Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus has resigned from his own nonprofit, citing worries about its upcoming summit that could draw fellow Laureates from across the globe to Atlanta.
In an email to his board Thursday, Yunus, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for work in micro-lending, blamed members of Yunus Creative Lab for misrepresenting his views on recent turmoil surrounding the November event.
The peace summit has made repeated headlines in recent weeks after Mayor Kasim Reed pulled out of plans for the city to participate because of concerns about the way the gathering is being organized. The CEO of YCL, Mohammad Bhuiyan, and his wife and business partner, Shamima Amin, are the lead organizers of the summit.
Bhuiyan has pushed back against the mayor, saying Reed withdrew the city’s support because he wanted his preferred vendors hired. Reed refutes those accusations, saying he suggested a reputable event planner who has worked with The Carter Center and has experience with Nobel summits.
In the weeks since their falling out, a number of prominent Atlantans have also withdrawn their participation.
In an email obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Yunus wrote that he’s resigning after news stories erroneously reported that he still fully supports the event, despite Reed’s withdrawal and concerns raised by the Permanent Secretariat of the World Summit. That organization, which is not affiliated with the Nobel Foundation, initially designated Atlanta as this year’s host city.
In the email, Yunus blamed unnamed members of his organization for the misinformation and wrote that he’s no longer associated with YCL and is “in no way responsible for its actions.” Bhuiyan and his wife co-founded the nonprofit with Yunus.
“I am very concerned that YCL is projecting my views in the press which are completely opposite to my actual position on the issue. Not only am I unable to influence the position taken by the management of YCL, but to my utter surprise, I am being presented as if I am in full support of the YCL initiative,” Yunus wrote. “Under these circumstances I see no other option but to resign from the position of chairman and member of Yunus Creative Lab board of directors with immediate effect and disassociate myself from YCL in all matters.”
Yunus could not be immediately reached to verify the email’s authenticity, but Bhuiyan confirmed the news. He said he believes Yunus resigned because of confusion over news stories and a recent press release, which quoted an email Yunus sent to the Permanent Secretariat last Saturday expressing support for the summit.
“There has been so much negative publicity around the summit by some people intentionally trying to undermine the great work that has been done. And there is every reason for Professor Yunus to feel uncomfortable and take himself out of the muddy picture,” Bhuiyan said Thursday.
It’s unclear what his resignation means for the event, which has drawn the support of many elite Atlantans, including Nobel Peace Prize recipient President Jimmy Carter, Ted Turner, Laura Turner Seydel, and several local CEOS and political figures.
Bhuiyan said the nonprofit’s board will meet to discuss its next steps. “Until that time, everything is on the go,” he said.
In the email, Yunus wrote that he hopes the “leaders of Atlanta will find a peaceful and happy solution to the problem and find a way to hold the summit in Atlanta in November.”
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