Latifur Rahman (businessman)

Latifur Rahman started his career as a trainee in 1966 in his family-owned jute mills in Chandpur District. He worked as an executive in the mills until 1971.[6] Latifur Rahman established Transcom Group in 1973[7] after W Rahman Jute Mills, the main earning source for his family, was nationalised in 1972.[8] In the 1980s, Latifur Rahman became the sole importer and distributor of Nestlé products in Bangladesh. In the 1990s, he bought Smith, Kline & French, a US-based pharmaceutical which had merged into Beecham Group, a British company, and renamed it Eskayef.[9]

Latifur Rahman was elected a member of the executive board of the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce for a three-year term in July 2014.[10] He served as the president of Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), Dhaka.[11]

Latifur Rahman served as the chairman of the following companies.[2]

• Oslo Business for Peace Award by Business for Peace Foundation (2012)[12][13][14]
• Business Executive of the Year by American Chamber of Commerce Bangladesh (2001)[2]
• A crest by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Dhaka (2012)[15]

Latifur Rahman was married to Shahnaz Rahman. Together they had three daughters, Simeen Hossain, Shazneen Rahman, and Shahzreh Huq, and a son, Arshad Waliur Rahman.[16] Simeen is a managing director of Eskayef Bangladesh Limited, Transcom Consumer Products Limited and Transcom Distribution Limited. Shazneen was killed at home in Gulshan, Dhaka in 1998 by their household domestic helpers.[17][18] Simeen's younger son, Faraaz Ayaaz Hossain, was killed in the 2016 Gulshan attack.[18][19]

Latifur Rahman died on 1 July 2020 at his residence at Chheora village in Chauddagram Upazila, Comilla aged 75.[4] He was buried at Banani Graveyard in Dhaka.[4]