Mahdi Amin

Mahdi Amin (born 30 June 1986) is a Bangladeshi businessman, and politician, who has been serving as an adviser to Tarique Rahman, the acting chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, since 2014.^[1][2][3] A former researcher at the University of Cambridge,^[4] Amin has leveraged his expertise in politics and public policy in shaping the BNP’s policy positions and reform agendas. He rose to prominence as a key policy adviser and spokesperson for the BNP after the Student-People's Uprising in 2024. Amin is known for his involvement in formulating the BNP’s 31-point reform plan and for advocating issues like youth empowerment, environmental protection, and democratic governance in Bangladesh. He is also the Deputy Managing Director of Comfort Group of Industries.^[5]

Mahdi Amin was born on 30 June 1986 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. His father, Muhammad Ruhul Amin, is an entrepreneur and investor, and his mother, Salma Amin, is a homemaker. Amin's maternal grandfather, Abdul Awal, was a politician and the founding president of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in Comilla.^[6]

Amin attended Dhanmondi Government Boys School and Dhaka College for his secondary and higher secondary education, respectively. He attended Middlesex University, earning a Bachelor of Arts in business administration and graduating first in his program.^[7] He also attended the London School of Economics and City University of New York, where he respectively earned a specialisation certificate in the political economy of public policy and participated in an exchange program.^[8]

In 2010, Amin earned his MPhil in South Asian studies from the University of Cambridge, where he also published a book on India's rise as a research and development hub.^[7] His supervisors were Jaideep Prabhu and Sir Christopher Bayly. The same year he began a PhD at the Judge Business School.

Amin is the founder and president of the University of Cambridge-based think-tank Bangladesh Policy Forum Cambridge, with affiliate bodies in the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, Finland, and Bangladesh.

Amin has worked with a range of international companies as part of his consultancy practice, including Alive Products Limited, Audio Analytic, British Telecom Group, Contact Field Marketing, IBM Corporation, Jaguar Land Rover Automotive, London Legacy Development Corporation, Primavera Gallery, Radical Sportscars, Westfield Group, and Wellcome Trust.^[4]

Amin's formal entry into politics began in 2011 during his second year at Cambridge, when he started working with Tarique Rahman on policy-making initiatives, particularly in the education sector.^[1] On 15 August 2014, he was officially named the education and research adviser to Tarique Rahman, who was then the senior vice chair of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.^[8] The announcement generated widespread media attention as it was the first time Tarique Rahman had appointed an adviser.^[9] In this role, Amin has focused on research and political opportunities for Bangladeshi youth.

In July 2013, Bangladesh Policy Forum Cambridge, founded and presided over by Amin, published The Political Thought of Tarique Rahman: Empowerment of the Grassroots People.^[10] Amin also scripted a 40-minute film promoting Rahman's life and accomplishments.^[11]

Through the programmes organised by Bangladesh Policy Forum Cambridge, Mahdi Amin has actively engaged with a number of politicians, academics, journalists, and bureaucrats, including New York State Senator Jose Peralta; US Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York City; Mayor Vincent Mazzeo of Northfield; Mayor Dr Felix Roque of West New York, New Jersey; Canadian Minister of Research and Innovation Glen Murray; Mitzie Hunter MP; Australian MP Mehreen Faruqi, John Dowd AO QC AO QC; Chrystia Freeland, former editor of the Financial Times; David Nicholson, and a journalist from The Guardian and Daily Telegraph.^{[12][13][14][15]}