CEI President Kent Lassman
Every year, CEI presents the Julian L. Simon Memorial Award to an individual who promotes “mankind as the ultimate resource.” This year, the award was given to Hernando de Soto, a Peruvian economist who founded Atlas Network partner Instituto Libertad y Democracia in Lima. De Soto has worked to reduce poverty around the globe by focusing on the importance of property rights. In 2004, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and President Clinton described him as “the world’s most important living economist” at the 2004 World Economic Forum at Davos.
“Economist, author, humanitarian, advisor to world leaders, and a serial entrepreneur of ideas, Hernando de Soto has stamped his mark on history through pioneering work to put capital in the hands of the poor,” said Lassman. “Like Julian Simon, de Soto develops and promotes ideas premised on the belief that people are the ultimate resource and the means to eradicate impoverishment. A leader in business, a champion of property rights, and an innovator of technological solutions to age-old problems of title and ownership, de Soto is a force for good who builds on the legacy of Simon.”
The next CEI Annual Dinner & Reception will take place on June 20, 2019.