Renowned businessman Latifur Rahman started his career in 1966 as an intern in his family-owned jute mills in Chandpur district. He worked as an executive in the mills until 1971.
He studied at St. Francis School and then at St. Edmund’s School in Shillong, India. He was a student of Saint Xavier’s College in Kolkata. In 1965, he returned to Dhaka and the next year joined W Rahman Jute Mill as a trainee.
Latifur Rahman was born in Jalpaiguri, India on 28 August 1945. In his early years, he lived in Gandaria, Dhaka.
Renowned businessman and Transcom Group Chairman Latifur Rahman, 75, passed away in his sleep at 11 am yesterday.
The iconic figure breathed his last at his village home in Cheora of Chauddagram upazila, Comilla.
Latifur Rahman is an honouree of Oslo Business for Peace Award 2012, an award akin to the Nobel in the business sector. Over 10,000 people are employed at his Transcom Group.
He established Transcom Group in 1973 after W Rahman Jute Mills, the major earning source for the Rahman family, was nationalized in 1972. In the 1980s, Rahman became the sole importer and distributor of Nestlé products in Bangladesh. In the 1990s, he bought Smith, Kline & French, a US-based pharmaceutical, later known as Eskayef.
The Transcom Group is one of the largest business conglomerates in Bangladesh. The companies under the conglomerate include Eskayef Pharmaceutical, Transcom Beverages, Transcom Distribution Co., Transcom Foods, Transcom Electronics, Transcom Consumer Products, Bangladesh Lamps, Transcom Cables, Tea Holdings, Transcraft Ltd, and Bangladesh Electrical Industries Limited.
The annual turnover of Transcom Group, which has over 13,000 staff, is around Tk3,900 crore.
Transcom is also a major stakeholder of Reliance Insurance Limited, National Housing Finance and Investments Limited, IDLC Finance Limited and Pubali Bank Limited.
Latifur is best known for his simplicity, honesty, and good demeanour.
He rose to the highest position through establishing scores of business entities by dint of his hard work, innovative business plans, and farsightedness, recalls ICC Bangladesh President Mahbubur Rahman.
Admirable leadership and Awards:
Latifur Rahman was a former president of Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dhaka (MCCI), a position he held for seven terms. He was also a member of the Governing Body of Brac and a former president of the Bangladesh Employers’ Federation.
He was Vice-President of International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Bangladesh.
Rahman was also chairman of the Bangladesh government’s Trade Body Reforms Committee and a member of Bangladesh Bank’s board of directors.
He has also been honoured with the “SAARC Outstanding Leader” award and a Lifetime Achievement Award which was presented by the UK Bangladesh Catalysts of Commerce and Industry.
Rahman is an honoree of “Oslo Business for Peace Award 2012” and he was awarded Business Executive of the Year 2001 by the American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh.
