Mohammad Ali Arafat was born in Rajshahi, Bangladesh. Mr. Arafat, after getting his schooling in various schools in Dhaka he moved abroad for higher education. After his higher education in the USA, he came back to Bangladesh and joined in Independent University of Bangladesh as a faculty member. He is currently serving as a professor of management and the chief adviser to the board of trustees of Canadian University of Bangladesh. Mohammad Ali Arafat is the founder of Shuchinta Foundation, a leading civil society platform in Bangladesh that holds discussion/ dialogue on various national and international issues involving the key policy makers. Professor Arafat is also the convener of Shuchinta Bangladesh and chairman of Shuchinta Foundation. He is a researcher and is involved into quantitative and qualitative research in different national and international projects. Professor Arafat takes interest into foreign policy and regional cooperation, water sharing with India and other neighbours, war crime trial, constitution etc. Professor Arafat is also one of the promoters of the Indo-Bangla relationship and regional cooperation in the South Asia. He has done extensive research on transit connectivity & regional cooperation among Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan. He is also a track two diplomat and in this capacity he has in many occasions sat down with his Indian counterparts to talk about the unresolved issues and discussed how to bring about changes in the lives of the people of this region through enhancing trade and connectivity. He wrote several articles and has taken part in various seminars and television talk shows in the above mentioned issues.