Our MenTors
Our mentors turn experience into advice. They engage with participants, unpack what went wrong, and show how to try again smarter.
Sankalita Shome
Sankalita Shome is a sustainability and communications leader, currently Chief Coordinator of the Bangladesh Sustainability Alliance (BSA) hosted by BRAC, where she convenes government, private sector, and youth to tackle plastic and waste at scale. She speaks and moderates across platforms—leading zero-waste campus dialogues at BRAC University and hosting multi-stakeholder panels on plastic solutions—and writes on policy and behavior change for national media.
Her path has meant pushing through the unglamorous hurdles of systems work—fragmented incentives, slow adoption, and public skepticism—turning setbacks into coalition building that sticks. Earlier, she worked as a social-innovation consultant advising mission-driven organizations. Today, her focus is practical impact: projects that reduce waste, embed sustainability in education, and move institutions from intent to implementation.
M K Aaref
M K Aaref is an architect and cultural-innovation leader best known as the founding director and longtime head of the EMK Center in Dhaka, where he positioned the space as a hub for youth, arts, entrepreneurship, and open dialogue.
At EMK, he helped launch hands-on platforms like the MakerLab and later designed “Golpo Studio,” an AR/VR lab that gives young creators tools to prototype, record, and test ideas—extending access from seminars to making.
The work wasn’t glamorous: Aaref often had to build community programs before the ecosystem was ready—chasing partners, budgets, and adoption while keeping standards high across education, tech, and culture. The result is a public space repeatedly cited for catalyzing initiatives and small-grants support that seeded changemakers citywide.
Today, his footprint spans exhibitions, maker education, and robotics initiatives with EMK as a consistent platform—proof that persistent, systems-level work can turn a city venue into an engine for creative practice and practical innovation.
Rubaba Dowla
Rubaba Dowla is a Bangladeshi business leader and entrepreneur—Country Managing Director for Oracle Bangladesh (also covering Nepal and Bhutan) and Founder–Managing Director of Pulse Healthcare Services, a digital health platform.
Before entrepreneurship, she helped build Grameenphone’s brand and growth and later modernized service portfolios at Airtel—experience she now channels into tech-for-good.
Her pivot from blue-chip telecom to a startup in telemedicine came with hard yards: driving early adoption, stitching partnerships, and even mobilizing PPE for frontline clinicians during Covid—proof that mission work often starts with unglamorous logistics.
Today, Pulse partners with national brands and insurers, extending 24/7 consultations and integrated health services, while Rubaba continues ecosystem work as a past president of TiE Dhaka and frequent speaker on digital transformation and inclusion.
Zaved Akhtar
Zaved Akhtar is the Chairman and Managing Director of Unilever Bangladesh and President of the Foreign Investors’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). A career marketer, he joined Unilever in 2000 after British American Tobacco, led HUL’s “Reimagine HUL” digital transformation, then returned home as CEO & MD in 2021 and was elected Chairman in 2023.
His remit has meant steering businesses through tough headwinds—re-engineering teams, embedding change, and navigating environmental, economic, and political crises—while pushing big public-good agendas like plastic circularity and gender inclusion.
The outcomes show up in platforms and partnerships: municipality-backed plastic programs with UNDP, university research with BUET, youth campaigns, and even insurance coverage for waste workers—signals that purpose can be operational, not ornamental.
Today, Zaved sits on Unilever’s South Asia leadership and leads UBL’s push for a more inclusive, waste-responsible business—proof that disciplined transformation and coalition-building can translate into durable impact and growth.
Tahsan Rahman Khan
Tahsan Rahman Khan is a Bangladeshi musician-actor and former university lecturer, known for turning pop sensibility and onscreen range into mainstream appeal. He studied at IBA, University of Dhaka (BBA, MBA) and later earned a Fulbright-funded MBA from the University of Minnesota, then taught business at BRAC University and ULAB alongside his media career.
He first broke out with the band Black before taking the harder road of a solo career and acting, a pivot that meant rebuilding the audience, juggling classrooms with shoots, and navigating very public scrutiny of his personal life.
Today his portfolio spans hit albums and screen roles (Chuye Dile Mon, Jodi Ekdin), UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador work, and prime-time hosting—most recently Family Feud Bangladesh—signaling a career that absorbed setbacks and kept compounding into broader impact.
Urfi Ahmad
Urfi Ahmad is a Bangladesh-based advertising and brand leader, now General Manager of VML Bangladesh after senior stints in telecom, notably as Brands & Communications Director at Banglalink.
He calls himself an “accidental adman,” and built range across advertising, broadcast, and telco while working in multiple markets including Malaysia, South Korea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan; earlier, he rose from Grey Bangladesh to an Asia-Pacific regional role.
The non-linear entry and cross-market moves meant navigating platform shifts, tight budgets, and fast-changing consumer behavior, often in public as a speaker and panelist.
Recent work spans launching VML in Bangladesh and directing brand initiatives at Banglalink, from major campaigns to partnerships such as Toffee x foodpanda. The throughline is an insight-driven approach that turns complex categories into clear communication and measurable brand lift.
