Greg Mortenson

Greg Mortenson was born in St. Cloud, Minnesota. His early life was spent in Tanzania, where his parents, Irvin and Jerene, worked as teachers and fundraisers for the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center and International School Moshi. During this time, Mortenson became fluent in Swahili. He returned to Minnesota in the early 1970s, attending Ramsey High School in Roseville, Minnesota, and graduating between 1973 and 1975. Following high school, Mortenson served in the U.S. Army in Germany from 1975 to 1977, earning the Army Commendation Medal. He then pursued higher education at Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota, from 1977 to 1979 on an athletic scholarship, where the football team won the NAIA Division III national championship in 1978. He later graduated from the University of South Dakota in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies and an associate degree in nursing.

Mortenson’s humanitarian career began after a 1993 expedition to climb K2 in northern Pakistan, undertaken as a memorial to his sister. Following this climb, he describes stumbling into the village of Korphe. Motivated by a promise to the community, he dedicated himself to building a school there, which led to the co-founding of the Central Asia Institute (CAI) with Jean Hoerni in 1996. The CAI’s mission focused on promoting education and literacy, particularly for girls, in remote mountain regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. His work resulted in the establishment or support of over 300 projects by 2014, including 191 schools. He further founded the educational charity Pennies for Peace. Mortenson is also the co-author of the New York Times Bestseller “Three Cups of Tea” and “Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

His career saw a turning point between 2011 and 2012 when accusations of financial irregularities within the CAI and factual inaccuracies in his books emerged. A year-long investigation by the Montana Attorney General found that Mortenson had improperly used over $6 million of the organization’s funds. As a result, in 2012, Mortenson agreed to repay $1 million to the CAI and resigned as executive director, also stepping down as a voting member of the board. He officially retired from CAI in 2015. Despite the controversies, his early efforts significantly contributed to girls’ education in challenging regions.