Nobelovac na Krugu 99: biografija profesora Muhammada Yunusa
Professor Muhammad Yunus
Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus is the father of microcredit, the father of social business, the founder of Grameen Bank, and of more than 50 other companies in Bangladesh.
For his constant innovation and enterprise, the Fortune Magazine in March 2012 as “one of 12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time.”
Professor Yunus was born in Bangladesh in 1940. In 1965, he received Fulbright Scholarship to study economics at Vanderbilt University, USA and did his Ph.D. in economics in 1969.
Professor Yunus returned to Bangladesh in 1972 and joined the Department of Economics, University of Chittagong, as its Chairman. In 1976, Professor Yunus started toexperiment with providing collateral free loans to the poor.
The project was called Grameen Bank Project and later, in 1983, became a full-fledged bank for providing loans to the poor, mostly women, in rural Bangladesh. Today Grameen Bank has over 8.4 million borrowers, 97% of whom are women and disburses over one and a half billion US dollars each year.
In 2006, Professor Yunus and Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
“Professor Yunus is the author of BANKER TO THE POOR: Micro-Lending and the Battle against World Poverty, CREATING A WORLD WITHOUT POVERTY: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism, and, most recently, BUILDING SOCIAL BUSINESS: The New Kind of Capitalism that Serves Humanity’s Most Pressing Needs.”
Professor Muhammad Yunus is the recipient of more than 50 honorary degrees from universitiesa cross 20 countries. He has received 112 awards from 26 countries including state honours from 10 countries.
He is one of the seven individuals to have received the Nobel Peace Prize, the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom and the United States Congressional Gold Medal. Other notable awards include the Ramon Magsaysay Award (1984), World Food Prize (1994), International Simon Bolivar Prize (1996), Sydney Peace Prize (1998), The Prince of Austria’s award for Concord (1998) and Seoul Peace Prize (2006).
The concept of social business, which he introduced into the economic framework,
is defined as a non-dividend company dedicated to solving social problems , such
as healthcare, education, sanitation, water pollution, unemployment,
environmental degradation, etc. His microcredit idea has spread to almost all the countries of the world, including the industrialized countries of the West.
United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, invited Professor Yunus to serve as
an MDG Advocate. He sits on the Board of United Nations Foundation, Schwab
Foundation, Prince Albert ll of Monaco Foundation, Grameen Credit Agricole Microcredit Foundation and Chirac Foundation. He is one of the founding members of The Elders.
Professor Yunus serves as Nobel Laureate in Residence at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia).
Professor Yunus was chosen by Wharton School of Business as one of ‘The 25
Most Influential Business Persons of the Past 25 Years’. AsiaWeek (Hong Kong) selected him as one of “Twenty Great Asians (1975 — 1995).” Ananda Bazaar Patrika (India) selected Professor Yunus as one of “Ten Great Bengalis of the Century (1900 — 1999).”
In 2006, Time magazine listed Professor Yunus under “60 years of Asian Heroes” as one of the top 12 business leaders. In 2008, in an open online poll, Yunus was voted the 2nd topmost intellectual person in the world on the list of Top 100 Public Intellectuals by Prospect Magazine (UK) and Foreign Policy (United States). In 2010, The New Statesman (UK) listed him as one of “The World's 50 Most Influential Figures”.
Professor Yunus has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Daily Show with
Jon Stewart, Colbert Report, Real Time with Bill Maher, Hardtalk on BBC and The
Simpsons. He has appeared on the cover of Time Magazine and Newsweek.
In June 2012, Professor Yunus was named Chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University.
On Google+, Professor Yunus is one of the most followed person worldwide, with over 2 million followers.
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