Transformative finance and business | Responsible, multi-sectoral leadership | Tri hita karana / three ways to happiness
This Plenary Keynote brings together two speakers who have abandoned the view of business as purely for profit, instead of dedicating their lives to Business for Good. By innovating business and financial models, and by advocating for sustainable development and philanthropy, these leaders have transformed the way their businesses impact the lives of their communities.
Prof. Muhammad Yunus
(Bangladesh)
Grameen Bank
The Inclusive Economy
Our first speaker is a social entrepreneur and Nobel Prize Laureate, Professor Muhammad Yunus, who remodeled the traditional concept of ‘credit’ into a trust-based microfinance platform for the poorest of the poor. Through its microloans, Grameen has empowered microentrepreneurs, 97% of whom are women, to achieve a living wage and meet the needs of their families. From its origins in Bangladesh, the Grameen model has now been replicated worldwide, through the belief that small loans can be the first step in eradicating poverty. Drawing from his experience, Professor Yunus challenges us to expand our thinking about business and investment, economic growth and development.
Cherie Nursalim
(Indonesia)
GITI Group
Tri Hita Karana: Business Aligned with the Balance of Life
Transformative finance and business | Responsible, multi-sectoral leadership
Our second speaker is Ms. Cherie Nursalim, the Vice Chairman of the GITI Group, and a world-renowned philanthropist, advocate, and tri-sector leader. In relating the wide variety of initiatives she has spearheaded, Ms. Nursalim underscores the need for a global shift in mindsets when it comes to business, finance, and even technology: how business can align itself to solve global problems and create a better, happier world. Anchored on tri hita karana, an ancient Balinese philosophy that means ‘three ways to happiness,’ Ms. Nursalim believes that business should ensure harmony with people, planet, and spirit in a way that embraces and transcends our diversity as citizens of this world.
