-South and Triangular Cooperation for SME Development in Asia, Prof. Jahan led capacity building of SME development agencies in five countries of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia. Partnering with Prof. Gary Gereffi of Duke University, he also co-designed and co-facilitated World Bank-funded capacity building project on Global value chains and international competitiveness spearheaded by Kazakhstan Ministry of Economy. Prof. Jahan was a Teaching and Research Fellow at Duke University and collaborated in teaching technology and organizations and researching global value chain governance.

Prof. Jahan supervises doctoral dissertation works involving bottom-of-the-pyramid markets, digital economy, renewable energy, sustainable development, Islamic finance, and value chains. Prof. Jahan’s areas of interest include public policy, market system development; inclusive growth; global and regional value chains; MSME and entrepreneurship; agriculture, climate, and food security; agribusiness and rural economy; international trade competitiveness; 4IR and digital economy; technology adoption/commercialization; business acceleration and scaling strategy; market research, feasibility, sector studies, baseline, and impact studies. He also published 50+ articles, book chapters, and papers in national and international peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings, and books. As a full-time faculty member, he joined IBA in 1993.