The Aga Khan, has gained notoriety in the United States and abroad for focusing his international business acumen on development rather than profit.
The Muslim religious leader has not only shown an impressive skill for business, but focused most of his efforts on increasing international development and long-term outcomes, the International Herald Tribune said Monday.
"The Aga Khan is making a significant contribution that people too often underestimate -- many of his investments have become huge successes, but he's not driven by profit," World Bank official Praful Patel said.
In addition to advancing development throughout the global business community, the Aga Khan has been lauded for his ability to reorient the world's concept of Islam.
The chairman of a for-profit Swiss company, The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, said poverty, not religion, is the cause for much of the world's extremism.
"If you travel the developing world, you see poverty is the driver of tragic despair, and there is the possibility that any means out will be taken," he told the Herald.