Muhammad Yunus, born on 28 June 1940, is a Bangladeshi social
entrepreneur, banker, economist and civil society leader who was awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for founding the Grameen Bank and
pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance. These loans are given
to entrepreneurs that are too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. Yunus
and the Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their
efforts through microcredit to create economic and social development from
below". The Norwegian Nobel Committee said that "lasting
peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to
break out of poverty" and that "across cultures and civilizations,
Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to
bring about their own development". Yunus has received several other
national and international honours. He received the United States Presidential
Medal of Freedom in 2009 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010.
In February 2011, Yunus together with Saskia
Bruysten, Sophie Eisenmann and Hans Reitz co-founded Yunus Social Business –
Global Initiatives (YSB). YSB creates and empowers social businesses to address
and solve social problems around the world. As the international implementation
arm for Yunus' vision of a new, humane capitalism, YSB manages incubator funds
for social businesses in developing countries and provides advisory services to
companies, governments, foundations and NGOs.
In 2012, he became Chancellor of Glasgow
Caledonian University in Scotland, a position he held until 2018. Previously,
he was a professor of economics at Chittagong University in
Bangladesh. He published several books related to his finance work. He is
a founding board member of Grameen America and Grameen Foundation, which
support microcredit.
Yunus also served on the board of directors of
the United Nations Foundation, a public charity to support UN causes, from
1998 to 2021.
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