Apex Group boss Manzur Elahi, wife Niloufer of Sunbeams school contract coronavirus

Syed Manzur Elahi, one of the leading businessmen in Bangladesh, and his wife Niloufer Manzur, the founding head of Sunbeams school, have caught COVID-19.

Niloufer has been admitted to the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka while her husband was taking treatment at home, their son Syed Nasim Manzur told bdnews24.com on Saturday night.

Nasim sought everyone’s blessings for his parents.

Manzur Elahi, 78, is the chairman of conglomerate Apex Group and a former adviser to two caretaker governments. Nasim is the company’s managing director.

Niloufer established Sunbeams, an English-medium institution, in 1974. She is also involved with a social marketing company.

Born in Kolkata Manzur Elahi moved to Dhaka with his family after graduating in economics from the University of Calcutta.

He started his career as a senior executive at the then Pakistan Tobacco Company after doing his post-graduation from Dhaka University. He and Niloufer married in 1966.

Manzur Elhai left tobacco company job after the 1971 Liberation War and started working as a representative of a foreign firm.

He bought Orion Tannery at Hazaribagh in Dhaka and established Apex Tannery in 1975.

Apex Group now owns 11 companies, including Apex Tannery, Apex Footwear, Apex Pharma, Blue Ocean Footwear, Apex Enterprise, Apex Investment and Grey Advertising Bangladesh.

Apex has also invested in Mutual Trust Bank. Syed Manzur was the bank’s founding chairman.

He also is Chairman at East West University’s board of trustees.

He worked as an adviser to the caretaker governments in 1996 and 2001.

Manzur Elahi had headed the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Bangladesh Employers Association.

He acted as the administrator of the FBCCI during the 2007-08 military-installed caretaker government.