Iqbal Z. Quadir, founder and director of the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is often credited as the earliest observer of the potential for mobile phones to transform low-income countries. In 1994, Quadir started a New York-based company named Gonofone (Bengali for 'phones for the masses'), which later became the launch-pad for GrameenPhone, which now provides mobile phone access to over 100 million people. From 2001-2005 at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Quadir taught about how technologies that empower ordinary citizens in low-income countries are the key to their democratic and economic progress. He received an MBA and an MA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a BS from Swarthmore College.

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