Rajeeb Samdani

Rajeeb Samdani
Born	(1974-03-28)28 March 1974 Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Nationality	Bangladeshi
Occupation	Businessman
Spouse(s)	Nadia Samdani

Rajeeb Samdani (born 28 March 1974) is a Bangladeshi industrialist. He is currently the managing director of Golden Harvest Group,^[1][2] a leading Bangladeshi Conglomerate^[3] and the founder and trustee of Samdani Art Foundation which produces the Dhaka Art Summit.^[4][5] He is also the founding committee member and Co-Chair of Tate Museum, United Kingdom, South Asian Acquisition Committee^[6] Rajeeb and his wife Nadia Samdani are also members of Tate's International Council and founding members of Harvard University South Asian Arts Council, USA.^[7] They are also members of Alserkal Avenue Programming Committee, Dubai.^[8]

Career

He started his career as a commodity broker with Stemcor. Over the years, his company, Golden Harvest expanded its business into information technology, commodities, logistics, food processing, agriculture, dairy, aviation, insurance, infrastructure development and real estate.^{[9][10][11][12][13]} He is also the chairman of Dubai-based financial institution Gulf International Finance Limited.^[14]

Golden Harvest has expanded business into logistics industry with its Japanese partner Nippon Express, the largest logistic company in Asia and the 7th largest logistic company in the world.^[15][16][17]

Philanthropy

He is the trustee & secretary general of the Bangladesh Human Rights Foundation, founder of the Alvina Samdani Trust & Taher Ahmed Choudhury Charitable Hospital. The Samdanis have organised the Dhaka Art Summit,^[18][19][20] every two years which is a non-profit event and is solely funded by Samdani Art Foundation. ^{[21] [22] [23] [24] [25]} The foundation has commissioned several projects by established South Asian artists like Rashid Rana, Shilpa Gupta, Jitish Kallat, Mithu Sen, Aman Mojadidi, Sandeep Mukherjee, Prabhavathi Meppayil, Simryn Gill, etc., for public viewing including Dhaka's first ever public art project by Raqs Media Collective ^{[26] [27] [28] [29] [30][31][32] [33]} .^[34][35] Through the Samdani Art Foundation, he funded the Kunsthalle Basel's first exhibition of a South Asian Artist, Naeem Mohaiemen. They also support Bangladeshi artists to produce works for exhibitions such as the Kochi Muziris Biennale.^[36] The Samdani Art foundation is a donor for the 56th International Biennale di Venezia, supporting the projects of artists Naeem Mohaiemen and Raqs Media Collective in the main Biennale exhibition: All the World’s Futures.^[37][38][39]

Personal life

He is married to Nadia Samdani who is the President of Samdani Art Foundation and the Founder and Director of Dhaka Art Summit. ^{[40] [41]} They have three daughters: Radyna, Alvina and Maya.^[42] The collector couple is well known for their local and international art collection as well as their art philanthropy ^{[43] [44] [45] [46] [47]} . They are also well known for hosting the Samdani Art Award, which is a bi-annual fellowship programme where a young Bangladeshi artist is granted with a three-month residency at the Delfina Foundation in United Kingdom.^{[48] [49]} .^[50] Founders Rajeeb and Nadia Samdani were recognized on the 2015 Top 200 Collectors list by Artnews, the Power 100 list in 2015 and 2016 by Art Review and The World's Top 100 Art Collectors 2016 by ArtNet News.^{[51][52][53][54]}

References