Tamara Hasan Abed is the Managing Director of BRAC Enterprises, heading BRAC’s portfolio of eleven social enterprises in craft retail, dairy, seed, fisheries, healthcare, and others. Tamara is Chair of the Board of Trustees of BRAC University and sits on multiple boards of various BRAC investments.
Ms. Abed brings with her extensive experience in investment banking, entrepreneurship, and social enterprise, with a career spanning three decades. She is passionate about driving value-based business models, operating at the intersection of social good, sustainable business, and inclusive growth.
Under her leadership, Aarong – Bangladesh’s iconic fashion and lifestyle retail brand – has experienced unprecedented growth, becoming a symbol of cultural heritage, ethical sourcing, and fair trade. Ms. Abed has empowered thousands of artisans, particularly women, by preserving traditional crafts and creating sustainable economic opportunities.
Ms. Abed began her career in investment banking in 1995, at Peregrine Capital Ltd, and later worked for Goldman Sachs in Mergers and Strategic Advisory. She has been with BRAC since 2002.
Ms. Abed was honored by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2010. She received the Outstanding Women Leadership Award from the World Women Leadership Congress in 2014. Ms. Abed also received the award for CEO/MD of the Year, Social Business, at the first ever Bangladesh C-Suite Awards 2022.
She has an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School and a BSc (Honors) in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Ms. Abed also did an executive course on Transformational Leadership at Oxford University’s Said Business School.
Through her passionate commitment to ethical innovation, inclusive growth, and cultural preservation, Ms. Abed remains an influential role model in social entrepreneurship and development.
