Durreen Shahnaz, an investment banker- and media executive-turned-Social Entrepreneur from Bangladesh, is the founder of Impact Investment Exchange Asia (IIX), the home of the world’s first social stock exchange and the world’s largest private placement platform for impact investing. Shahnaz also founded Shujog, the impact accelerator and knowledge platform for social enterprises in Asia and Africa. Shujog and IIX’s work has impacted lives of over 10 million people across Asia.

Shahnaz began her career at Morgan Stanley in New York City and worked at Grameen Bank, World Bank, Merrill Lynch, Hearst Magazines, and Reader’s Digest. She also Professor, conducted research on impact measurement and ran the Program for Social Innovation and Change at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. In addition, she founded, ran, and sold oneNest, a Social Enterprise and global marketplace for handmade goods which impacted lives of more than half million women across the world.

Shahnaz holds a BA from Smith College; a joint degree — MBA from the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania and MA from the School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Shahnaz is the 2014 recipient of the prestigious Joseph Wharton Social Impact award. Shahnaz is also an appointed member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Social Innovation and on the advisory board for CASE i3 at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. She is the Social Entrepreneur in Residence for INSEAD’s Social Entrepreneurship Catalyst Program. Shahnaz is also a TED speaker and a regular guest on Channel News Asia’s program ‘Views on News’ and BBC. Shahnaz serves as a Program Advisor for the Clinton Global Initiative and is on the Board of Advisor for National Book Development Council of Singapore’s Asian Festival of Children’s Content promoting Asian children’s literature across the globe.