Nobel Laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus and billionaire philanthropist Warren Buffett were honored before the world’s wealthiest business leaders and groundbreaking social entrepreneurs at the second annual Forbes 400 Summit on Philanthropy.Over two hundred of the Forbes 400 billionaires and social entrepreneurs assembled to recognize them with lifetime achievement awards at the United Nations in New York on June 5.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the billionaires and invited them to play a role in addressing global problems of poverty, poor health care and environmental issues.
This gathering of the wealthiest people in the world at the UN was organized by Forbes magazine. Steve Forbes, chairman of Forbes magazine, said the total wealth of the people in the room was about half a trillion dollars.
Muhammad Yunus addressed the gathering to invite them to become involved in social business. Yunus proposed that 10 percent of philanthropy money from each person attending the Summit could be invested each year in Social Business.
In addition to Buffett, the participants included Bill Gates, Bill Ackman, famous rock musician Bono, Ray Chambers, Paul Tudor Jones, Peter G. Peterson, Stephen Schwartzman, and Jeff Skoll.
Muhammad Yunus addressed the plenary session along with eBay co-founder Jeff Skoll, Robin Hood founder Paul Tudor Jones.
In a special evening ceremony to honor Warren Buffett and Muhammad Yunus, Steve Forbes gave a glowing tribute to Yunus before he presented the award for lifetime achievement as a social entrepreneur.
He called Yunus and his work “an extraordinary catalyst for reducing poverty …a remarkable, remarkable man… who has done so much in defining the best in human nature.”
Bono introduced Warren Buffett before giving him a lifetime achievement award for philanthropy
Warren Buffett in his speech jokingly referred to Steve Forbes’s announcement of Muhammad Yunus as Buffett’s successor as the CEO of the famous investment company Berkshire Hathaway.
He said, “Well, tomorrow the Berkshire Hathaway stock will skyrocket because Muhammad Yunus has been announced as my successor by Steve Forbes. Even Bill Gates doesn`t know that piece of information although he is on my board of directors.”
All the high net-worth people of the world assembled at the Summit gave a standing ovation to Professor Yunus and Warren Buffett on receiving the awards. (Banglanews24.com)
