Bio – Enayetullah Khan

ENAYETULLAH
KHAN

Enayetullah Khan is a Bangladeshi entrepreneur, author, journalist and patron of the arts.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Founder and Managing Director of Cosmos Group, which incorporates over a dozen companies operating at home and abroad. As a media entrepreneur Enayetullah Khan established the United News of Bangladesh (UNB), the first fully digitalized wire service in South Asia and is the founding editor of the ‘Dhaka Courier’, an independent newsweekly.

Early life & Education

Enayetullah Khan was born in 1953 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is the father of M Masud Khan and Shamsun Nahar Khan. His grandfather Amanat Khan was a prominent member of Chittagong society. Amanat Khan’s philanthropic activities in the education sector convinced the British to appoint him as one of the first Muslim members of the Legislative Assembly, despite being active in the independence-minded Swaraj Party.

Enayetullah Khan did his Masters in Mass Communication and Journalism from the University of Dhaka in 1975. Thereafter he taught briefly at the same department before leaving to start his business career.


The Cosmos Group

Amanat Khan, as an active trader by the standards of the market, maintained strong interests in the shipping industry as well; so it came as no surprise when he was appointed as the first chairman of the Chittagong Port Authority. This winning combination of visionary leadership, social commitment, and targeted philanthropy has formed the cornerstone of the Cosmos Group’s moral blueprint

>He was the grandfather of the present group CEO of Cosmos, Enayetullah Khan. The thread laid down by the late Amanat Khan allowed the nascent Cosmos Group to expand.

Although the formal commencement of operations began in 1973 for Cosmos Group, it can be fairly said that its earliest roots of existence date back to the early 20th century.

With its humble beginnings in the trading industry with shipping interests, the formation of Cosmos Group coincided with that of Bangladesh. In less than four decades, Cosmos has grown into a large conglomerate with a substantial presence in multiple sectors, namely Oil & Gas, mining, telecommunications, instrumentation, shipping & logistics, media, manufacturing, and trading. As a rising Bangladeshi conglomerate, Cosmos Group is steadily leaving a gradually-expanding footprint globally.

In line with attaining a truly international outlook, personnel development remains an integral commitment to the group’s corporate vision and positioning Cosmos as a heavyweight corporate organization.

At the heart of this vision is an unshakable faith in Technology for Empowerment (TFE); serving as an unprecedented force for delivering a level playing field in global commerce.


Author

Apart from his entrepreneurial career, he is passionate about promoting and preserving Bangladesh’s history and heritage. He is also involved in environmentalism centering the Royal Bengal Tiger and is an avid promoter of art and music. These passions have most frequently found expression in the form of books he has either authored or co-authored.

Bangladesh: Splendours of the Past(2001), Khan’s first book, shines a light on Bangladesh’s archeological heritage and is notable for its exploration of Wari-Batteshwar.

His next book remains his most important, a paean to The Bangladesh Sundarbans (2011), that is as much about its most famous resident, the majestic Royal Bengal Tiger, as the bewitching mangrove landscape of the forest. Khan chairs a wildlife conservancy that has done important work to save tigers.

Khan’s third book, Boats: A Treasure of Bangladesh (2014) co-authored with French sailing enthusiast and naval architect Yves Marre, is another labour of love, a lament ruing the dying art of boat making in Bangladesh.

Art and Gallery Cosmos

In 2009, Enayetullah Khan established Cosmos-Atelier71, an integral part of the artistic vision Cosmos seeks to serve in the form of a printmaking studio housing state-of-the-art equipment that is extremely rare in Bangladesh. Till now Cosmos-Atelier71 has succeeded in helping Bangladeshi artists in exploring their creativity, exchange artworks and work alongside international artists for greater exposure.

He also established Gallery Cosmos which is a contemporary art space that aims to facilitate creative interventions and collaborations among Bangladesh’s growing band of young artists who are pushing the boundaries of our conception of art, as well as established luminaries.

‘Proin gravida nibh vel velit auctor aliquet. Aenean sollicitudin, lorem quis bibendum auctor, nisi elit consequat ipsum, nec sagittis.’

- Enayetullah Khan