Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi economist and social business entrepreneur who served as the chief adviser of Bangladesh from 2024 to 2026. Yunus pioneered the modern concept of microcredit and microfinance, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. He is the founder of Grameen Bank and the first Bangladeshi to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Born in Hathazari, Chittagong, Yunus passed his matriculation and intermediate examinations from Chittagong Collegiate School and Chittagong College, respectively. He completed his BA from University of Dhaka and joined as a lecturer in Chittagong College. He obtained his PhD in economics from Vanderbilt University in the United States.
After the famine of 1974, Yunus started to work on poverty alleviation in Bangladesh. He began experimenting with microfinance in the late 1970s. In 1983, the Grameen Bank was established. The success of the Grameen microfinance model inspired similar efforts in about 100 developing countries and even in developed countries including the United States. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance.