Obaidul Karim

Obaidul Karim is a Bangladeshi businessman and the founder and chairman of Orion Group. one of the largest business conglomerates in Bangladesh. He is an innovative, self-motivated and enterprising Bangladeshi business icon who has instrumented his success in the field of diversified business portfolios.

Career
Mr. Obaidul Karim is a trailblazer businessman who laid the foundations of the Orion in 1982 in Bangladesh and has managed through his stewardship to build a successful business sphere of Orion Group with an annual turnover of US$350 million and employment of over 18,000 people on that foundation within 2023.

Under the elegant and proficient leadership of Mr. Obaidul Karim, ORION, has so far ventured into most promising sectors like Pharma & Healthcare, Power Generation & Energy, Infrastructure Development, Cosmetics & Toiletries, Consumer Products, Textiles & Garments, Footwear & Footcare and Home Appliances sectors etc.

Landmark career success as a Businessman
Under the elegant and proficient leadership of Mr. Obaidul Karim, Orion, apart from consolidating its position in businesses like pharma and others, has achieved enormous successes in business arena and contributed to the economic and social development of Bangladesh. The following are few of the examples:

Cosmetics & Toiletries
His vision went further, when Orion implemented the first 100 MW Solar PV power plant in the country. Orion under Mr. Karim’s stewardship, is further working to implement five (05) more Solar PV based Power Plants throughout the country. All these new proposed power plants will have 20% Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) considering energy demand during night time. This will confirm better utilization of Solar energy in absence of daylight.
 * 1) Kohinoor     Chemical Co. (BD) Ltd. (KCCL) is a pioneer     manufacturing company producing high quality beauty, toiletries and     personal care products with well known "Tibet" brand which are     very popular among the middle income and rural people of the country for     ages. It is the result of rare success of privatization policy of the     government of Bangladesh as Orion acquired the ailing Kohinoor Chemical     Co. Ltd. in 1993 which soon transformed the age-old, loss making     state-enterprise into profitable one. Being a listed Company KCCL is regularly     paying dividends to its valued shareholders. Under the leadership of Mr.     Mohammad Obaidul Karim, KCCL had not only regained its lost glory, but     also had been able to penetrate into the horizon of export markets. Infrastructure Development:   2.     Orion Infrastructure Ltd. – a 11.8 km long Mayor Mohammad Hanif Flyover (earlier known as Jatrabari-Gulistan Flyover), the LONGEST flyover of the country and the first toll based Public Private Partnership (PPP) project. Mr. Karim revolutionized the scenario of contribution of private sector in the infrastructure development sector of Bangladesh. Applying the Public Private Partnership (PPP) concept in Bangladesh is the brainchild of Mr. Obaidul Karim. He is the first to recognize the potential of PPP in the infrastructure development industry in Bangladesh, the ability of it to contribute to Bangladesh’ economic growth and to generate direct and indirect employment. The concept of the 11.8-km long Mayor Mohammad Hanif Flyover project (known as Jatrabari-Gulistan Flyover) which happened to be the first longest in Bangladesh has been introduced by Mr. Karim on BOOT (Build, Own, Operate & Transfer) basis.  Power & Energy:
 * 2) Mr.     Obaidul Karim recognized the challenges the country faces to meet the     acute power crisis and to deliver reliable and dependable electricity at     affordable prices. Realizing this need, ORION, under the leadership of Mr.     Karim, extensively focused on investments in Power Generation and Energy     sectors. Mr. Karim, being realized the potential of the energy sector,     made his presence felt in this field through successful implementation of a number of     power generation projects, 500MW of which are under HFO based and 100 MW     Solar based.   With 500 MW of HFO based power generation, Orion becomes the equal largest HFO based power producer (IPP) in the country.

Back in 2007 – 2008:
During January 2007 to December 2008, Bangladesh was ruled by a military backed, unelected Caretaker Government, which was in fact, a de facto military government, troubled most of the leading businessmen and business houses of Bangladesh in addition to senior politicians with absolutely biased and one-sided investigations, wholesale prosecutions and arrests. Numerous cases were filed against such businessmen and prosecuted by the law enforcing agencies including the Anti-corruption Commission, and were tried by what come to be regarded as “kangaroo” courts which were not independent and free at all, but rather subject to the high-ended interference and bidding of the forces backing the Caretaker Government and several cases were filed and prosecuted against Mr. Karim.

Afterwards, following the general election of December 2008, a constitutional and democratic Government was restored and the law enforcement agencies and courts became free from interference and were allowed to work independently. Upon hearing in the courts, all the cases against Mr. Obaidul Karim have been eventually dismissed and quashed, and all convictions against him have been set aside by the highest courts.

WorldCheck scrutinized and analyzed all courts verdicts thoroughly and cleared all negative write ups from database with a “nil search”.