Md. Nurul Islam

Nurul is a respected business leader with four decades of experience as a senior business executive of leading multinational companies and as co-founder and former president of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Bangladesh. During his long career as a high-level executive for MetLife and AIG, he maintained cordial relations with regulators and other government agencies in Bangladesh.  

Nurul retired as chairman of MetLife Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar in November 2019. In this position, he led and supported the Bangladesh and Nepal country managers to achieve their financial and strategic goals and oversaw MetLife’s Myanmar entry efforts. Nurul brings executive oversight experience of building a successful business in Nepal from its start-up phase, managing the complex mergers and acquisitions integration process of businesses in three countries and divesting an existing business in Pakistan. He demonstrated sound government relations skills during the company’s efforts to enter the Nepal and Myanmar life insurance markets when those were closed to foreign investors. His focused attention on integrity, teamwork, efficiency, digitization and customer and shareholder benefits resulted in solid business growth. 

Nurul was one of the founders of AmCham Bangladesh and served as vice president from 1996 to 2001 and president from 2015 to 2019. He played key roles in building the chamber’s membership, in the success of the annual U.S. trade show and in setting up AmCham’s permanent office in Dhaka. He also served on the executive committees of the Bangladesh Insurance Association, the Foreign Investors’ Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dhaka, and the Bangladesh Employers’ Federation.  

Nurul holds an MBA and a B.A. with honors in economics from the University of Dhaka. He attended several leadership development programs including a Harvard Business School Enterprise Leadership Program. He is a fellow of the Life Office Management Association’s Life Management Institute in Atlanta, Georgia.