Shameran Abed is Executive Director of BRAC International and oversees all of BRAC’s programmatic work outside Bangladesh. Shameran joined BRAC in 2009 and has been instrumental in bringing its flagship programmes of microfinance and ultra-poor graduation to global scale. Under his leadership, BRAC’s microfinance portfolio saw impressive growth and a renewed focus on client impact. Since 2016, Shameran also led BRAC’s ultra-poor graduation work and played an instrumental role in setting up the Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative at BRAC International to spearhead global advocacy and support the scaling of Graduation through partnering with governments. In 2021, Shameran took over as Executive Director of BRAC International, which manages BRAC’s rapidly scaling programmes in 13 countries in Asia and Africa. Shameran has significant experience on non-profit and corporate boards. Currently, he chairs the board of bKash, BRAC Bank’s mobile financial services subsidiary and one of the world’s largest mobile money providers, as well as several other boards. Shameran holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Hamilton College in the United States and is a qualified Barrister in the UK.