Durreen Shahnaz receives 2017 Oslo Business for Peace Award

Durreen Shahnaz, the Bangladeshi founder of the world’s first stock market dedicated to social enterprises, has been honoured with the 2017 Oslo Business for Peace Award.

Since its establishment in 2009, the Singapore-based Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) has helped to connect investment to development, forming a ‘social capital market’ in Asia.

“Durreen Shahnaz receives the award for her work in spearheading the transformation of the way financial and capital markets work, focusing on purpose and maximising impact,” the award committee said in a statement.

In the eight years since its formation IIX has positively impacted the lives of 10 million people to date, they added.

The Oslo Business for Peace Award hopes to support, inspire and recognise business leader positively changing the face of business around the world.

The recipients are selected annually by a committee of Nobel Prize winners in Peace and Economics. Previous recipients include Sir Richard Branson of Virgin (2014), Ratan Tata of Tata Group (2010), Mo Ibrahim of Mo Ibrahim Foundation (2009), and Paul Polman of Unilever (2015).

The 2017 recipients of the award include Dr Harley Seyedin of the US, Murad Al-Katib of Canada and Elon Musk of the US.

The recipients will be presented with the awards at a ceremony on May 16 in Oslo City Hall.

Shahnaz becomes the third Bangladeshi to be honoured by the award. Transcom Group CEO and Chairman Latifur Rahman was presented with the award in 2012 and, in 2014, it was awarded to Nitol-Niloy Group Vice Chairperson Selima Ahmad.

Shahnaz graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and was the first Bangladeshi woman on Wall Street, beginning her career at Morgan Stanley in New York.

Since then she has worked at Grameen Bank, World Bank, Merrill Lynch, Hearst Magazines and Reader’s Digest.

She has also received the Joseph Wharton Award for Social Impact in 2015.

According to the IIX website Shahnaz hopes to create an inclusive financial system that works for all and helps to develop an equitable and peaceful society. 

“I view this award as a celebration of both the progress we have made to date as well as an encouragement to continue to dedicate myself and IIX to this mission and impact 100 million lives by 2020 by changing finance and financing change for social and environmental good,” Shahnaz said in a statement on the IIX website after news of the award broke.