Yunus Social Business

The Nobel Committee in 2006 awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly to Professor Muhammad 

Yunus and Grameen Bank, which he founded, “for their efforts to create economic and social 

development from below.” Today, Grameen Bank has more than 8.4 million members, 97% of 

whom are female. All told, the bank has lent more than $12.5 billion.

Since 2006, Professor Yunus has focused on spreading and implementing the concept of 

“social business”—companies created for social good rather than private profit— through Yunus 

Social Business - Global Initiatives. There are now more than 40 social businesses in 

Bangladesh, and some are the region’s largest companies. Professor Yunus also chairs the 

Yunus Centre, a one-stop resource center for Grameen social-business-related activities in 

Bangladesh.

Professor Yunus has written three books about microlending and social business: Banker to the 

Poor (2003), A World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism (2008) and 

Building Social Business (2010).

For his innovations, Professor Yunus has received many awards. He is—along with Martin 

Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela—one of only seven in history to receive all 

three of the United States’ highest honors awarded to civilians (the Presidential Citizens Medal, 

the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal).

In 2012, Fortune magazine recognized Professor Yunus as “one of the 12 greatest 

entrepreneurs of our time.”