From engineer to entrepreneur

Mr. Mallik Samir Tawfik, a EEE graduate from AIUB, is the CEO of Starpoint Rewards Bangladesh Ltd. He is also the National Training Director of Junior Chamber International – Bangladesh.

Growing up as a kid in Africa, I had always wanted to be an Engineer. Many kids keep on having different aims in life and the aims keep changing as they grow older. But my aim however remained firm.
After completing my O Levels in Private and A Levels from Manarat Dhaka International College, I got admitted as a student at AIUB in the department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, or more popularly known as EEE. Life became quite hectic with all the countless hours of lectures and lab works and I started losing interest. My life rotated in between waking up early in the morning for 8am classes to dozing off at midnight and this continued for 2 years in a row.
However, being connected to an online music community known as Amadergaan, I did get some entertainment from attending underground concerts regularly. Then the moment of change came into my life. It was in December 2006 when one of my friends suddenly told me that Dhaka Sheraton Hotel was hiring part-time tele-sales executives. So I rushed off and got selected for the post and hence my career in sales started.
I was just crazy for my job because I loved the feeling of talking to new customers everyday and every sale I made gave me the confidence of winning a hard-fought battle. Eventually I became the top Tele-Sales executive at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel and broke some records too!
Then one fine day, I got an offer from one of my clients to join his fashion magazine's event management wing as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). So I jumped at the offer and joined his company as the CEO of Mirror Media and Productions Ltd. I was there for 6 months and during that time span, I organized 4 big trade exhibitions in Dhaka and some fashion shows. But there always remained a certain small pinch in myself of owning a company of my own.
And hence I embarked on that dream and started my company Starpoint Rewards Bangladesh Ltd on 22nd March 2009 and have not looked back since then. My company runs the brand “Starpoint Privilege” which is the first loyalty membership club in Bangladesh and we provide our clients with fantastic savings at worldwide airlines, hotels, resorts, restaurants, airport lounges, hospitals, spas and so on. It's been more than 4 years since I have become an entrepreneur and my business has expanded into Interior Designing, Visa Consulting, Air Ticketing and Work Recruiting. I have also gotten involved in a few social and business chambers and am currently the National Training Director for Junior Chamber International – Bangladesh. In 2012, I was recognized as one of the top under-30 CEOs by the ICE Business Times magazine.
The joy of having 20-30 young and bright employees working under you is limitless and the fact that you as a Entrepreneur are contributing even in a small way to the country's economy is fantastic.