Prof. Muhammad Yunus

Chairman, Yunus Centre,
Bangladesh

Muhammad Yunus, born in 28th June 1940, is a Bangladeshi economist and father of microcredit and social business.  Born in a family with nine children, became a college teacher, got Fulbright scholarship from the USA, where he got a PhD in Economics. He taught at Middle Tennessee State university. He resigned from his job in 1972, because Bangladesh became independent. He became head of economics department of Chittagong University. Disenchanted by the formal economic theories, he decided to work with the poor, particularly poor women in the neighbouring village to help them  overcome poverty. He started lending money from his pocket, in 1976, which later on grew into a formal bank known as Grameen Bank (1983). His non-collarised lending method became known as microcredit and spread all over the world, including in rich countries.

In 2006, Pr. Yunus was awarded the Peace Nobel Prize for his ‘efforts through microcredit to create economic and social development from below’.  In 2008, Pr. Yunus founded the Yunus Centre, which aims at creating, promoting and developing social businesses. In November 2016, the Yunus Centre  and Paris 2024 co-signed a partnership agreement through which Paris 2024 committed itself to build a bid based on pillars and values of the social business and solidarity economy.