Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury has been named President of the COSMOS Foundation, the philanthropic arm of COSMOS Group. He will assume the position, which is an honorary one, with immediate effect.

Dr Chowdhury, who resides in Singapore, is the Principal Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) at the National University of Singapore. He has been associated with that prestigious think-tank since April 2009.

At ISAS, he leads research on Multilateral Institutions and International Linkages. An internationally reputed analyst, he has published numerous articles and a number of books on subjects such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organization, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. He has also taught diplomacy at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore and lectured at universities and think-tanks in the US, the UK, France, Australia, the Gulf States and South East Asia. He holds MA and PhD degrees in International Relations from the Australian National University.

Dr Chowdhury had been Foreign Advisor in a Bangladesh Caretaker Government. He had also served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN and WTO, and has also been Special Advisor to the Secretary General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). He had been elected Chair of a number of significant UN committees, and has been a recipient of international awards and distinctions.

He and his late wife, Nicole Sherin Chowdhury, have one daughter, Naureen Chowdhury Fink, who is a Senior Advisor at the UK Mission to the UN in New York. n