In the spring of 2006, just weeks before the end of school, 11 MBA students and
one faculty member from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University
stumbled upon the book:
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid by C.K. Prahalad.
Using this book as a model, the student group developed the plan for an organization
dedicated to global poverty alleviation. During this development process, Vanderbilt
University Alumnus Muhammad Yunus received the Nobel Peace Prize for founding the
Grameen Bank , a Microfinance institution based out of Bangladesh. Taking the model
they had developed, the group approached Cal Turner, retired Chairman and CEO of
the Dollar General Corporation, to support the launch of the organization. Mr. Turner
pledged his total support for the program and thus, Project Pyramid was born.