Muhammad Yunus was born on June 28, 1940 in what is now Bangladesh. After growing up as a boy scout, he studied at Vanderbilt University in the United States of America from 1966 on a Fulbright Scholarship.

He received his doctorate in economics there in 1969. After teaching for three years, he returned to his home country in 1972 and became a professor at Chittagong University.

With the aim of reducing poverty in the world, he was involved as project manager of a development project at his university from 1976. This led to the establishment of Grameen Bank in 1983, which, under Prof. Yunus' leadership, has been helping the country's poor population and advising the Bangladeshi government on international economic issues since 1996.

Prof. Muhammad Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together with the Grameen Bank in 2006 for this social commitment.

He visited Wiesbaden in November 2009 on the occasion of the Wiesbaden Responsibility Forum. The Social Business Forum followed under Prof. Yunus' patronage in November 2011.

In the run-up to this conference, Yunus spoke at the mayors' conference in the Wiesbaden Kurhaus, which was also held under the motto of social business.