Greg Mortenson

Greg Mortenson (born December 27, 1957) is an American professional speaker, writer, veteran, and former mountaineer. He is a co-founder and former executive director of the non-profit Central Asia Institute and the founder of the educational charity Pennies for Peace. Mortenson has been accused of financial irregularities in handling donations to the CAI and falsehoods in his books. In 2012, Mortenson repaid $1 million to the CAI after an inquiry by the Montana Attorney General, though no criminality was found. Mortenson is the co-author of The New York Times Bestseller, Three Cups of Tea, which stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 220 weeks. Three Cups of Tea has been published in 47 languages. Mortenson is also the author of Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan. 2Early life Mortsenson was born in 1957 in St. Cloud, Minnesota. His parents, Irvin and Jerene, went with the Lutheran Church to Tanganyika (now Tanzania) in 1958 to be teachers in at a girls' school in the Usambara mountain