I'm Makshud. The full version is Makshudul Alom Mokul Mondal, which is four names for one person and explains why I go by one.
I work where trade rules, business strategy and young people's ambitions meet. It sounds like three jobs, and mostly is.
Entrepreneurship runs through all of it. It was the subject of my master's at Manchester, where I asked whether fintech could disrupt microfinance in Bangladesh, and it is how I have spent my own working life: building companies, not just studying them.
Education
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From November 2026
PhD researcher, Management
University of Trento, Italy
Research on trade policy, global strategy and how regulation travels across borders.
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September 2018 to September 2019
MSc, Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship
Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester
Thesis: can fintech disrupt the microfinance sector? A qualitative study from Bangladesh.
- Distinction, the highest classification
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2010 to 2014
BBA, Finance
Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka
CGPA 3.35. Attended Harvard HPAIR, Asia Pacific Week in Australia, and the Malaysia International Youth Programme.
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2007 to 2009
Higher Secondary Certificate, Business Studies
Notre Dame College, Dhaka
GPA 5.00, seventh in the Dhaka Board.
- First in year, of 702 students
- Government talent-pool scholarship
- Perfect attendance
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2002 to 2007
Secondary School Certificate, Business Studies
St Joseph Higher Secondary School and College, Dhaka
GPA 5.00, 272nd in the Dhaka Board. The first scholarship anyone ever gave me.
- Third in year
- Government talent-pool scholarship
I've been lucky with my teachers, and I've never forgotten that somebody paid for my education before I could.
Professional Engagement
Fifteen years of work on how Bangladesh trades, from a market research desk to the machinery of the Ministry of Commerce.
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2020 to 2026
Consultant
Bangladesh Regional Connectivity Project, Ministry of Commerce, World Bank funded
Built and ran the Bangladesh Trade Portal, taking it from three thousand users to twenty-two thousand, and set up the National Enquiry Point for Trade. Led the Women Entrepreneurs Networking Platform, which profiled more than twenty-eight thousand women. Coordinated with thirty-nine government and industry bodies, and supported reviews of thirty or more trade acts and policies.
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2020 to 2026, in four stints
Procurement Specialist, in charge
Bangladesh Regional Connectivity Project, Ministry of Commerce
Ran procurement under World Bank regulations: bidding documents, requests for proposals, evaluation committees, and the project's procurement plan.
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2024
Principal Investigator
Market Insight, a concern of Tijarah Ventures
Leading an export readiness study of the Bangladeshi plastic toy industry: global demand, competing economies, supply chain, and the standards a product has to clear to be sold abroad.
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2019 to 2020
Research Analyst
MSME Financing: Country Study on Bangladesh, funded by UNESCAP
Field research and interviews on how small businesses actually get credit, and where policy, capacity and coordination fall short. Findings presented at a national workshop in Dhaka.
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2018
Partnership Management Consultant
Business Finance for the Poor in Bangladesh, UKaid
Worked on financial inclusion with the Ministry of Finance, Bangladesh Bank, the SME Foundation and the Micro-credit Regulatory Authority.
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2014 to 2016
Fellow and Senior Research Associate
Institute for Policy, Advocacy and Governance (IPAG)
WTO agreements, cross-border trade, and bilateral trade and investment. Work presented in Beijing with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and in Agartala at the North East Connectivity Summit.
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2013 to 2014
Research Assistant
Private Sector Development Policy Coordination Committee, Prime Minister's Office, with IPAG
Background research on tariff structure, the regulatory regime and investment policy, and drafting briefings for the committee.
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2012 to 2013, part time
Trainer of Leadership
Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center
Curriculum design, training facilitators, and running leadership workshops.
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2011 to 2012, part time
Research Associate
AC Nielsen Bangladesh
Survey and interview fieldwork on private sector development and women's entrepreneurship. The first job, and where I learned to ask a question properly.
Teaching
I teach Business Strategy at IBA as guest faculty, using South Asian cases rather than imported ones. Earlier, I trained facilitators and ran leadership sessions at the Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center.
Entrepreneurship
I co-founded Youth Opportunities, one of the largest opportunity discovery platforms for young people anywhere: scholarships, fellowships, conferences and exchanges. It has served more than four and a half million young people and been featured by the BBC and Forbes.
In 2025 I founded the Barakah Meat Initiative, a community meat scheme. Households buy together so the price comes down, and the animals are bought straight from farmers at a fair price instead of through a chain of middlemen. Slaughter is halal and happens after Fajr, and the meat is cleaned, packed and delivered to the door the same morning.
Opinion
I've written op-eds for The Daily Star, Dhaka Tribune and The Business Standard since 2018, on everything from urban life to geopolitics. These days I mostly write about trade and the economy.
Other Engagements
Global Shaper at the World Economic Forum (Dhaka Hub), Global ICT Fellow at the Young ICT Forum in South Korea, alumnus of Harvard PAIR and the Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center.
I work in Bangla and English. I publish academic work as Makshudul Alom Mokul Mondal.
Why I do this
I grew up being handed things I hadn't earned yet: a scholarship, a teacher's attention, someone's spare half hour.
I spent years assuming that was normal, and then spent a few more realising how many capable people never get any of it, and how little the difference has to do with ability. That gap is what I work on now. It's also why the free resources on this site will always stay free.