Runa Khan is a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur[1] and the founder and executive director of Friendship NGO.

[3] Khan won the Rolex Awards for Enterprise in 2006[4] for work through Friendship to preserve the declining craft of traditional boat building in Bangladesh.

[4] Earlier, she wrote text-books for children with the aim of moving away from rote learning, an effort that won her the Ashoka Fellowship in 1994.

[9] When she was as young as 9, Runa's father, Alim Khan, used to receive Zen monks, Hindu priests, Taizé Brothers and ambassadors for dinner and include her in conversations about music and philosophy.

[9] Later, in 1996, she married French adventurer and sailor Yves Marre, who brought to Bangladesh the river barge that would eventually become the Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital.

[11] The hospital ship was located to cater to the inhabitants of char areas, or regions with continuously moving landscapes, which were deprived of usual government infrastructure.

[20] On September 11, 2023 Runa Khan hosted the French president, Emmanuel Macron on Friendship's traditional panshi boat, the Flèche d'Or, the largest and one of the last of its kind, during an official visit to the country.

During the ride, Macron and his fellow tourists discussed climate initiatives and the commitments the president had made to his counterpart Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina earlier in his visit.