Islami Bank Chairman Resigns

Professor Dr. M. Zubaidur Rahman has resigned from the post of Chairman of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited. He submitted his resignation letter to the Governor of Bangladesh Bank on Sunday. He was appointed chairman on July 23 last year, according to central bank and Islami Bank sources.

Meanwhile, the bank’s scheduled board meeting was not held today amid protests by customers. Discussions were also underway regarding the resignation of Managing Director Omar Faruk Khan, who has been on mandatory leave until May 31.

Following the fall of the Awami League government in a student-led mass uprising, Bangladesh Bank dissolved the board of Islami Bank. The central bank then appointed Obaidullah Al Masud as an independent director, after which he served as chairman. Later, after Obaidullah Al Masud resigned in July last year, Zubaidur Rahman joined the board as an independent director and was subsequently appointed chairman. He has now resigned after 10 months in office.

Professor Zubaidur Rahman began his career in 1975 as a lecturer in the Department of Finance at the University of Dhaka. He later earned a PhD in finance from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.

He has taught at the State University of New York and the University of Bocconi in Italy. He has also served as a visiting scholar at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the United States and Moscow State University in Russia.

Professor Zubaidur Rahman is the founding Vice Chancellor of ZNRF University of Management Sciences (ZUMS) in Dhaka. The former senior World Bank official has also worked as an independent adviser on public and private sector issues in various developing and emerging economies.