Irfan Alam, entrepreneurship and Innovation enthusiast is a serial entrepreneur. He took the first step towards entrepreneurship when he was as young as 13 and started stock market analysis and founded a portfolio management firm. Later after his college he won a famous Indian TV reality show, Business Baazigar on ZEE TV. The show aimed to find people with innovative business ideas and this is where his flagship organization Sammaan first came into existence.
Irfan, at present, serves as the Founder and Chairman of Sammaan Foundation, a non-profit Indian company, which organizes the rickshaw-pulling sector. His rickshaw/cart financial inclusion model has been widely acclaimed and adopted by the Government of Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh in India. Sammaan is also a leading primary and emergency ambulance service provider in India.
Being a social entrepreneur Irfan has been globally recognized as expert on social entrepreneurship and turning corporate social responsibilities into lucrative socially relevant business opportunities. His journey of social entrepreneurship has recently been chosen as case by springer publication, New York for a book on social entrepreneurship and Kerala Government have introduced a chapter on Irfan’s life in 12th standard English text book.
A Fulbright, Ford and TED fellow, Irfan is CNBC Young Turk and CNN Young Indian Leader award winner. He has been widely covered by the Economist, Fortune etc. for social innovation at the bottom of the pyramid and entrepreneurship.
Irfan graduated from Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University in Master of Public Administration on Fulbright scholarship and he was also Edward S. Mason fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Currently Irfan is member Advisory council, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. Irfan also served as the founding chair of CII Yi Patna chapter and Indo American Chamber of Commerce, Patna Chapter. He is also Chairing CII Bihar (ER) sub committee on “Startups & Innovation”. Irfan dreams to make entrepreneurship a revolution in India and also working on different initiatives to mobilize youths of India towards Entrepreneurship & Innovation. He has been mentoring number of students from IITs/IIMs and Ivy Leagues.