Shish Haider Chowdhury

Shish Haider Chowdhury is secretary of the Information and Communication Technology Division of the Muhammad Yunus led interim government.^[1][2] He is the chairperson of Startup Bangladesh Limited.^[3] He is a former member of the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission under chairman Ahmed Munirus Saleheen.^[4]

Early life

Chowdhury earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in accounting from the University of Dhaka.^[5] He completed an MBA at the Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka.^[5] He completed a Masters in Public Economic Management and Finance at the University of Birmingham.^[5] He finished the National Defence Course at the National Defence College.^[5]

Career

Chowdhury joined the 9th batch of the Bangladesh Civil Service on 26 January 1991 as an Audit and Accounts Cadre.^[5] He is a faculty member of the Institute of Business Administration, Jahangirnagar University.^[5] From 1997 to 2002, he worked at the International Jute Organisation on deputation from the government of Bangladesh.^[5]

In 2016, Chowdhury was elected general secretary of the Dhaka University Accounting Alumni Association.^[6] Chowdhury was a director of the Central Procurement Technical Unit.^[7] He is a faculty member of East West University and the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development of BRAC University.^[8][9]

Following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government, Chowdhury was appointed secretary of the Information and Communication Technology Division replacing Md Shamsul Arefin.^[10][11] A murder case was filed against Arefin over the death of a protestor against former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.^[12] He was made an officer on special duty.^[12][13] He was a member, in the rank of additional secretary, of the International Cooperation Division of the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission under chairman Ahmed Munirus Saleheen.^[10][4] He stated that the government would repeal the Cyber Security Act.^[14]