Wahiduddin Mahmud obtained his PhD in economics from Cambridge University and is professor of economics at the University of Dhaka. He has frequently consulted for many international organizations and has held teaching and research appointments at Cambridge, IDS at Sussex, IFPRI and the World Bank, among others. He is currently a member of the UN Committee for Development Policy (UN-CDP) and chairman of the South Asian Network of Economic Research Institutes (SANEI). Together with Nobel peace prize winner Muhammad Yunus, he co-founded, and was chairman for the last ten years of Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), which is an apex institution for funding the microfinance programmes of NGOs in Bangladesh. He is also chairman of the Institute of Microfinance, a sister organization of PKSF. His current and previous assignments in Bangladesh include chairing several government commissions and committees including those related to bank reforms, national income accounting, implementation of Millennium Development Goals and preparation of the country’s five-year development plans. He was a member of the caretaker government of Bangladesh in 1996 in charge of the ministries of finance and planning.
