Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)-Bangladesh’s Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus is ranked as the ninth most admired personality globally, as per a survey by the World Economic Forum (WEF) that ranked late South African President Nelson Mandela on the top.
Out of 1,084 respondents, three per cent voted for Professor Yunus while 20.1 per cent favoured Mandela.
Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance in Bangladesh.
He is also a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, banker, economist and civil society leader.
After Mandela, the WEF’s Global Shapers Annual Survey 2015 found that Pope Francis is the second most admired leader.
Mahatma Gandhi is ranked fourth most admired leader, according to a survey of more than 1,000 millennials.
As many as 12.4 per cent of the respondents voted for Gandhi.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is ranked as the 10th most admired personality in the world, the survey said.
Like Yunus, Modi also got three per cent of vote.
The respondents were spread across 285 cities in 125 countries.
Others in the list are Tesla Motors’ CEO Elon Musk (3rd rank), Microsoft Founder Bill Gates (5), US President Barack Obama (6th), Virgin Group Founder Richard Barson (7), Apple Founder Steve Jobs (8), Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus (9) and US investor Warren Buffett (11).
All the survey respondents are members of the WEF’s Global Shapers Community aged between 20 and 30 years.
In the list of 11, three personalities are not alive — Mandela, Gandhi and Jobs.
BBN/SS/ANS