Alex Counts

Alex Counts, President & CEO

Alex Counts is President and CEO of Grameen Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on enabling the poor to escape poverty, using microfinance and technology. Counts founded Grameen Foundation and became its CEO in 1997, after working in microfinance and poverty reduction for 10 years.

A Cornell University graduate, Counts’ commitment to poverty eradication deepened as a Fulbright scholar in Bangladesh, where he witnessed innovative poverty solutions being developed by Grameen Bank. He trained under Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the founder and managing director of Grameen Bank, and co-recipient of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.

Counts has propelled Grameen Foundation’s philosophy through his writings: Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance Are Changing the World. Counts has also been published in the Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, the Miami Herald, the Christian Science Monitor and elsewhere.

Counts chairs Project Enterprise’s board and is vice-chair of the Fonkoze USA board. He sits on the Advisory Council of the Center for Financial Inclusion and Co-Chairs the Microenterprise Coalition.

Counts previously served as the legislative director of RESULTS, as a regional project manager for CARE-Bangladesh and speaks Bengali.