Following a meeting between French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus, and HEC Paris Dean Bernard Ramanantsoa, HEC has announced the founding of a Chair in “Social Business”.

The Chair will be charged with developing a two-month training program on social business designed to complement the final-year curriculum of MSc in Management students at HEC or at other business schools and universities. The objective will be to sensitize students to innovative approaches in business that contribute to reducing poverty and exclusion in both developing countries and developed countries such as France.

Professor Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize winner 2006, founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and also HEC Honoris Causa Professor since 2005, will co-hold the Chair with Martin Hirsch, High Commissioner for Active Solidarities against Poverty in the French government and former chairman of charity Emmaüs France.

Alongside the creation of this Chair, a seminar will take place in partnership with the High Commissioner for Active Solidarities against Poverty on the HEC Campus in autumn 2008. This conference will aim to bring together French business leaders to help them reflect and act on how to fight against poverty in their work.