Muhammad Yunus was born in 1940 in Bangladesh and obtained his PhD in economics from the University of Tennessee. After returning to Bangladesh, he started various rural economic programs and small loan programs to encourage entrepreneurship among the poor. This approach, which he called "microcredit", has since spread to over 100 countries and helped over 8 billion borrowers. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work in alleviating poverty.