PRESS RELEASE: "Yunus and Buffet honoured at NY by Forbes Summit"
Muhammad Yunus and Warren Buffet honored at the UN in New York before the world’s wealthiest business leaders by the Forbes 400 Philanthropy Summit.
Over two hundred of the Forbes 400 billionaires assembled at the UN on June 5 to recognize Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus and Warren Buffett with lifetime achievement awards.
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 one third of a trillion dollars.
Muhammad Yunus addressed the gathering to invite them to become involved in social business. Yunus proposed that 10% 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 Buffet 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 …a remarkable, remarkable man… who has done so much in defining the best in human nature .
Bono introduced Warren Buffet 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 Buffet'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."
