Mohammad Fakhrul Islam is the secretary general of the South Asia Initiative (SAI) and a board member. He is an educator, researcher, human rights activist, human rights defender, and writer with a strong focus on business, management, politics, governance, and policymaking.

Mr. Islam is doing his PhD at the Hungarian University of Agriculture & Life Sciences (MATE), Hungary. He is also working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Business Administration at Stamford University of Bangladesh. Before that, he served as a Lecturer at the Bangladesh University of Business & Technology (BUBT). He has ten years of active teaching experience. He has also been engaged in different universities as a visiting research fellow and adjunct fellow at home and abroad.  He did his MBA and BBA at the Department of Management at the Faculty of Business Studies, University of Rajshahi. He also received PGDHRM from the Bangladesh Institute of Management (BIM) and ABIA from the Bangladesh Insurance Academy (BIA).

Apart from the academic segment, Mr. Islam has demonstrated leadership skills and abilities in educational, social, community, and professional bodies. He has been working for human rights, defending democracy, combating corruption, and reshaping society for many years. He has been writing columns in national and international dailies. He worked for Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, Rotaract Club, Badhon (Voluntary blood donating organization), Shawjon Badhon (Voluntary blood donating organization) and other national and regional organizations with leading positions. He has a proven track record of engaging and managing different professional bodies. Mr. Islam was elected as Executive Council (EC) member for the year 2019-20 in the Institute of Personnel Management (IPM), Bangladesh. He is also actively engaged with leading HR professional bodies in Bangladesh like- Institute of Personnel Management (IPM) Bangladesh, Bangladesh Society for Human Resources Management (BSHRM), Bangladesh Society for Training & Development (BSTD), Bangladesh Organization for Learning & Development (BOLD), Alliance of Green HR Professionals Bangladesh, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) etc.