Hernando de Soto is a Peruvian citizen, an accomplished economist and a transformative leader whose ideas have achieved global renown. He pursued graduate studies at Insitut Universitaire des Hautes Études Internationales in Geneva, Switzerland. Under his leadership, the Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD), rated by the Economist among the top two world’s leading research organizations, creates development policies many governments have utilized to fight the war against poverty. The ILD created programs to transform the Peruvian economic system: more than a million Peruvian families received land title deeds, thousands of informal companies were transformed into formal firms, and inflation was reduced.
De Soto has held appointments as Economist to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; President, Executive Committee of the Copper Exporting Countries Organization; Managing Director, Universal Engineering Corporation; Principal, Swiss Bank Corporation Consultant Group; and Governor, Peru Central Reserve Bank. He was President Alberto Fujimori’s Personal Representative and Principal Advisor until resigning two months before the President’s coup d’état. He is affiliated with the World Commission on the Global Dimension of Globalization, International Labor Organization, United Nations Development Program Taskforce to Examine Private Resources for Development, and the Expert Group on Development Issues.
De Soto is the author of The Other Path (1986), and The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else (2000). In his latter book, he contends that marginalized poor populations can achieve economic prosperity if they receive property titles. He is popular among Western leaders because he embraces free market economy and is widely hailed as one of the most influential modernizers of our time.

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