bio

Pial Islam is a Harvard-educated strategist. He brings over 25 years global experience in Bangladesh, North America, Europe, Africa and South Asia, advising senior management in private, government and non-profit sectors with expertise encompassing policy, strategy, foresight, inclusive growth, innovation, and digital transformation. He has specialist-level skills in advising on transformative growth strategies for the financial sector, including financial inclusion, digital banking, product innovation, sustainable finance, and customer centricity. He also has differentiated skills in project management and accelerating fact-based decision making and planning across domains using highly structured consultative tools and processes.

Over the last 15 years since 2009, he has been leading a boutique strategy advisory firm in Bangladesh called pi STRATEGY. During this time, he led and successfully delivered over 25 engagements in private sector (in strategy, competitiveness, business model innovation) and 25 engagements in public and non-profit sectors (in policy, innovation, digital transformation). He crafted growth strategy for several financial, telecom, fintech, and retail sector clients. He advised multilateral organizations like the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, United Nations agencies on a wide variety of development programs. He advised foundations and think tanks like Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, World Economic Forum on several initiatives involving financial inclusion, gender equity and small businesses. He advised government bodies in Bangladesh, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, India, Zambia on initiatives covering health and financial services to identify innovative solutions to systemic challenges. He advised some of the leading NGOs in the world like BRAC, CARE, ActionAid with strategy, competitiveness, and innovation initiatives. Most recently, he led strategic planning for Bangladesh Bank’s Banking Sector Reform Taskforce, covering AQRs, new regulations, bank mergers after the 2024 July Revolution.

During 2007-2009, he was recruited as a Global Leadership Fellow by the World Economic Forum – the first from Bangladesh. With the Forum, he shaped global agenda on digital ecosystem, competitiveness, inclusive business models and led cross-industry projects such as the Digital Ecosystem project and Global Education Initiative, and he developed strategies for public sector and private sector entities to engage with SDGs using competitive business models that are profitable and inclusive.

During 2001-2006, he was a Consulting Manager with the Strategy & Transformation practice of Capgemini (Ernst & Young), where he contributed to assignments in Europe and North America. Prior to that Pial worked with a tech venture of Grameen Bank, launched the first web design studio in Bangladesh, consulted with PricewaterhouseCoopers, and worked as a Research Associate at the Harvard Business School. 

He has an undergrad in Computer Science (UManitoba), an MBA (UBC), and an MPA (Harvard), where he was a Mason Fellow. Pial has been published internationally by World Bank, World Economic Forum, University of Oxford, London School of Economics, and Harvard University.