Alex Counts, Grameen Foundation

Alex Counts is the Founder, President and CEO of Grameen Foundation, a dynamic nonprofit, Washington D.C.-based organization that has grown to a global network of 58 microfinance partners in 23 countries. Counts became Grameen Foundation's first Executive Director in 1997, after ten years of working in microfinance and poverty reduction, primarily in Bangladesh. Counts has propelled Grameen Foundation's philosophy and approach through his writings on poverty and microcredit for the poor.

His works include, Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance Are Changing the World, and Give Us Credit: How Muhammad Yunus' Microlending Revolution is Empowering Women from Bangladesh to Chicago. Counts also serves on the Board of Directors of several microfinance institutions.

Mr. Alex Counts' talk on leadership was focused on people and the importance of choosing and retaining the right talent to lead an organization. He talked extensively about his own journey in becoming a leader and some of the 'accidental' and 'risky' decisions that he took which transformed him and the leadership in his organization.

Mr. Counts opened his talk by telling the audience how he got into the microfinance industry.  When he was a student at Cornell University, a professor encouraged him to write to Professor Yunus about the initiatives he was working on in Bangladesh.  He wrote him a letter with idealistic notions of wanting to help change the world and eradicate poverty.  Within five weeks, he received a reply, saying he could come and do an internship, but he should have an understanding of Bengali first.  As luck would have it, Cornell was offering a Bengali course the very next semester in which he enrolled, learned basic Bengali, and subsequently went to Bangladesh to study under Professor Yunus.

There were many risks involved in moving halfway across the world to pursue this vision, all of which transformed him and served him well in other situations.  After working with Prof. Yunus for a few years, Mr. Counts was given the opportunity to start the Grameen Foundation in the U.S., but with only $6,000 to start.  He agreed, worked hard to set up the foundation and has turned it into the successful organization that it is today.  There were many challenges and setbacks along the way, but with his passion and determination, he was able to succeed.

Mr. Counts stressed the importance of Human Resources in an organization.  Acquiring and more importantly, retaining talent is crucial to the success of the organization.  He emphasized the value of 360 degree appraisals, as he himself has learned things about himself that, while sometimes hard to hear, helped him become a better employee and a more effective leader.  He closed his lecture by encouraging the audience to think outside the box and to be passionate about every task they undertake, no matter the size or importance.