Ridan Mehran Mahbub

Ridan Mehran Mahbub is someone with many interests, and a strong commitment to pursuing them. He is a fourth-year student at the University of British Columbia, studying International Economics, and has also completed an exchange semester at the National University of Singapore. Ridan is a recipient of the Karen McKellin International Leader of Tomorrow Award (KMILOT), UBC’s most prestigious full-ride scholarship for international students and one of the most selective undergraduate scholarships in Canada.

From a young age, Ridan has been actively involved in leadership, community work, and creative projects alongside academics. In high school at DPS STS School in Dhaka (now Glenrich International School, Uttara), he served as the founding curator of TEDx@DPSSTSSchool, School Prefect, General Secretary of the DPS Economics Summit, and a core organizer of the first editions of DPSMUN. A passionate Model UN participant, he competed and won awards across conferences in Dhaka before later returning as a judge.

Ridan is the President of Ascension Foundation, an organization focused on poverty alleviation in Bangladesh, and the Founder and President of Project Purple, a youth-led platform working to alleviate the stigma that revolves around mental health in Bangladesh. Through collaborations with organizations such as PHWC, BRAC, and the University of Dhaka, Project Purple has hosted workshops, campaigns, and community events, and was nominated for the Community Engagement category at the Marvel Be You Awards, Bangladesh’s largest awards for social media influencers.

Alongside his community work, Ridan has had a passion for entrepreneurship and business. He launched shobazaar, an e-commerce platform designed to support small online businesses operating through Facebook and Instagram. Before the age of 20, he was already leading organizations and managing large-scale events across Bangladesh.

Creativity has always been another constant for Ridan. Trained in music from a young age, Ridan writes and composes his own songs and has released six originals to date, accumulating over 20,000 streams across platforms. His song Agomon has been featured in over 500 Spotify playlists, while Jodi was selected for a Spotify editorial playlist. He also regularly contributes to Apparel Digest, an international apparel magazine, as a special correspondent for North America. He also enjoys exploring art exhibitions, has a strong interest in dance, and has attended concerts by artists such as Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, The Weeknd, and A.R. Rahman.

After receiving the KMILOT scholarship, Ridan moved to Vancouver to pursue his undergraduate studies. International Economics is one of UBC’s most selective programs, combining economics, international trade, finance, development, globalization, and data science, in partnership with the Sauder School of Business. longside his studies, he has remained committed to becoming a global citizen, traveling to countries such as the United States, South Korea, Turkey, Hong Kong, India, and Singapore, and regularly reflecting and writing about how societies function, and how economics can help bridge gaps across countries.

At UBC, Ridan has served as a Peer Coach at the Vancouver School of Economics Career Centre, a Community Activator with the Centre for Community Engaged Learning, and a Jumpstart Orientation Leader. He also founded Artisan Events, an event management platform that organized the first and largest South Asian Indie Festival in Western Canada, headlined by prominent Bangladeshi artists Dameer and Pragata Naoha. For his contributions to student life and community building, he received the 2025 International Community Achievement Award, UBC’s highest recognition for creating impact in the student community.

Beyond academics, Ridan has worked across consulting, finance, public policy, and community development in Canada, Singapore, and Bangladesh. He is interested in finding creative solutions to complex problems and is drawn to roles in strategy consulting, economic development, and social innovation—particularly projects that sit at the intersection of policy, markets, and people. Ridan’s professional experience includes working as a Junior Associate at LightCastle Partners, one of Bangladesh’s leading management consulting firms, and as a Business Development Intern at LankaBangla Securities, one of the country’s largest investment banking and brokerage firms. Most recently, he completed a fellowship with CityHive’s Urban ReVision program, where he worked alongside MODUS Consultancy to develop a long-term climate resilience strategy for the City of Abbotsford, British Columbia.