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Yunus Social Business
Short Profile: Prof. Muhammad Yunus
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.”
Muhammad Yunus
Peace Nobel Laureate
Founder, Grameen Bank
Chairman, Yunus Social
Business