Muhammad Yunus -- "The Father of Microcredit" -- To Keynote the 2012 SRI Conference Held in New York City Area

Nobel Laureate and "One of 12 Greatest Entrepreneurs of Our Time" to Speak on Opening Night of Gathering in Connecticut Near NYC and Boston.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., May 2, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, who is widely regarded as the father of microcredit and also is the founder of Grameen Bank, will be the keynote speaker on the opening night of the 23rd annual SRI Conference on Sustainable, Responsible, Impact Investing ("The 2012 SRI Conference") taking place October 2-4, 2012 at the Mohegan Sun Conference Center in Connecticut.

Organized by First Affirmative Financial Network, The SRI Conference (formerly known as SRI in the Rockies) is the largest annual gathering of responsible investors and investment professionals in North America.  The October 2012 conference represents the first time the major industry event has been held on the East Coast, with easy access to and from New York City, Boston, and Washington, D.C.  For more information, go to http://www.SRIconference.com.

In March, 2012 Fortune Magazine named Yunus as "one of 12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time."  In 2006, Professor Yunus and Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  The Wharton School of Business chose him as one of "The 25 Most Influential Business Persons of the Past 25 Years."  In 2008, in an open online poll, Professor Yunus was voted the second topmost intellectual person in the world on the list of Top 100 Public Intellectuals by Prospect magazine (UK) and Foreign Policy magazine (US).

First Affirmative President, Steve Schueth, producer of The SRI Conference, said:  "The SRI community and the 2012 SRI Conference sponsors are very pleased that one of the seminal figures in the world of microcredit and sustainable investing will be joining us to open the 23rd annual SRI Conference.  This will be a must-attend session for investors, investment professionals, and companies interested in directing the flow of investment capital toward a truly sustainable future."

Professor Yunus was born in Bangladesh in 1940.  In 1965, he received a Fulbright Scholarship to study economics at Vanderbilt University, and received a PhD in economics in 1969.  He returned to Bangladesh in 1972 and joined University of Chittagong's Department of Economics as its chairman.  In 1976, Professor Yunus started to experiment with providing collateral free loans to the poor.  The project was called the Grameen Bank Project which later, in 1983, became a full-fledged bank providing loans to the poor, mostly women, in rural Bangladesh.  Today Grameen Bank has over 8.4 million borrowers, 97 percent of whom are women, and disburses over one and a half billion dollars (US) each year.  His microcredit idea has spread to almost all the countries of the world, including the industrialized countries of the West.

Professor Yunus  is one of only seven individuals to have received the Nobel Peace Prize, the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the United States Congressional Gold Medal.  Other notable awards conferred upon him include the Ramon Magsaysay Award (1984), World Food Prize (1994), International Simon Bolivar Prize (1996), Sydney Peace Prize (1998), and Seoul Peace Prize (2006).

About the SRI Conference
The SRI Conference (http://www.SRIconference.com) is the leading forum for the sustainable, responsible, impact (SRI) investment industry in North America.  For more information about the agenda, speaking, or sponsorship, please contact Krystala Kalil, at 888-774-2663 or [email protected].  Register at http://www.sriconference.com/register.jsp.

About First Affirmative Financial Network
First Affirmative Financial Network, LLC (http://www.firstaffirmative.com) is an independent fee-only Registered Investment Advisor (SEC File #801-56587) offering investment consulting and asset management services through a nationwide network of investment professionals who specialize in serving socially conscious investors.  First Affirmative produces the annual SRI Conference, the premier gathering of responsible investors and investment professionals in North America.

SOURCE First Affirmative Financial Network, Colorado Springs, CO