Muhammad Yunus
The founder and managing director of Grameen Bank, which pioneered microcredit. This is a method of banking where small loans are given to the poor, mostly to women, without collateral, for income-generating activities, to help them get out of poverty.
He has won a number of other awards, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the World Food Prize and the Sydney Peace Prize.
Professor Muhammad Yunus co-founded Yunus Social Business and currently serves as the Chairman of the Board. He is the founder of Grameen Bank and father of microcredit, an economic movement that has helped lift millions of families around the world out of poverty. Today, Grameen Bank has over 8.4 million members—97 per cent of who are female—and has lent over US$12.5 billion since its inception. In 2006, the Norwegian Nobel Committee jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Peace to Professor Yunus and Grameen Bank “for their efforts to create economic and social development from below.”
Professor Yunus is also the creator of social business and since 2006 has focused on spreading and implementing the concept. He has written four books about micro-lending and social business: “Banker to the Poor” (2003), “A World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism” (2008) and “Building Social Business” (2010) and “A World of Three Zeros” (2017).
Among Professor Yunus’ many awards and honors he has received all three highest US Civilian awards (Presidential Citizens Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal). Thereby he is one of only seven people in history that has received these awards, along with recipients Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa or Nelson Mandela. In 2009, Forbes named Professor Yunus one of its “10 Most Influential Business Gurus.”
Maria Ressa
Maria Ressa, the CEO and executive editor of Manila-based news outlet Rappler, received the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The award also makes her the first Filipino to win a Nobel Prize.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee handed her, along with journalist and Putin critic Dmitry Muratov, the award for “efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.”
“Nobel Prize laureate Maria Ressa uses freedom of expression to expose abuse of power, use of violence and growing authoritarianism in her native country, the Philippines.”
Maria Ressa is a Filipina journalist, businesswoman, author, and global terrorism expert who serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the online news website ‘Rappler’, which she had co-founded in 2012. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2021 for her fight to defend freedom of expression in the Philippines. During her early career, she had co-founded ‘Probe Productions’ with Cheche Lazaro to launch the award-winning investigative journalism series ‘Probe Profiles’. She then worked for CNN for 17 years as Manila Bureau Chief and Jakarta Bureau Chief.
She has also authored two books on the rise of terrorism in Southeast Asia, ‘Seeds of Terror’ and ‘From bin Laden to Facebook’. During her illustrious career, she has received many honours and awards for her fearless and truthful journalism, including ‘Golden Pain of Freedom Award’, ‘Knight International Journalism Award’, ‘Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award’, ‘Journalist of Freedom’ Are included. Courage and Impact Award’ and ‘IX International Press Freedom Award’.
Ressa, who redefines journalism by combining traditional broadcast, new media and mobile phone technology, believes “it’s about news, and telling it well. Ratings will follow.”
Iqbal Quadir
The founder of Gonofone and Grameenphone. Inspired by his upbringing as an impoverished youth in rural Bangladesh, he recognized the need for better communication between citizens and providers of goods and services. He created numerous foundations to benefit the rural poor in third world nations, one of which funded an essay competition that led to the genesis of a method that extracts arsenic from water and soil. Quadir’s efforts to empower the underprivileged have allowed millions of people to earn a larger income which in turn enables them to provide basic comforts for their families.
