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Portrait of Muhammad Yunus.

Muhammad Yunus

Founder of Grameen Bank, father of microcredit, Nobel Peace laureate — and, at 84, the head of Bangladesh’s post-revolution interim government.

Grameen Bank · Microfinance, social business · est. 1983

Born in Chittagong in 1940; PhD in economics from Vanderbilt (1969). After the 1974 famine he began lending tiny sums to the rural poor in Jobra, formalising the model as Grameen Bank in 1983. Won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Removed from Grameen Bank in 2011 and prosecuted under Sheikh Hasina; after Hasina’s 2024 ouster he became Chief Adviser of the interim government (2024–2026).

Notable achievements

  • Pioneered modern microcredit and founded Grameen Bank (1983).
  • Won the Nobel Peace Prize (2006), the first Bangladeshi laureate.
  • US Presidential Medal of Freedom (2009); Congressional Gold Medal (2010).
  • Developed the broader concept of “social business.”
  • Led Bangladesh’s interim government (2024–2026).

Find them online

Grameen Bank

Stories about Muhammad Yunus

Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and Nobel laureate, subject of a case study on microcredit and power.
industry16 min read

Muhammad Yunus: Microcredit, the Nobel, and the Feud

Muhammad Yunus turned a $27 loan into a global movement and a Nobel Prize — then into a feud with Sheikh Hasina that put him in court and, after her fall, in power. A sourced, critically neutral case study of microcredit’s promise, its oversold claims, and the politics of a moral icon.

Muhammad Yunus