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; examples: strategy for a revered bank to double its business in 4 years in a highly competitive market; growth strategy for atelecom to monetize a $225M opportunity through a $40M investment. He advised multilateral organizations like the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, United Nations agencies on a wide variety of development programs; example: identified opportunities for financial services providers to incorporate sustainable climate change adaptation mechanisms. 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; example: calculated unmet need for financial services in emerging markets for World Economic Forum, designed new services. He advised government bodies in Bangladesh, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, India, Zambia on initiatives covering health, education and financial services to overcome systemic challenges and find innovative solutions; example: led a landmark study on Bangladesh’s digital payment ecosystem in 2016 for UNCDF & Bangladesh government. He also advised some of the leading NGOs in the world like BRAC, CARE, ActionAid with strategy, competitiveness, and innovation initiatives; example: designed a health insurance program for BRAC to reach 20 million customers sustainably, requiring launch of a new specialized insurance company. 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. He co-led Digital Ecosystem project, used scenarios to foresee how the Telecom, IT, and Media & Entertainment industries would evolve and converge in 10 years by engaging with industry leaders from Fortune-100 companies. He led Global Education Initiative to enhance access through digital technologies for over 1 million students in India and Palestine by bringing together partners like Governments of India and Palestine, Intel, and UNESCO. And he developed strategies for public sector and private sector entities to engage with SDGs using competitive business models that are profitable and inclusive, leading to several transformative initiatives in emerging markets. As a GLF, he also received specialized academic training from INSEAD, LSE, and Columbia University faculty.
Previously, he was a Consulting Manager with the Strategy & Transformation practice of Capgemini (Ernst & Young) between 2001 and 2006, where he contributed to assignments in Europe and North America. Notably, he supported the launch of a new government department, Service Canada, to provide seamless, single-window, citizen-centric services, and co-developed the transformation strategy of the European business of General Motors into a vehicle financing company.
Pial also 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 University), where he was a Mason Fellow.
Pial has been published internationally. His article on how e-commerce catalyzes women’s financial inclusion was ranked Top-10 in 2019 by the World Bank / CGAP. He presented a paper on innovations in digital merchant payments for small & medium businesses globally at an international conference jointly hosted by University of Oxford & London School of Economics in London in 2017. His paper titled Advancing Models for Financial Services was published by the World Economic Forum in Geneva in 2010. His paper titled Citizen-centric e-Government was published by the Kennedy School Review, Harvard University in 2007.
Pial has traveled extensively around the globe for work, including: United States, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Netherlands, Zambia, Tanzania, Singapore, China, UAE, Palestine, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal.
pi STRATEGY 