NOBEL LAUREATES WHO LED THEIR COUNTRIES
Economist Muhammad Yunus, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, arrived in Dhaka. He is set to take oath as the head of Bangladesh’s interim government.
Yunus, however, will not be the first Nobel laureate to later lead their country. Five others have preceded him.
LESTER B PEARSON (CANADA)
Pearson was the Canadian prime minister from 1963 to 1968, and a leader of the Liberal Party.
NOBEL PRIZE: Pearson won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957, for his role in resolving the Suez Crisis.
LECH WALESA (POLAND)
Wałęsa served as Poland’s president from 1990-95, the first since 1926 to be democratically elected.
NOBEL PRIZE: He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 “for non-violent struggle for free trade unions and human rights in Poland”.
AUNG SAN SUU KYI (MYANMAR)
Suu Kyi served as the State Counsellor of Myanmar, the de-facto head of the government equivalent to a prime minister, 2016 to 2021 after leading Myanmar’s transition from military rule to partial democracy
NOBEL PRIZE: She had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 “for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights” in Myanmar.
NELSON MANDELA (SOUTH AFRICA)
Mandela served as the president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the first Black president of the country, elected in its first ever multi-racial elections.
NOBEL PRIZE: He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, jointly with then President Frederik Willem de Klerk, “for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa
JOSE RAMOS HORTA (EAST TIMOR)
Ramos-Horta has been the president of East Timor since 2022. He previously held the position from 2007 to 2012, and the prime ministership from 2006 to 2007.
NOBEL PRIZE:
He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 along with Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, for working “towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor”.
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