The Rooted Banker
Tamara Abed received her MBA in Finance from Columbia University and B.Sc. (Econ.) from the London School of Economics. She started her career as an investment banker in Peregrine Capital Ltd. in Dhaka and then also worked in Goldman Sachs in New York in Mergers and Strategic Advisory. Then Abed’s career took a sharp turn. In 2003 she joined the awe-inspiring Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee. Established by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed in 1972 soon after the independence of Bangladesh, BRAC is currently present in all 64 districts of Bangladesh, with over 7 million microfinance group members, 37,500 non-formal primary schools and more than 70,000 health volunteers. BRAC is the largest NGO by number of staff employing over 120,000 people, the majority of whom are women. Today, Tamara is part of the senior management team at BRAC. She heads two of the most profitable of BRAC’s social enterprises including Aarong; the largest retail chain of lifestyle store in Bangladesh, selling handicrafts made by its 65,000 rural artisans. She also heads BRAC Dairy, the second largest dairy operation in Bangladesh, which provides rural farmers with a value chain linkage to the market and protects them from price volatility. Tamara is also on the board of BRAC Bank, a publicly listed commercial bank with the largest SME portfolio in Bangladesh.
Tamara was recently honored by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader for the year 2010.
