Muhammad Yunus[a] (born 28 June 1940) is a Bangladeshi economist, entrepreneur, and civil society leader who has been serving as the Chief Adviser of the interim government of Bangladesh[b] since 8 August 2024. Yunus pioneered the modern concept of microcredit and microfinance, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 as the first Bangladeshi. He is the founder of Grameen Bank.

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 devastating famine of 1974, Yunus started to work on poverty elevation 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 ins