Grameen
Foundation USA President Alex Counts to Speak at Fulbright Association
Conference in Marrakech, Morocco Grameen Foundation USA a Fast
Company/Monitor Group
2006 Social Capitalist Award Winner
WASHINGTON,
D.C. (Aug. 15, 2006)—Alex Counts, Fulbright
alumnus and president and CEO of Grameen Foundation USA (GFUSA), will
present the plenary luncheon address on Sunday, November 5, during the
Fulbright Association's 29th Annual Conference, "Fulbright Alumni:
Expressions in Civil Society." Mr. Counts has been recognized for leading an
organization that contributes measurably to reducing poverty, galvanizes
resources for its mission, and plans for sustainability.
A 1988 Cornell University graduate with a degree in economics, Mr. Counts
received a Fulbright fellowship to Bangladesh, where he trained under
Muhammad Yunus, also a Fulbright Program alumnus and the founder and
managing director of the Grameen Bank. Mr. Counts founded the Grameen
Foundation with $6,000 in seed capital and a charge from Dr. Yunus to
channel human, financial, and technological resources in the United States
to support the growth of the poverty-focused microfinance movement. Based in
Washington, D.C., the foundation has a global network of 52 microfinance
partners in 22 countries.
"My time as a Fulbright scholar in Bangladesh was a tremendous experience
and launched me into the world of microfinance, one of the most promising
anti-poverty strategies available today," said Mr. Counts. "In 1997, I
established Grameen Foundation USA, and since 2002, we have had an active
program supporting microfinance in the Arab world, with an emphasis on
Morocco, Egypt, and Tunisia. I am thrilled to be able to speak with
Fulbright alumni from around the world at the Association's meeting in
Morocco."
Mr. Counts wrote Give Us Credit: How Muhammad Yunus' Micro-Lending
Revolution is Empowering Women from Bangladesh to Chicago. He chairs the
board of Project Enterprise in New York City and is a board member of
Fonkoze USA, which supports microfinance in Haiti, and the PLAN Fund, a
microfinance institution based in Dallas. He is also a member of the board
of advisors of the Katalysis Bootstrap Fund and a member of the editorial
advisory board of Grameen Dialogue.
The Fulbright Association's 29th Annual Conference will be held from Nov. 3
through Nov. 5 as part of a series of meetings in conjunction with the
Moroccan Fulbright Alumni Association, the Moroccan-American Commission for
Educational and Cultural Exchange, and the U.S. Department of State.
Additional information on the Association, the annual conference, and
related meetings is available online at
http://www.fulbright.org.
