Meet The Mati Team
Mati Advisory Team
Dr. Md. Akhtaruzzaman Khan
Advisor – Sustainable Agriculture
Dr. Md. Akhtaruzzaman Khan is a professor of Agricultural Finance and Banking in the Faculty of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology in Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh. He has completed his PhD in Economics at Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway after completing his Masters in Agricultural Economics from Bangladesh Agricultural Economics. Professionally besides teaching he has conducted a handsome number of researches in the area of Food security and poverty reduction through sustainable resource management, Fisheries and livestock economics and management, Market, supply and value chain analysis and financial management in agriculture, Resource and Environmental Economics etc. He has been closely working with Mati in doing collaborative academic research works in the field of sustainable agriculture as well as conducting study, assessment and evaluation of different projects of Mati.
Dr. Jörg Hartmut Wahl
Advisor – Health & Wellbeing
Dr. Jörg Hartmut Wahl is a German doctor from Freiburg, Germany. He studied Medicine at Freiburg im Breisgau during 1980 to 1987. He has got additional Training in psychotherapy (PBSP) during 2013 to 2015 with Albert Pesso. Professionally he is experienced in Oncology, Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, General Medicine and Primary Health Care. He has been working as Physician (general medicine) in Germany since 1987. He was self-employed in family practice during 1995 to 2018. Currently he is working on Emergency medicine, CORONA outpatient clinics, psychotherapy in Freiburg, Germany. He has been engaged with Mati since 2010 and supported to develop the health service system of Mati by providing technical advisory support and by facilitating training workshops on Primary Health Care, Basic Medicine etc. for the Mati’s health staff.
Dr. Judith Bopp
Advisor – Climate Change & Organic Agriculture
Dr. Judith Bopp has worked on organic agriculture movements across South and Southeast Asia since 2012. She received her PhD in Cultural Geography from University of Cologne, Germany, in 2016, with her project “New momentum to Bangkok’s organic food movement”. As a postdoctoral fellow for the Indo-German Centre for Sustainability (IGCS) at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM), Chennai, India, she conducted research on organic farming in the context of small-holders livelihoods and climate change adaptation in South India. She currently works on “Organic farming practices and household resilience in rural Bangladesh” in collaboration with MATI Bangladesh, including an explorative field research. At present, she is a research assistant at the Vechta Institute of Sustainability Transformation in Rural Areas (VISTRA) at University of Vechta, Germany. She has done desk research for Greenpeace Southeast Asia, and was an intern at NGO Agro Sans Frontières.
Senior Management Team
Sayed Akhlakur Rahman (Lenen Rahaman)
Executive Director
Mr. Lenen Rahman studied civil engineering, specialized in environmental engineering, in the University of Mainz, Germany. He has got Multidimensional expertise in development sector and specialized in innovative program idea generation for poverty alleviation. He is experienced in conducting international research on multidimensional poverty. He is especially skilled in coordination, communication, mentoring, counselling etc. He is fluent in speaking German, Bangla, Hindi, Urdu and English language. Because of his passion and personal conviction he, along with a few friends and well-wishers, formed the voluntary development organization name MATI NGO in Bangladesh and MATI e.V, in Germany in order to respond to support the underprivileged people of Bangladesh for their self-defined sustainable development. Since the inception of Mati in 1998 he has been leading the organization from the front shouldering the role and responsibilities of Executive Director and General Secretary of the organization.
Dr. Anika Tahsin Khan
Director – Project Development
She is academically a doctor and has completed her M.B.B.S under Chittagong University and M.P.H degree in Health Management and Development. She is a passionate public health professional with 7 years of experience of project management in facilitating and providing administrative support for sustainable development projects encompassing community mobilization. She is expert in improvisation of community mobilization, disseminating project information to project stakeholders, monitoring and evaluation, field research, capacity building as well as planning and implementing community-based projects.
Shireen Akhter
Director-Education & Training
Ms. Shireen Akhter is an education specialist having excellent skills and long experiences in teaching, training and conducting research. She studied MA in English in the University of Dhaka, 1 Year Diploma Course in Business English from S.P.E.E.D and LILAC (Language In Learning Across the Curriculum) in Australia. She completed her Cambridge International Diploma on Teachers and Trainers (CIDTT) with Distinction in Assessment module, from the University of Cambridge with a specific focus in Design, Practice, Assessment and Evaluation. She has got in depth knowledge about the theoretical and practical aspects of planning and preparation of lessons, teaching and learning in action, assessment progress and achievement, improving teaching and learning, with a particular focus on real classroom teaching for a mixed learners group with modern effective teaching techniques. She is experienced in preparing PROFESSIONALS at international levels. Worked as a class teacher from 1997 to 2006 and was directly involved in Curriculum Development Unit. Also worked in Book- Review unit. She served at BRAC University as a Senior Faculty Development Specialist at PDC (Professional Development Centre) and developed a Policy for the STUDENTS with SPECIAL NEEDS for BRAC University at international level. She has also been working in BRITISH COUNCIL as a part timer. She has done a certificate course on IB ( international Baccalaureate) learning and teaching from IB center, Uk.
Md. Shahidul Islam
Director- Organizational Development
He is basically an agriculturist and specialized in sustainable agriculture, sustainable livelihood, food security, value chain of organic products, gender and climate change issues. He has more than 20 years of professional experiences in the fields of Research (both qualitative and quantitative), conduct baseline study, project evaluation etc. on various sectors i.e. Sustainable Agriculture, Organic/Ecological Agriculture, Food Security, Sustainable Livelihood, Farmer Rights, Corporate Globalization & peasants’ rights, Agriculture & Climate Change etc. He has written a good number of articles, books, booklets, policy briefs, keynote papers on the aforesaid issues. He has in-depth knowledge on national policies related to Agriculture, Food security & environment and budget framework; international policy instruments like SDGs, universal declaration of human rights, agriculture & food trade related global policies like WTO’s AoA, TRIPS, as well as participated in national & international level advocacy & campaign on the issues.
Muhammad Shazzat Hossain
Director- Business Development
He is basically a business development expert. After completing his Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting under National University in Bangladesh, he has conducted BBA from the Neasden College, UK and MBA from University of Wales, Institute of Cardiff, UK. During the study he did part-time jobs in different positions in different business organization at UK from where he has gained lots of experiences in different sectors. After that he has been working in different organizations both at home and abroad in different positions from entry level to senior management level. Throughout the career, he has got huge knowledge and excellent interpersonal skills & competencies in the field of Marketing, Buying, Product Sourcing, Business Administration, Business Planning, Business Operation, Accounting and Customer Service. He has also got excellent Computing & Communication skills.
