BTMA names Shamim Islam president after ministry ousts Russell

The Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) has elected Md. Shamim Islam, Managing Director of Jamuna Hi-Tech Spinning Mills Ltd. and Jamuna Group, as its new President with immediate effect. The decision, announced on 10 November 2026, follows a Ministry of Commerce notification that released Showkat Aziz Russell from the presidency.

For an association representing the spinning sector at the top of Bangladesh's apparel supply chain, a mid-term leadership change ordered into motion by a government notification is not routine housekeeping. It is a governance event, and sourcing teams watching Bangladeshi yarn supply will read it as such.

Who now runs BTMA?

The BTMA Board of Directors took the decisions at an emergency meeting convened after the Ministry of Commerce notification removed Russell. The new officers are:

• President: Md. Shamim Islam, Managing Director, Jamuna Hi-Tech Spinning Mills Ltd. and Jamuna Group.
• Vice President (Category "A"): Chowdhury Mohammed Hanif Shoeb, Managing Director, Suraiya Spinning Mills Limited, filling the vacancy in that category.
• Director (Category "A"): Md. Zahirul Islam, Managing Director, PHP Spinning Mills Ltd.

The association confirmed that the newly elected leadership assumes its responsibilities immediately. Brigadier General Md. Zakir Hossain, ndc, psc (retd.), Secretary General of BTMA, signed the official announcement.

The appointments were made in accordance with the Memorandum and Articles of Association of BTMA — a point the association was careful to state on the record, given that the trigger came from outside the boardroom rather than from within it.

What does this change for buyers?

The honest answer: nothing yet, in operational terms. Mills keep spinning, orders keep flowing, and no capacity, certification or pricing decision was announced alongside the reshuffle. The confirmed facts are three appointments, one ministry notification and an effective date of 10 November 2026.

What does change is the voice of Bangladesh's primary spinning lobby at a moment when the sector's arguments — on energy costs, gas supply, import duty on cotton and cotton duty structures, and competitiveness against regional rivals — are made through its association leadership in Dhaka. A president from Jamuna Group, one of the country's larger diversified industrial houses, now chairs that advocacy.

Buyers and sourcing executives should note the sequence, because it matters for how they weigh BTMA's positions going forward. A trade body president removed by ministry notification, replaced the same week by board election, signals an association operating under closer government attention than a purely private lobby. That is context, not criticism. It is simply how the transition occurred, per the association's own announcement.

Separating the confirmed from the intended: the appointments are confirmed and effective. Everything else — policy priorities, reform agendas, renegotiated positions with the Ministry of Commerce — remains unannounced. No statement from the incoming president accompanied the release.

The practical question for supply-chain professionals is whether the new leadership shifts BTMA's posture on input costs and energy policy, the two levers that move yarn prices and, downstream, fabric costs for apparel programmes. That will become visible in the association's first policy positions under Islam, not in the transition notice itself.

Watch for those positions in the weeks ahead. Until then, the confirmed story is short: a ministry notification, an emergency meeting, three names and an immediate start date.