12th Annual Banquet (2013) – Biographies

Dr. Muhammad Yunus is Chairman of the Yunus Centre. He founded the Grameen Bank, in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1993, with the objective of helping poor people escape poverty by providing loans on terms tailored to their needs and by teaching them a few basic financial principles so they could help themselves. His visionary and pioneering work in microcredit and microfinance began with insights gained when he lent small amounts of personal funds to destitute basket weavers in Bangladesh, who were then able to purchase needed materials to create a livelihood. The micro-lending movement has been incorporated in strategies to eradicate poverty worldwide.

He received his Ph.D. in economics from Vanderbilt in 1969 and the following year became an assistant professor of economics at Middle Tennessee State University. Returning to Bangladesh, Dr. Yunus headed the economics department at Chittagong University.

He is a founding board member of Grameen America and Grameen Foundation, which supports microcredit. He also serves on the board of directors of the United Nations Foundation.

In 2006, Dr. Yunus and Grameen Bank received the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts in creating economic and social development. Among his many national and international honors and awards, Dr. Yunus received the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal in 2010 which was formally presented to him in 2013 in Washington, DC.

In February 2011, Dr. Yunus co-founded Yunus Social Business – Global Initiatives (YSB), which helps create and empowers social businesses to solve social problems around the world. YSB also manages Incubator Funds for social businesses in developing countries and providing advisory services to companies, governments, foundations and NGOs.

In 2012, Dr. Yunus became Chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland. He is a member of the advisory board at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology. Previously, he was a professor of economics at Chittagong University in Bangladesh, his alma mater.

Ron Kim is Member of the New York State Assembly, District 40, and is the first Korean-American ever elected to the New York State Legislature. In his first month in office, Assemblymember Kim helped pass legislation A.3354 which implemented a tax relief for New York City homeowners; the bill is projected to encourage housing development. Kim is an active supporter of immigration issues and is a sponsor of the DREAM Act on the state level as well as the prime sponsor on a bill to make Lunar New Year an allowable school holiday. Kim has sponsored legislation inspired by events that happen in his district; in January 2013, he became a proponent of the Taxi Drivers Protection Act following a robbery and assault that occurred in Brooklyn.

Raised in Flushing, Queens, Assemblymember Kim graduated from the Riverdale Country Day School in 1997, earned his B.A. from Hamilton College, and a Masters in Public Administration from Baruch College. Kim began his career in public service in then-Councilmember John C. Liu’s office, focusing on quality-of-life issues in his beloved downtown Flushing community. Kim moved on to become an aide to then-State Assemblyman Mark Weprin. Following his work in Assemblyman Weprin’s office, he joined the New York City Department of Buildings, followed by the Department of Small Business Services. In 2004, he was accepted into the National Urban Fellows Program, advising the Chief Education Office of the Chicago Public Schools and simultaneously earned his Masters in Public Administration from Baruch College.

In 2006, Kim joined the staff of New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn as a Policy Analyst, writing and examining legislation on issues related to transportation, infrastructure, and economic development.

From 2007 through 2010, Kim served as a Regional Director for Government and Community Affairs in the administrations of Governors Eliot Spitzer and David A. Paterson, where he collaborated and worked with a varied group of state agencies, elected officials, and community organizations. After leaving the Governor’s office, Kim joined The Parkside Group, where he advocated on behalf of children with special needs, small business, and vulnerable New Yorkers.

Kamelia Kilawan is a Jeanette K. Watson Fellow and a Provost Scholar at Baruch College/CUNY with concentrations in Journalism and Religious Studies. As an Indo-Caribbean woman, she is curious about the thread that binds the city’s ethnic communities and is using this passion to strengthen her skills as a journalist. 

Kamelia served as a columnist for The West Indian, a local newspaper circulated among Indo-Caribbeans in south Queens. She has interned at Girls Write Now, Gotham Gazette, and most recently the New York Observer. Writing, a true passion of hers, last spring Kamelia received second-place prize for her memoir on the politics of gender for the Sidney Harman non-fiction writing contest judged by Hilton Als, a renowned theater critic of The New Yorker.

Kamelia is proud to be awarded the 2013 CUNY Thomas Tam Scholarship as she believes it will help her amplify the voices of Indo-Caribbean women in Kali temples.

Richard Lui anchors MSNBC News on weekdays from 10 a.m. until noon, breaking down the nation’s most compelling issues of the day. He joined MSNBC’s dayside team in September 2010.

Before joining MSNBC, Lui spent five years at CNN Worldwide, most recently with CNN Headline News as the solo anchor of the 10 a.m. hour of “Morning Express.”  He also led the network’s morning political reporting throughout the 2008 presidential election. Lui anchored and reported on all of CNN Worldwide’s English-language networks including CNN US, CNN International, and HLN.

Lui’s field work includes reporting in Africa and Asia on global issues such as defense systems, terrorism, human trafficking, SARS, and Bird Flu.  In 2010, he traveled to the Gulf to report extensively on the oil spill cleanup, an industry in which he spent five years working professionally.  In addition, Lui has anchored continuous live coverage of breaking stories such as the 2009 Gaza-Israel War, the Virginia Tech Massacre, the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel War, the Mumbai train terrorist bombings and the Enron verdicts in 2006. Lui started his journalism career at Singapore-based Channel NewsAsia, an English-only news network spanning 20 countries and territories.

In addition, Lui brings a 15-year career in international business that spans five industries including consulting, manufacturing, food and beverage, environmental, and technology fields. He spent the 90s in Silicon Valley with several successful new businesses, his latest being the first bank-centric payment system for which he holds a patent. He also worked for firms including Citibank, and Mercer Management Consulting in New York.

Lui has spent 25 years in community service, volunteering in Africa, Asia, and the United States for organizations like Habitat for Humanity and the YMCA.  He serves as a pro bono strategy consultant and board member for non-profits involved with homeless and affordable housing.  He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in rhetoric from UC Berkeley and holds an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. He currently is enrolled at Stanford University pursuing a Graduate Certificate in International Security.