207,380 profiles ranked

Muhammad Yunus

Bangladeshi banker, Nobel Peace Prize recipient and the former Chief Adviser of Bangladesh · Bangladesh · Academics · Born 1940 · age 86

Read more often than usual, most of all on 13 October.

5.7 times the usual readers on 13 October. 4,944 readers on 13 October, against about 872 a day before the rise.

Compare Claim

He proved you could lend to the poorest without collateral and they'd pay you back - then built a bank on that premise and won a Nobel Peace Prize for it. Now, after decades as the face of microcredit, he's running Bangladesh.

ExecutivesAcademicEconomicsInvestingEntrepreneurship20th Century

A life in dates

2025Time 100Award2024Chief Adviser of BangladeshOffice2024-20262016“Always remember, job is a wrong idea. Don't ever look for a job, always tell yourself that I'm a job creator. I'm not a job seeker, I'm a job creator. So be a job creator.”In their words11 June 2016Said in UC San Diego Commencement 2016: Muhammad Yunus (11 June 2016)

2010Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun of PeruAwardKnight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian RepublicAward2008National Order of BeninAward2007Order of the LiberatorAward2006“I will not spend the money for myself. I will rather spend it in special business on a no-profit-no-loss policy.”In their words14 October 2006The Daily Star (14 October 2006)

“We will make yogurt with all kinds of nutritious elements. We want to provide nutrition to the poor and children.”In their words14 October 2006The Daily Star (14 October 2006)

Four Freedoms Award - Freedom from WantAwardHonorary Doctor of the University of ValenciaAward2005“The poor themselves can create a poverty-free world - all we have to do is to free them from the chains that we have put around them.”In their wordsMay 2005"Eliminating Poverty Through Market-Based Social Entrepreneurship" in Global Urban Development Magazine (May 2005)

2003Honorary doctor of the Catholic University of LouvainAward2002“Poor people always pay back their loans. It's us, the creators of institutions and rules, who keep creating trouble for them.”In their wordsGrameen Bank II: Designed to Open New Possibilities (2002)

1998Honorary Doctor of the Katholieke Universiteit LeuvenAwardIndira Gandhi Peace PrizeAwardSydney Peace PrizeAward1997“One day our grandchildren will go to museums to see what poverty was like.”In their words25 March 1997"Interview with Prof. Muhammad Yunus" Australian Broadcasting Corporation (25 March 1997)

1994World Food PrizeAward1987Independence Award in Rural DevelopmentAward1965Fulbright ScholarshipAward1940Born28 June 1940

Also in Deutsch

Photos 3

Muhammad Yunus (cropped)Muhammad Yunus (cropped)Begum, General with Professor YunusBegum, General with Professor YunusMuhammad Yunus Congressional Gold MedalMuhammad Yunus Congressional Gold Medal

In their own words 10

,
Muhammad Yunus
,
10 statements, newest first

  1. Always remember, job is a wrong idea. Don't ever look for a job, always tell yourself that I'm a job creator. I'm not a job seeker, I'm a job creator. So be a job creator.

    Jun 11, 2016, Said in UC San Diego Commencement 2016: Muhammad Yunus (11 June 2016), Own words

  2. To me poor people are like bonsai trees. When you plant the best seed of the tallest tree in a flower-pot, you get a replica of the tallest tree, only inches tall.

    2007, Creating a World without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism (2007), Own words

  3. I will not spend the money for myself. I will rather spend it in special business on a no-profit-no-loss policy.

    Oct 14, 2006, The Daily Star (14 October 2006), Own words

Wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0

Awards

Time 1002025
List of Honorary Citizens of Paris, France2017
Honorary Doctorate of the National University of San Marcos2010
Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun of Peru2010
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic2010
Congressional Gold Medal2010
Presidential Medal of Freedom, Barack Obama2009
National Order of Benin2008
The Nichols-Chancellor's Medal2007
Order of the Liberator2007
Nobel Peace Prize2006
Four Freedoms Award - Freedom from Want2006
Honorary Doctor of the University of Alicante2006
Honorary Doctor of the University of Valencia2006
Honorary Doctor of the University of Madrid Complutense2004
Volvo Environment Prize2003
Honorary doctor of the Catholic University of Louvain2003
Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize2001
Indira Gandhi Peace Prize1998
Princess of Asturias Award for Concord1998
Honorary Doctor of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven1998
Honorary Doctor of the University of Sydney1998
Sydney Peace Prize1998
Empowering award1997
International Simón Bolívar Prize1996
World Food Prize1994
International Pfeffer Peace Award1994
Independence Award in Rural Development1987
Ramon Magsaysay Award1984
Fulbright Scholarship1965
Honorary doctorate from university of Florence
Honorary Degree of HEC Paris
Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
Princess of Asturias Awards
Order of the Sun of Peru

Family

Muhammad Yunus

Partners

Is this everyone?

Only relatives with a profile here are drawn, so a family can be larger than this. A line here can also be wrong.

Correct this family

About this person

Muhammad Yunus was born in Hathazari in 1940, studied economics in Dhaka and at Vanderbilt, and returned to teach at Chittagong University. After Bangladesh's 1974 famine, he began experimenting with small loans to villagers who had no access to formal credit. In 1983 he founded Grameen Bank to scale the model; it spread to about 100 countries and earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, followed by the Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal. He went on to chancellor Glasgow Caledonian University, serve on the UN Foundation board, and launch Grameen offshoots in America. Then in 2024, after the July Uprising forced out Sheikh Hasina, students demanded Yunus take charge - and he became chief adviser of the interim government, tasked with constitutional reform and elections.

Country
Bangladesh
Category
Academics
Type
Academic
Status
living
Dates
Born 1940 · age 86

In common with Muhammad

Juan Carlos I of SpainBoth received International Simón Bolívar PrizeJulius NyerereBoth received International Simón Bolívar PrizeThor HeyerdahlBoth received Empowering awardAung San Suu KyiBoth received International Simón Bolívar PrizeMário SoaresBoth received International Simón Bolívar PrizeJulio María SanguinettiBoth received International Simón Bolívar Prize

Fame.am measures public visibility signals. It does not measure human value, talent, morality, or credibility.