ENGR. REZAUL KARIM
Chairman
ENGR. REZAUL KARIM
Chairman
Engr. Rezaul Karim is a Mechanical Engineering graduate from BUET, batch of 1970. Soon after his graduation, the country experienced political upheaval leading to 25th March, 1971 and the liberation war. After independence, Engr. Rezaul Karim embarked upon a business journey to manufacture a wide range of import substitute engineering products for BADC, BPDB, BWDB and other Govt. agencies, who were then busy reconstructing our war torn nation. Soon Engr. Rezaul Karim established a name for himself amongst all professionals, end users and peers. He moved from Tetulia to Teknaf, tracking the whole country trying to understand the development needs of emerging Bangladesh. He then designed, developed and manufactured products after products to meet the needs of this emerging nation.
With this humble beginning, Engr. Rezaul Karim embarked onto yet another industrial venture which no one could even conceive in the late 80s - cement. He organized a group of entrepreneurs with engineering and successful business backgrounds, and spearheaded the inception of the cement industry in 1992. Hence, Confidence Cement Ltd. became the pathfinder of all cement industries in Bangladesh. Today Confidence Cement Ltd. has gone onto establishing its third unit with an annual production capacity of 1.5 million tons. Soon after this was achieved, his leadership and vision motivated Confidence Group to organize a team to set up yet another new cement industry around Dhaka with a target production capacity of 1.5 million tons.
From 1972 till date, Engr. Rezaul Karim has relentlessly created new industrial ventures one after another. He pioneered import substitute industries and manufactured engineering products and service products to name a few. He established the largest Steel Fabrication Industry with the biggest Galvanization Facility in Bangladesh, producing all types of galvanized steel power distribution poles. He also established the largest manufacturing facility of electrical power transmission towers & telecom towers, Pre-oppressed Concrete Poles for power distribution, all types of electrical power distribution accessories, all types of electrical power transformers, all types of screws and fasteners, Steel Bridges, Prefabricated Steel Building, handling turnkey Infrastructure Projects, River Dredging Operations with own imported high-tech dredgers from Denmark, IGX Telecom Gateway Operations, industrial and Marine paints under joint venture with Asian Paints (Bangladesh) Ltd., and the list shall continue to grow. Confidence Group has further added laurels to its hat by implementing 4 major turn-key power generation projects on BOO basis, totalling 400 MW, located in Chottogram, Bogura and Rangpur. Upon its full implementation, Confidence Group shall join the prestigious league of businesses with annual turnover exceeding 500 million!
MR. IMRAN KARIM
Vice Chairman
MR. IMRAN KARIM
Vice Chairman
A visionary entrepreneur at core, Mr. Imran Karim completed his Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering and his Bachelor of Arts in Economics in 2003 from the University of Rochester. During this time, he was involved in an organization called the “Who's Who of United States” that comprises of the top 0.5% of all university students in USA. Subsequently, Mr. Imran Karim joined Confidence Group in 2003 as the Director of Confidence Cement Ltd. However, his first endeavor wasn't a successful one. Nevertheless, he did not yield in the face of an early failure, rather enjoying and valuing it for the lessons; eventually taking over the business development of Confidence Steel Ltd.
In 2006, under his guidance, Confidence Steel started producing telecom towers and within the same year, became the market leader. Currently, Confidence Steel Ltd has almost 70% of the market share in both transmission towers and telecom towers. After his first successful endeavor, he decided to expand into other sectors and with Confidence Group, in alliance with Energypac, opened an 11 MW power plant in 2009, followed by a 108 MW power plant in 2015. Currently under Confidence Power Holdings Ltd. the group is developing 400MW of power plants.
In 2012 Confidence Group entered the telecommunication market, under the name Digicon Telecommunication. Under his leadership, Digicon took a lead role in the formation of International Gateway Operators' Forum (IOF), and made the sector profitable for everyone. Later, Confidence Group also ventured into battery manufacturing, quickly becoming a market leader in the industry. He is currently serving as the vice-president of Bangladesh Independent Power Producer Association, and is an executive member of Telecom Infrastructure Operators of Bangladesh.
In 2016, for his outstanding entrepreneurial accomplishment, he was chosen as one of the winners of the JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons of Bangladesh, an award given out by Junior Chamber International Bangladesh.
MR. RUPAM KISHORE BARUA
Director
MR. RUPAM KISHORE BARUA
Director
Mr. Rupam Kishore Barua, one of the directors of Confidence Group, is an intrepid and industrious individual who has worked hard all his life to achieve excellence. He obtained his graduation degree from Chittagong College in 1968 and during his student life he was involved with various causes and organizations, making him a multifaceted human being. During his student life he was the vice president of Chattra League Chittagong City unit from 1969 to 1970 and was a frontline cultural activist and organizer of many socio cultural organizations. Later in his life, he became the municipal commissioner of Chittagong Municipality and was District Governor of Lions Clubs International, District 315-B4 of Bangladesh. Still now Mr. Barua is involved with many social service organizations.
Mr. Rupam Kishore Barua is a man with immense patriotism. Due to his patriotic zeal, imbued with the spirit of liberation struggle, he participated in the liberation war for the freedom of our nation. After liberation, in 1972, Mr. Barua entered professional life and started his career with a shipping job in Atlas Shipping. Later in 1980 he joined Maritime Agencies Ltd. and became General Manager of that company. In 1985 he started Confidence Shipping lines and in 1992, along with other entrepreneurs, he established the first local cement manufacturing industry in the private sector of Bangladesh - Confidence Cement Limited. At present he is one of the Directors of Confidence Group.
Due to his vast contribution in social service, Mr. Rupam Kishore Barua has been awarded the United Nations Award in 2002 for Socio Cultural Activities, the honor of DHAMMADUTA by International Brotherhood Mission India and the Melvin Jones Fellowship Award from the Lion's Club.
As for his personal life, Mr. Rupam Kishore Barua was born in Chittagong, to a renowned Buddhist family, on 4th June 1948. His father, Late Phani Bhushan Barua BABL, was also an Ex. MLA of the then Pakistan and President of all Pakistan Buddhist Association.
MR. SALMAN KARIM
Director
MR. SALMAN KARIM
Director
Mr. Salman Karim is a profound pathfinder who has acquired vast amount of experience from visiting various companies' factories abroad through business development and promotional programs. His career began with Confidence Group in 2008, where he was in charge of implementing the group's first power plant in Habiganj. During the same year Confidence Group was looking to expand into the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) market and thus he was given the task of starting a trial project. However, due to a shift in goal of the group, Mr. Salman Karim was appointed as the Director of Production of Confidence Steel and precast concrete production.
Under his guidance a transformer unit was established in 2011. As the Director of Production, he improved the overall quality management of the company and thus increased production efficiency by 20%. In doing so he enabled the company to compete internationally by reducing production costs.
When Confidence Group decided to enter the battery market he helped start the unit from scratch and in 2015 he was appointed as the CEO of Gaston Battery. Under his leadership, Confidence Electric and Gaston Battery have seen unprecedented growth and have become leading brands in the market.
Mr. Salman Karim earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2008 from University of Texas. In addition to achieving the degree with honors, he was in the Dean's lists for six consecutive semesters. However, his greatest achievement till date is designing and optimizing a heat sink for computer video card of Advance Micro Device (AMD) series X1950, in which he takes great pride.