Maliha Quadir named Young Global Leader of World Economic Forum

Maliha Quadir, the founder of the Bangladesh’s first online travel ticket purchasing platform, has been named as Young Global Leader of 2017 by World Economic Forum (WEF).

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 15 March 2017, 06:56 PM
Updated : 15 March 2017, 10:22 PM

The WEF is a Swiss non-profit foundation that works “to improve the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas".  It is best known for its annual meeting at the end of January in Davos.

Each year, it selects 100 young leaders, under the age of 40, who are tackling the world’s “most complex challenges with innovative approaches”.

Among the current and former Young Global Leaders are heads of government and Fortune 500 companies, winners of Olympic medals and Academy Awards, and “people who have overcome towering adversity to positively change the world we live in”.

Maliha is the founding Managing Director of Shohoj Limited that owns and operates Shohoz.com, a premium online travel ticketing and reservation service provider.

“A businesswoman and a technology entrepreneur whose startup has done breakthrough work in digitising the transportation industry in Bangladesh,” the WEF said in its website about Maliha while announcing this year’s names.

They include a tech entrepreneur whose mobile app has helped over 100,000 smallholder farmers in Africa; a Yale graduate who shunned a big-city salary to help millions of villagers in rural China; a micro-insurance pioneer who is providing a safety net for the most vulnerable segments of society and transformative scientists who are pioneers in gene therapy, artificial intelligence, experimental psychology and mathematics.

Selected into a five-year programme, this year’s class of 100 Young Global Leaders is split evenly between business and not-for-profit sectors – building a global community of peers who can capitalise on diverse talents, experiences and networks to bridge divides that exist in society and achieve more together than they could separately, the WEF said.

“They will join an established community – the Forum of Young Global Leaders – which is made up of leaders from all walks of life, every region of the world and stakeholder group in society who operate as a force for good to overcome barriers that stand in the way of progress.”