Dr. Ahsan H. Mansur Governor, Bangladesh Bank
Dr. Ahsan H. Mansur, former Executive Director of Policy Research Institute (PRI), joined as the 13th Governor of Bangladesh Bank from 14 August 2024.
Dr. Mansur started his career in 1976 as a Lecturer of Economics at the University of Dhaka. In the same year, he left for Canada for higher studies in Economics. As a graduate student and research assistant, he also imparted regular Economics courses at the undergraduate level at the University of Western Ontario, Canada from 1978 to 1981. Dr. Mansur joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under its Economist Programme in 1981.
During his long career at the IMF, Dr. Mansur worked with Middle Eastern, Asian, African, and Central American countries. He worked in some important functional departments (Fiscal Affairs and Policy Review and Development departments) and area departments (the Middle East and Central Asia and Asian departments) of the IMF. He also served as the IMF Senior Resident Representative to Pakistan during 1998-2001 and as the Fiscal Advisor to the Minister of Finance, Government of Bangladesh (1989-91). During his assignment in Bangladesh, Dr. Mansur was involved with the successful introduction of Value Added Tax (VAT) in Bangladesh in 1991. He also served as the Division Chief of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Division and was, at the same time, the IMF Mission Chief for Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Oman. After taking early retirement, Dr. Mansur joined hands with some professionals to establish an institute for policy analysis and joined the Policy Research Institute (PRI) of Bangladesh as its founder Director and Executive Director. Meanwhile, between 2017 and 2023, he served BRAC Bank PLC as a Director and later on as the Chairman.
Dr. Mansur has published extensively in various prestigious journals (including Econometrica, Journal of Economic Theory, and IMF Staff Papers), edited books on special economic topics, and the IMF Occasional Paper and Working Paper series. He edited a book (with Fernando Delgado) on Stock Market Developments in the Countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, published by Palgrave Macmillan in its Finance and Capital Markets Series, November 2008.
Dr. Mansur received Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship in International Economics, awarded through an open worldwide competition, 1979–81; Special University Scholarship, University of Western Ontario, 1977–81; Graduate Students Award, University of Western Ontario, 1977–81; McMaster University Graduate Scholarship, 1976–77 and First Grade Merit Scholarship, University of Dhaka, 1970–75.
Dr. Mansur obtained a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Western Ontario, Canada in 1982. He completed his M.A. from McMaster University, Canada in 1977 and B.A. (Hons.) in Economics with first class and distinction in Math from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1974.