DEPUTY GOVERNOR, PDG Mahbub Ahmad
Mahbub Ahmad, was the District Governor, having served for the Rotary Year 2019-20. He was Deputy Governor for Membership, Public Image, and Technology as well as the Chair of the District Grants Sub-Committee for 2024-25. He served as Vice-Governor and District Executive Secretary for 2021-22 under District Governor George McKinnis, continuing as District Executive Secretary for 2022-23 during the term of District Governor Martin Schulman.
At the Zone level, PDG Mahbub was appointed as Assistant Rotary Public Image Chair (ARPIC), for 2024-2027, responsible for the 3 Districts in the Greater New York Area - 7210, 7230, and 7255. He is also a Founding Member of Rotary's North American Club Creation Team and a member of the Zone 32 Action Plan Strategy Team.
Joining Rotary in the Yonkers-East Yonkers Club in 2013, Mahbub became the President of the Club for 2016-17, and under his Presidency, the Club achieved for the first time, the highest Rotary Honor - the Presidential Citation for 2016-17 - an honor shared with only 2 of the 43 Clubs in the District. He has been the Club and District's Webmaster. and Co-Chaired the 2018 District Conference Committee. From 2017 to 2019, PDG Mahbub was the District's first Director of Technology, during which time he successfully assessed and improved the level and usage of technology among the Clubs and the District. He has facilitated many technology-related seminars, as well as Foundation and Public Image Seminars in the District, at the Zone Institutes, and at Mid-North-east PETS, now known as PELS. He served on the then PETS Committee during 2022-23 and 2023-24, and is serving again on the MNE-PELS. Committee for 2025-26. as the Districts's PDG Representative and as the PELS Webmaster. As of 1 July 2025, he has joined the Rotary E-Club of Sunshine, New York.
One of the significant achievements of PDG Mahbub's continuing work in the District was the streamlining of the District's Administrative structure. Work began when he was Governor and working closely with his successors, Mary Shackleton and George McKinnjis, a new structure was implemented whereby the Governor's administrative burdens were shared by three Deputy Governors.
PDG Mahbub was also tapped by Zone Directors to lead teams to look at situations within other Districts and recommend remedial action to the RI Board.
During his tenure as Governor, Mahbub has been instrumental in bringing about significant changes resulting in more uniform branding across Clubs in the District. He has helped 18 Clubs establish and manage their Facebook pages, established 3 new Satellite Clubs, doubled the number of active Rotaract Clubs in the District from 4 to 8, and added 3 new Interact Clubs. Membership growth in the District was up 3% from July 2019 - one of the highest growth rates in Zones 28 and 32 combined. However, the pandemic caused the loss of many members during the last month of his tenure - in June 2020. He also established a strong technology and public image training program in the District. He was innovative in splitting the District Conference into 2 parts - the first being held early in the year, concentrating on training for Club Officers. The second part, slated to be a celebration of the achievements, had to be completely re-done to be online due to the pandemic. He visited all 44 Clubs in the District in the first 5 months of his tenure..
Right from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, PDG Mahbub has been proactive in helping Clubs transition to online meetings. In mid-March 2020, he made available the District's Zoom account for Clubs to hold Zoom meetings until they became comfortable doing so. He secured an emergency grant from The Rotary Foundation, topped it off with donations from the District, and got Clubs to vote on the reallocation of part of the unspent District funds towards COVID-19 projects. All Clubs in the District that applied for Emergency Grants were approved for the full amount of their requests. In all, the Clubs implemented 47 COVID-19-related projects involving a total of over $230,000.
PDG Mahbub was supported by First Lady Rotarian Bina Ahmad, who has been a strong proponent of the District's presence on social media, and particularly creating new Clubs. As a Team, they have established 13 new Clubs as of January 2026. Together, they have continuously reached out to Clubs and assisted many clubs one-on-one.
PDG Mahbub was an International Civil Servant at UN Headquarters in New York for 30 years, retiring as Chief of UN Web Services in 2012. He is credited with many innovations at the UN, the foremost being the creation of the multilingual UN Website in 1995. He began his UN career as a broadcaster and has prepared and produced many programs for UN Radio and TV, including multi-part Radio series on Human Rights, Children, and the Environment, and TV episodes on UN topics broadcast on CNN. He headed the UN News Section from 1992 to 1996. He has widely traveled to attend UN Conferences on the Middle East, Population, Development, and Information Technology, among others, and was Spokesperson for the UN General Assembly President. He received the prestigious "UN21" Award for exceptional service from 2 UN Secretaries-General - Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-Moon.
He participated in the 25th anniversary celebrations of the United Nations in 1970 as a youth representative, then in 1995 covered the 50th Anniversary celebrations as Chief of the UN News Service. Yet again, he was part of the 75th anniversary celebrations, when he was the advisor for the Rotary UN Day online presentations, interviewing the UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and the UN Spokesman.
He is a member of the Paul Harris Society and, along with his wife, fellow Rotarian Bina Ahmad, are Major Donors to the RI Foundation. After 18 years raising their 2 sons in Scarsdale, they are now residents of Yonkers. Both sons are now adults and are Rotarians.
PDG Mahbub graduated with distinction with a Master's Degree in International Law & Organization from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, in 1978. He obtained a Bachelor's Degree in International Relations with honors First Class from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.