Samson H Chowdhury was a legendary entrepreneur of Bangladesh. With his innovation, leadership and perseverance, Samson H Chowdhury built a business empire from scratch. Starting with a small village pharmacy in Pabna in 1952, Samson, over a span of five decades, built Square Group, one of the largest and most diversified conglomerates of the country that, as of 2011, employs around 36,000 people and generates an average annual turnover of more than US$ 800 million.

Square is now not a name, but a synonym of quality- be it pharmaceuticals, hospitals, textiles, toiletries, consumer goods, herbal medicine, agro vet products, information technology, television channel, advertising agency and a few more. To his followers, Samson H Chowdhury was a hero, to his contemporaries he was an icon, to young entrepreneurs he was a mentor and to regulators he was an amazing symbol of fairness. In his approach to business, Samson H Chowdhury always put people's welfare at the focal consideration of entrepreneurship that made him different from other top businessmen in the country. Therefore, there has never been a single incident of labour unrest in any of his enterprises. He was one of the highest taxpayers of the country for a long period of time. Samson H Chowdhury symbolizes hard work, vision, transparency and foresightedness, a combination very rare in the developing world. The sad demise of Mr Chowdhury on 5 January 2012 at the age of 86 is truly an end of an era.