Adnan Mahmud

Adnan Mahmud is a social entrepreneur with a passion for using technology to solve the world’s most pressing problems. As a child in Bangladesh, Mahmud witnessed some of the world’s most deplorable and inhumane living conditions firsthand, an experience that drives him in his mission to employ his passion for technology to create solutions to better society and improve lives.

To that end, in 2008 Mahmud co-founded Jolkona, a nonprofit technology start-up that aims to inspire the next generation of philanthropists and enable other nonprofits to make a greater impact through the use of Jolkona’s online micro-giving platform. He initially served as Jolkona’s CEO and currently serves as its director of research and development. Mahmud has been featured in media outlets including NPR, CNN Newsmakers, The Seattle Times and GeekWire, and is a frequent speaker at groups including Fulbright Scholars, University of Washington Social Entrepreneurship Club and Seattle Microfinance Organization. He also blogs and tweets regularly.

In addition to his tireless work at Jolkona, Mahmud is a program manager at Microsoft Research Asia, where he leads technology transfers out of Microsoft’s research lab in Beijing. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Angelo State University and a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Southern California.