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8 September
2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Director, International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD)
Prof. Saleemul Huq is the Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) and Professor at the Independent University Bangladesh (IUB) as well as Senior Associate of the International Institute on Environment and Development (IIED) in the United Kingdom. Recently he has been appointed as one of the external members of a new Scientific Advisory Board of the United Nations (UN). In addition, he is in the Advisory Committee of COP 28 President at UAE. He is an expert in adaptation to climate change in the most Vulnerable developing countries and has been a lead author of the third, fourth and fifth assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and he also advises the Least Developed Countries (LDC) group in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
Secretary, Local Government Division
Mr Muhammad Ibrahim is the Secretary of the Local Government Division since November 2022.
A member of the Bangladesh Administrative Service since April 1993 (11th BCS), he has worked in all three tires of field administration namely Upazila, District and Division.
He has started his career as an Assistant Commissioner in Khagrachari Hill District. Later, he has worked in Mymensingh, Rajshahi and Barisal in different capacities of field administration.
Centrally in the Secretariat, he has served in the Ministries of Health and Family Welfare, Water Resources, Land, Labour & Employment, Expatriates' Welfare & Overseas Employment, and the Local Government Division.
He has also served a term in the Embassy of Bangladesh in Bahrain as the First Secretary (Labour).
Mr Muhammad Ibrahim has 30 years experience in working with public policies, especially on local government, overseas employment, migration, health, water resources, and water-sanitation-hygiene (WASH).
Mr Muhammad Ibrahim did his Secondary School Certificate from Dhaka Government Muslim High School. He has done his Higher School Certificate from Dhaka College. He has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Dhaka. Later, he did a Post Graduate Diploma as well as Masters in Health Economics from the Institute of Health Economics, University of Dhaka.
He did advanced courses on 'Health Economics and Financing for Developing Countries' in the Centre for Health Economics, University of York in the UK and 'PPP and Project Financing' in the Kennedy School of Government in the Harvard University in the USA.
Married to Ms Nadia Kohinoor, he is blessed with two daughters. He enjoys playing cricket and golf. History, diplomacy, economics, and aviation are his areas of interest.
Deputy High Commissioner and Development Director, the British High Commission, Dhaka
Matt Cannell became the Deputy High Commissioner and Development Director at the British High Commission, Dhaka in March 2023. He joined the High Commission in Dhaka as the Development Director in March 2022.
Immediately prior to this, he was Portfolio Director, Transformation, leading work to create the FCDO following the merger of Department for International Development (DfID) and Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).
Matt has spent more than half his career overseas with both the FCO and DfID, covering a wide-range of development and foreign policy roles. From 2014 to 2017, he was the Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative for Sudan and South Sudan. He served in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2014; and from 2006 to 2010 he represented the UK on the governing boards of UNICEF, UNFPA, UNDP and UN Women at the UK’s Mission to the United Nations .
Matt is married and has two young children.
Mayor, Chandpur City Corporation
Mr. Md. Jillur Rahman was elected as Mayor of Chandpur Municipality on 24th of September 2020. He was born on 1st September 1973 to an aristocratic Muslim family of Chandpur, and son of Md. Lutfur Rahman and Shahanara Begum. Earlier he was dedicated student political leader of Bangladesh Chattraleague and elected as president of Bangladesh Chattraleague, Chittagong University. He is graduated in law from Chittagong University, Bangladesh. He involved in many political and social structures of Chandpur and working for the development of people. Honorable Mayor contributing as member of National Project Steering Committee (NPSC) on LIUPC Project. He is awarded in fellowship programme of Asia-Pacific Mayors Academy which is organized by ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC (ESCAP) of United Nations.
First Secretary, Environment & Climate Change and Deputy Head, Development Cooperation
Nayoka Martinez Bäckström is First Secretary (Environment & Climate) and Deputy Head of Cooperation at the Embassy of Sweden in Dhaka. She has been a development professional throughout her career, working mainly in Asia and Africa. Before moving to Bangladesh, she worked in Stockholm as the Coordinator for Sustainable Urban Development at the headquarters of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida. She has also worked as a Human Settlements Officer at the headquarters of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) in Nairobi, focusing on urban management and governance issues. She has previous experience from the Asian Development Bank and from different government agencies in the Philippines. Nayoka has an MSc in Cities from the London School of Economics & Political Science, and a BA in Development Studies from the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines.
Country Head of Corporate Affairs, Brand & Marketing, Standard Chartered Bangladesh
Bitopi Das Chowdhury is the Country Head of Corporate Affairs, Brand & Marketing at Standard Chartered Bank, Bangladesh. She joined the Bank in 2009 as Country Head of Corporate Affairs and took over the extended role of Country Head of B&M from June 2018.
At Standard Chartered she is responsible for developing, implementing, and managing overall Brand & Marketing and Corporate Affairs strategy for Bangladesh, including CSR and Community Engagement Activities for the Bank. She is responsible for overseeing the Bank’s marketing activities, internal and external communications, maintaining government relationships, safeguarding the Brand as a whole and looking after the sustainability agenda of the Bank. She is also responsible for Reputational Risk Management and Media Relations of the bank.
Bitopi is a member of UNICEF’s Private Sector Advisory Board in Bangladesh. She is also on the Executive Committee of Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards in Bangladesh. She has been holding Board – level positions (Country Management Team) at all her employers for 20 years (since 2003).
Bitopi has over 24 years of diverse experience in various industries, including Financial Markets and Retail Banking at Standard Chartered; as well as marketing and strategic roles for the telecommunications and FMCG sectors. She took on the role as Country Head of Corporate Affairs for Standard Chartered Bangladesh in 2009, and since then, has been instrumental in raising the profile of Standard Chartered Bangladesh in both the local and international media. She also initiated and led the Bank’s sponsorship of the flagship Bangladesh Investment Summit and steered several key local community engagement and sustainability projects.
Bitopi enjoys teaching, and has been a faculty at North South University, University of Liberal Arts and BRAC University since 2004, for their BBA, MBA and E-MBA programs; teaching courses in Finance, Marketing and Business Communication.
Bitopi holds a MBA degree (Finance major) from Bangladesh’s premier business school, the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka. She also holds another MBA on Strategy and International Business, from School of Management at Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. In her leisure time she likes to spend time with her daughter and to travel.
