Today (Thursday) is the 6th death anniversary of the iconic economic journalist and founder-editor of The Financial Express (FE), A.H.M. Moazzem Hossain.
On August 01, 2018, he passed away at the age of 73.
He was one of the leading organisers of the FE, the country's first financial English daily that started its journey in 1993. He was also the publisher of the newspaper and Managing Director of the International Publications Limited (IPL), the owning company of the FE.
Late Moazzem Hossain started his career in journalism in 1971 as a reporter with the erstwhile Pakistan Observer, the now-defunct Bangladesh Observer.
Later, he worked with The New Nation, United News of Bangladesh (UNB), The Dhaka Courier, The Daily Star, and The Telegraph (now defunct).
After completing his post-graduation in Economics from Dhaka University, Moazzem Hossain worked with Habib Bank Limited, Karachi, Pakistan as an officer in the Training and Research Department; and with the Ministry of Finance of the then government of Pakistan, Islamabad, as a research officer.
He was a member of the management board of the Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB) from 1995 to 2001, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS), the national news agency, from 1997 to 2000.
Moazzem Hossain was the first president of the Economic Reporters Forum (ERF).
He was a member of the Board of Directors of Janata Bank, a nationalised commercial bank, for two consecutive terms.
He was a director of the Securities Trading Company Limited, a subsidiary of the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB), and an independent director of the Bay Leasing & Investment Ltd.
Mr Hossain was also an independent director of Southeast Bank Limited. He was a Fellow and, later on, a Senior Fellow of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).
He received the ERF Life Term Achievement Award in Economic Journalism, the Distinguished Professional Award for Journalism from the Mercantile Bank Limited, and the Nawab Bahadur Syed Nawab Ali Chowdhury National Award for Journalism.
Moazzem Hossain was a fellow of the Asia Foundation for inter-country comparative reporting in Singapore.
smjahangirfe@gmail.com