Established in 1997 - Bangladesh Freedom Foundation (BFF) emerged out of informal consultations between a group of eminent citizens and the Ford Foundation in the second half of the nineties following Ford Foundation’s decision to close its Bangladesh operations. During these consultations, the Ford Foundation expressed their interest in providing financial and technical support for the establishment of a national philanthropic foundation and formally requested Mr. Mahfuz Anam, Editor and Publisher, The Daily Star, to serve as the Chairperson of an Advisory Committee to oversee the process. The Foundation was then formally registered as a Trust in September 1997 with Mr. Mahfuz Anam and Prof. Rehman Sobhan, Chairperson, Center for Policy Dialogue, as the founding Chairperson and Treasurer respectively.