Dr. Quazi Mesbahuddin Ahmed Takes Over As Managing Director of PKSF

Dr. Quazi Mesbahuddin Ahmed, former Member, General Economics Division of the Bangladesh Planning Commission, has been appointed Managing Director of Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF). PKSF is the country’s apex organization for funding microfinance programmes of NGOs and other organizations and providing them various institutional development services for poverty alleviation. Prior to his posting as Member, Planning Commission, Dr. Ahmed was Additional Secretary, ERD in 2003. He had been Economic Minister at the Bangladesh Embassy in Washington, DC during 1997-2002.

While serving at Planning Commission, Dr. Ahmed played a pivotal role in preparing Bangladesh’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. He was also the chief of the National Poverty Focal Point (NPFP) located at the Planning Commission.

Starting his career at the Department of Research, erstwhile State Bank of Pakistan in 1969, Dr. Ahmed joined the then East Pakistan Planning Department as Assistant Chief in 1970 and retired as Member of the Bangladesh Planning Commission.

Dr. Ahmed possesses B.A (Hons.) and M.A degrees in Economics from the University of Dhaka obtained in 1967 and 1968 respectively. He holds an MS degree in Economics from the James Cook University of North Queensland, Australia. He did a Master’s degree and a PhD. in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.

Dr. Ahmed was a visiting fellow at the University of Western Australia during 1994. He has been working as an independent expert of the SAARC Secretariat since June, 2007.