“There’s a great deal of philanthropy focused on alleviating the symptoms of current poverty, but relatively little focused on preventing future poverty.” - Sir John Templeton

Atlas Network’s founder, Antony Fisher, knew what it meant to find your own place in the world after his father was killed in the first World War, when Antony was only two years old. He went on to serve as a pilot in the Royal Air Force in World War II. He experienced firsthand the sheer impact that can be achieved by the will of a small but committed group of people.

Seeing Britain embrace a socialist economic agenda at the end of the war, Antony was dismayed by the subversion of individual enterprise in service of a government-led centralized policy. He came across an abridged edition of F. A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, which proposes that central planning inevitably erodes individual liberty and enables tyranny. Hayek’s philosophy not only influenced Fisher’s own career trajectory but also inspired him to think of ways to drive grassroots-level change that promoted free-market opportunities.

Fisher’s journey as an entrepreneur and change agent brought him to the U.S. In 1981, he established what became Atlas Network to institutionalize a process of helping think tanks unshackle the power of individual liberty and enterprise.

Today, Atlas Network partners with almost 500 think tanks in over 100 countries that drive change in ideas, culture, and policy; remove barriers to opportunities; and empower individuals to live a life of choice.