With immense dedication and commitment BRAC Business School (BBS), BRAC University, Bangladesh, has proudly established a new milestone by hosting the 1st International Conference on Business and Management (ICBM 2017). Sir Fazle Hasan Abed KCMG, the chief patron, inaugurated ICBM 2017 by his statement. Sir Abed KCMG, welcomed the initiative of organizing the conference and encouraged to continue this kind of initiatives in the future with accolade.

The Honorary General Chair of ICBM 2017, Prof. Syed Saad Andaleeb, PhD. , the General Chair Prof. Dr. Iftekhar Ghani Chowdhury, the Program Chair Assoc. Prof. Dr. Md. Mamun Habib, three Keynote speakers, Prof. Dr. Mark GOH [NUS, Singapore], Prof. Dr. Premkumar Rajagopal [MUST, Malaysia] and Dr. Pairach Piboonrungroj [Chang Mai University, Thailand] graced the inaugural session on September 21, 2017 at the hotel Westin, Dhaka.

The Honorary General Chair, Prof. Syed Saad Andaleeb, PhD. talked about the importance of research for the improvisation of academic standard. He drew the significance of research work and added that Bangladesh should open more research-based universities for the development of tertiary education in the country. Prof. Andaleeb exemplified the perseverance of the faculty members of research universities in California to publish their work in reputed journals. He also proclaimed that for research supremacy Asian universities are becoming the next superpowers with Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong already being in the competition. The General Chair, Prof. Dr. Iftekhar Ghani Chowdhury, referred to the pivotal role of such conferences in the development of quality education and thanked BRAC Business School for successfully organizing such an international conference with massive participation from local as well as international.

The Program Chair, Dr. Md. Mamun Habib, the initiator of the conference as well, addressed that how an international conference contributes to international integration and building strong networks. This conference is a parameter to measure the research quality and education standard of our country in the international arena, he added. Prof. Habib urged that the students would be motivated after attending this conference in order to pursue further research based study. In addition, he hoped that this will unlock a new era of research in Bangladesh.

Dr. Habib appreciated the dedication and hard work of the conference secretariat, Mr. Zaheed Husein Mohammad, Mr. N M Baki Billah, Mr. Saif Hossain and Mr. Shamim Ahmed. He also admired the organizing committee members, namely Mr. Hasan Maksud Chowdhury, Mr. Riyashad Ahmed, Dr. Suman Paul Chowdhury and so on. He also thanked the volunteers for their fervent pro-activeness and devotion to organize the conference successfully. Finally, Prof. Habib expressed his special gratitude to the sponsors, particularly platinum sponsor (BRAC Bank), gold sponsor (FSIB), silver sponsors (UCB, BBS Cables, Abdul Monem Group, Bkash), supporting sponsors (Islami Bank, Dhaka Bank, IDLC, Aarang) and hospitality partner, The Westin.

The Vice-Chancellor and Pro-VC of various universities as well as corporate, namely Ms. Zara Mahbub (V.P, BRAC Bank), graced the conference ceremony. Among them from BRAC University, Prof. Dr. Hafiz G A Siddiqi, Dr. Akbar Ali Khan, Dr. Mirza Azizul Islam and Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed made an immense contribution in the conference. Mr. Shib Narayan Kairy, Registrar (a.i.), Mr. Monojit Kumar Ojha, FCA, Director of Finance, Mr. Md. Nurul Islam Bulbul, Senior Assistant Director, Admin; Ms. Ismat Shereen, Head of RMO, Ms. Sophia Najma Chaudhury, Communication Dept. and others were attended. A good number of foreign delegates’ participation from various countries, including India, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Sweden, USA, China and so on, enlighten and signify the conference in an international manner.
There are various international universities, namely University of Texas, Arlington (UTA),USA; University of Kuala Lumpur (UniKL), Malaysia University of Science and Technology (MUST), Chiang Mai University, Thailand; Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM, Malaysia), extended their partnership with ICBM 2017.

Ms. Adiba Naoshin, BBS faculty member, played the role of Master of Ceremonies and welcomed all the guests, session chairs, presenters, participants and the keynote speakers. Being unable to attend physically, on behalf of Sir Fazle Hasan Abed KCMG, the inauguration statement was read by Shamma Nafisa, a BBS student of BRAC University, Bangladesh.