Minhaj Chowdhury
Minhaj Chowdhury is an American-Bangladeshi entrepreneur, healthcare innovator, researcher, and writer.[1] He is the co-founder and CEO of Drinkwell, which is an American-based social enterprise that provides safe drinking water solutions to underserved communities in South Asia.[2][3][4] He has received accolades from the U.S. Secretary of State,[5] Forbes, SXSW,[6] and Princeton Entrepreneurship Network.[7]
Biography
Early life and education
Chowdhury was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, where he completed his high school education.[8][9][10] In his senior year of high school, he noticed a shortage of extracurricular activities and took the initiative to create several clubs, one of which was ClubMed. This club was dedicated to students who were interested in pursuing public health in college.[11] He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University in 2011.[12][13]
Career
As a sophomore at the Public Health department of Johns Hopkins University, Minhaj Chowdhury developed his first initiative, the Clean Water for Peace Project, which took place in Bangladesh and won the Davis Projects for Peace in 2009.[11][14] The project distributed free water filters in villages near his paternal home village, and Minhaj later returned to Bangladesh as a Fulbright Scholar with BRAC in 2012 to scale the project.[7][15]
He often speaks at international conferences and events[16] on topics related to entrepreneurship, healthcare innovation, and on changing society.[17][18][19][20][21] Prior to Drinkwell, Minhaj worked as a consultant with Exeter Group, where he held roles in product development for state-based health insurance exchanges and project management.[6]
Drinkwell
In 2012, while attending a conference organized under the Fulbright Program in Kochi, Southwest India, Chowdhury met Indian technologist Arup K Sengupta, an Indian scholar who implemented a community-based arsenic-free water enterprise in West Bengal, India.[22][23] In 2013, Minhaj co-founded Drinkwell along with SenGupta.[24] The company blends locally sourced, cost-effective, scalable water purification technology with a market-driven franchise business.[11][25][26][27] Chowdhury's work at Drinkwell has been acclaimed by UNICEF, WaterAid Bangladesh, the U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh, and the Bangladesh Health Secretary, and serves as the basis for Drinkwell's growth strategy.[28] Drinkwell established a Public-Private Partnership with Dhaka WASA in 2017.[29] Furthermore, Drinkwell collaborated with Chittagong WASA in 2020 and also established water ATM booths in Rajshahi.[23][30]
Awards and recognition
- 2014 Echoing Green Fellowship[7]
- Muppies Featured Member of the month (March 2015)[31]
- Forbes 30 Under 30 - Social Entrepreneurs (2015)[12]
- Forbes 30 Under 30 - Asia - Social Entrepreneurs (2016)[12]
- GLG Social Impact Fellowship (2016)[32]
- 2017 Ashoka Fellowship[11][33]
- 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 Impact Challenge[34][35][36]
- 2022 U.S. Secretary of State’s Award for Corporate Excellence[37][38]
References
- ↑ Report, Star (2017-10-04). "Bangladeshi youth Minhaj Chowdhury wins Forbes award". The Daily Star. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ "30 Under 30 - Forbes. Minhaj Chowdhury". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ Toma, Glenda. "Drinkwell Wins $500,000 Under 30 Impact Challenge". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ "Ambassador Haas honours Bangladeshi winners of environmental, governance, HR awards". Dhaka Tribune. 2023-02-08. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ "US envoy honours Bangladeshi winners of Environmental, Governance, and Human Rights Awards". The Business Standard. 2023-02-08. Retrieved 2023-03-12.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Youth Delegates: Minhaj Chowdhury". UNICEF. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "Minhaj Chowdhury". Echoing Green Fellowship of the Columbia University. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ "Minhaj Chowdhury Started Drinkwell, a Water-Filtration Company That Could Save the World". Mic.com. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ Gardner, Mandy (2015-08-14). "SOCAP Conversations: Entrepreneur Minhaj Chowdhury on Overcoming Challenges in Social Impact Work". SOCAP Global. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ 胡雨濛. "Minhaj Chowdhury". China Daily. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 "Minhaj Chowdhury | Ashoka | Everyone a Changemaker". Ashoka. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 "Minhaj Chowdhury". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ "Future Startup Innovators Under 35 For 2016: Young People Shaping The Future Of Bangladesh". Startup. 2016-12-27. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ "Tell your friends: Hopkins students take course to design Facebook apps". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ Minhaj Chowdhury's company cleaning Up South Asia’s Arsenic Pollution With Thousands Of Money-Mak (fastcompany.com)
- ↑ "Simple, low-cost E. coli test wins MIT Water Innovation Prize". MIT News. Retrieved 2023-03-12.
The event’s two keynote speakers were Minhaj Chowdhury, co-founder and CEO of Drinkwell, a startup developing a nanotechnology-based resin platform that removes arsenic and fluoride from contaminated water, which is now being used by hundreds of thousands of villagers in rural India
- ↑ "Minhaj Chowdhury". Singapore International Water Week. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ "Minhaj Chowdhury". UNICEF. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ "World Water Week featuring Minhaj Chowdhury". www.worldwaterweek.org. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ "How women are providing fresh water in Bangladesh". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ Express, The Financial. "'Unilever BizMaestros-2018'". The Financial Express. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ "Minhaj Chowdhury's safe solution". China Daily. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 "Drinkwell: Quenching the thirst for clean water". The Business Standard. 2023-03-01. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ "Can these beads stop 'history's biggest mass poisoning'? Featuring Minhaj Chowdhury". BBC News. 2017-10-16. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ "A Franchise Business Model for Clean Water". GLG. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ "Minhaj Chowdhury's Drinkwell running safe water franchises in arsenic-hit India". Reuters. 2015-04-17. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ "Minhaj Chowdhury's Startup lets clean water flow". Boston Herald. 2014-05-25. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ "Minhaj Chowdhury's Drinkwell fixes an old water problem in Bangladesh". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ U.S. company delivers clean water in Bangladesh | ShareAmerica
- ↑ Mondira, Rasheek Tabassum (2021-02-15). "Catching up with Forbes 30 under 30 Honourees from Bangladesh". The Daily Star. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ "Bringing Safe Drinking Water to Bangladesh, A Full-Time Pursuit". Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ "Minhaj: We shouldn't panic, the arsenic issue is solvable". Dhaka Tribune. 2017-10-04. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ "Minhaj Chowdhury gets Ashoka Fellowship award | The Asian Age Online, Bangladesh". The Asian Age. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ "Bangladeshi wins Forbes' 'Under 30 Impact Challenge'". Dhaka Tribune. 2017-10-03. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ daily sun. "Bangladeshi wins Forbes' Under 30 Impact Challenge | Daily Sun". daily sun. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ Report, Star Online (2017-10-03). "Bangladeshi youth wins Forbes' 'Under 30 Impact Challenge'". The Daily Star. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ U.S. Ambassador Honors Bangladeshi Winners of Environmental, Governance, and Human Rights Awards - U.S. Embassy in Bangladesh (usembassy.gov)
- ↑ রিপোর্ট, স্টার অনলাইন (2023-02-09). "'ডিপার্টমেন্ট অব স্টেট অ্যাওয়ার্ড' বিজয়ী ৫ বাংলাদেশিকে সংবর্ধনা দিল মার্কিন দূতাবাস". The Daily Star Bangla. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
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