Zahadul Arafin | Deputy Director & Head of Emerging Segment
Grameenphone

Zahadul Arafin is Deputy Director and Head of Emerging Segment at Grameenphone, where he leads the company's strategy and business development for the emerging and SME segment. He is responsible for driving growth through new business development, strategic partnerships, product innovation, and digital solutions that support enterprise customers across Bangladesh.

He has more than 16 years of experience spanning telecommunications, digital financial services, e-commerce, payments, logistics, and business strategy. Throughout his career, he has led the development and launch of digital products and platforms that have expanded customer access to digital commerce and financial services while supporting Grameenphone's broader digital transformation agenda.

Since joining Grameenphone in 2015, Zahadul has held a series of leadership roles across the company's business division. His responsibilities have included leading emerging and SME business development, e-commerce and logistics, digital financial services, business partnerships, and strategic initiatives. During this time, he has overseen the development of digital commerce platforms, logistics solutions, merchant payment services, and new partnership models designed to accelerate business growth.

Before Grameenphone, Zahadul spent nearly four years at bKash, where he managed mobile commerce initiatives supporting the growth of Bangladesh's leading mobile financial services platform. Earlier, he held business development and product leadership roles at Citycell (Pacific Bangladesh Telecom), where he led the launch of several pioneering mobile financial services, including mobile banking, mobile payments, remittance, e-ticketing, and location-based services, while working closely with banks, regulators, technology vendors, and government agencies.

Zahadul holds an MBA in Marketing from the Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka, and completed the Strategy Execution Programme at INSEAD. He combines expertise in digital business development, strategic partnerships, digital financial services, e-commerce, and product innovation, with a strong focus on creating new revenue opportunities through technology-enabled business transformation.