Peace Prize Forum Speakers

Dr. Muhammad Yunus
2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Dr. Muhammad Yunus shares the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize with the Grameen Bank. Yunus founded the bank to provide low-cost loans to individuals in Bangladesh to counter the prolonged effects of poverty. The Grameen Bank has resulted in the creation of economic and social improvements from the ground up and by the “poorest of the poor.” Today the bank counts more than six million borrowers. Listen to a recent interview with Yunus on Minnesota Public Radio.

Greg Mortenson
Greg Mortenson’s work establishing elementary schools in the most remote poverty stricken parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan is chronicled in the New York Times bestseller “Three Cups of Tea.” As of 2007, he has established more than 60 schools for over 25,000 children, including 14,000 girls. Mortenson is the founder of nonprofit Central Asia Institute and Pennies For Peace.

Dr. Jeffrey Sachs
Dr. Jeffrey Sachs is director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University and special advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He previously served as director of the U.N. Millennium Project and special advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals. He is also president and co-founder of Millennium Promise Alliance, dedicated to ending extreme global poverty.

Sachs will participate live at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum by videoconference, interviewed by NPR correspondent and host John Ydstie ’74.