Professor Helal Ahammad has extensive experience in leadership and team management both in academic and government settings, as well as in providing technical and policy advice to high-profile stakeholders. He served as the Dean of School of Business and Economics at North South University, Bangladesh; a Lead Author of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report of Working Group III: Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change; a Lead Author of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development Global Report: Agriculture at a Crossroads. From 2001 to 2015, Dr. Ahammad held various senior executive positions within the Australian Public Service. 

For over 30 years, Dr. Ahammad has undertaken, managed and led research on a range of issues and policies relating to the economy of Bangladesh; climate change impacts, adaptation and response actions; energy and resources economics; international trade; and agricultural economics. He has also developed and/or applied general equilibrium frameworks for economic analyses. He has published in academic journals including Agricultural Economics, Australasian Journal of Regional Studies, Bangladesh Development Studies, Economic Modelling, Energy Economics, Global Change Biology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Resources Policy and Review of Urban and Regional Development Studies. He has also published a book on Bangladesh: Foreign Exchange and Trade Policy Issues in a Developing Economy: The Case of Bangladesh. 

Dr Ahammad has considerable experience in representing his organisations and presenting his (independent and team) works at various professional forums, and policy discussion and modelling groups including at MIT, Stanford University, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, UN International Maritime Organization, International Food Policy Research Institute, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and AgMIP—an agriculture-focused international climate change modelling forum. He co-Chaired Stanford University Energy Modelling Forum’s Land-Use Modelling activities. 

He earned his PhD in Economics from ANU.