On April 27-28, 2005, Atlas held its 5th Annual Liberty Forum in Miami, Florida. About 300 participants from the international think tank network representing 49 countries attended. The most well-attended Liberty Forum so far, the conference addressed the political, economic, and security issues affecting Latin America. It also focused on an important theme seminal to the works of Atlas: think tank strategies on resource-building and self-sustenance. According to Atlas’s Brad Lips, the conference offered a perfect venue for “learning more effective ways to spread the ideas of liberty, increasing the numbers in our cause, and bringing positive change to each corner of the world.”
On April 26, 2005, the day before the start of the Liberty Forum, Atlas hosted an afternoon program for close to 40 new think tank leaders and contacts from 22 countries. The goal of the meeting was to give first-time attendees of the Liberty Forum a more intimate introduction to the think tank network and to equip them with strategies that they could use to grow their think tanks. Participants heard from Mara Batlin (NGO Alliance, United States) about strategic planning, Eduardo Marty (Junior Achievement, Argentina) about fundraising and James Shikwati (IREN, Kenya) about events and planning. Atlas intends on making this program a regular component of its annual meetings.
Finally, as its culminating event, Atlas held a special session addressing Latin American health issues on Friday, April 29th.
RADIO BROADCAST OF EVENT’S PROCEEDINGS
SPEECHES AND PRESENTATONS
- Opening Remarks by Brad Lips (Atlas Economic Research Foundation)
- Building Long-Term Strategic Direction for Your Think Tank by Christopher Derry (Bluegrass Institute for POlicy Solutions, Kentucky)
- Student Outreach Programs of the Center for Free Enterprise, Korea by Chung-ho Kim (Center for Free Enterprise, South Korea)
- Triple A Marketing Budgetting and Controlling by Barbara Kolm-Lamprechter (F.A. Hayek Institut, Austria)
- Local Development in Times of Political Adversity by Leopoldo Lopez (Mayor of Chacao, Venezuela)
- Junior Achievement, Spain and Argentina by Eduardo Marty (Junior Achievement)
- An Evolving Aspect in the Collective Security of America by Mario Ivan Carratu Molina (Centro de Estudios Estrategicos y Seguridad, Venezuela)
- The Power of the Internet to Disseminate Ideas and Shift Public Opinion by Christopher Smith Internet Education Exchange, Arizona)
- Think Tanks and Security Policy by Ugnius Trumpa (Lithuanian Free Market Institute, Lithuania)
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Christopher Derry is the Founder and President of the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, Kentucky’s free-market think tank committed to changing how Kentuckians think about government. Born and raised in Van Wert, Ohio, Chris graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 1973, and earned an MBA in 1986 from Vanderbilt University. Mr. Derry began his business career in Tiffin in 1979. He moved to Bowling Green in 1982 where, together with a business partner, expanded his business to some 60 branches in the next five years. In 1988 he founded QuantumLeap, a service company that coaches people and organizations, which he later sold to a competitor in 1996. Until recently, he has represented institutional asset management firms to financial advisors in ten southern states and in South America. Retired in September 2003, he established the Bluegrass Institute. A Rotarian for the past 27 years, Chris is currently a member of the Scottsville Rotary Club. He resides on a small farm just outside Bowling Green with his wife, Nancy.
Chung-Ho Kim is the President of the Center for Free Enterprise, a libertarian think tank based in Seoul, South Korea. Dr. Kim is a provocative commentator on a broad array of economic, political, and legal issues affecting South Korea. Author of Law and Economics for the Cyber Space (in Korean), published in 2004 by the Bubmunsa Press, and other books, Kim has also written numerous academic papers and op-ed pieces for the Joongang Daily, Korea Economic Daily, among others. He has also appeared on Korean TV in news shows such as KBS’s Late Night Debate and MBC’s 100 Minutes Debate. He was behind the effort of requiring newly recruited workers at Samsung Group to read the Market Principle for the Seventy Million, a translation of Gwartney and Stroup’s What Everyone Should Know About Economics and Prosperity. Kim obtained his Ph.D in Economics from the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign in 1988, and a Ph.D in Law from the Soongsil University in 2003.
Barbara Kolm-Lamprechter is the Secretary General of the Friedrich August v. Hayek Institute in Vienna, Austria. The revival of the Austrian School of Economics in its native country, where it had been forgotten and neglected for a long time, is the mission of the Institute. Always interested in free market and liberal ideas, Barbara accepted an invitation to join the Hayek Institute in fall 2000. She was responsible for the Institute’s expansion, focusing on fundraising, reorganizing, and making more people acquainted with the Institute. She started her career by working in her family´s firm. She then went on to become an assistant professor at the Department of Tourism and Service Economics of the University of Innsbruck. At the same time she started her own business consultancy. Barbara is a member of the Board of Business Consultants of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Mont Pélerin Society.
Leopoldo Lopez is the current Mayor of Chacao, Venezuela and vice-president of the Association of Mayors of Venezuela and the Fundabomberos Metropolitan Area of Caracas. He is also a professor of institutional economics at the Catholic University Beautiful Andres. Educated in the United States, Lopez has a master’s degree in Public Policies from Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government (1996), and an undergraduate degree (cum laude) in economics from Kenyon College (1993). He has been a recipient of The National, Venezuela’s Prize for the Best Article Opinion of the Year for writing a piece entitled, “The Exercise of Democracy,” in 1995. He was also the recipient of Kenyon College’s ‘The Hetzlinger Prize in Philosophy’ (1992) par excellence in sociology. Among his other past accomplishments, Lopez was the founder and president of ‘Forum-Venezuela,’ a forum of discussion for students at Harvard and MIT. He was also the organizer of the “Expedition Venus’ (Venezuela - U.S.) that took his group to the White Mountain range of Peru in 1994.
Eduardo Marty is the Founder of Junior Achievement Argentina, a highly successful education outreach initiative in Argentina. For his active role in its inception and growth, Mr. Marty was awarded the “Global Leadership Award” by the Board of Junior Achievement International in New York in 1996. The organization itself garnered the “Global Fuqua Excellence Award” for its exemplary performance in institutional growth and student outreach. Marty is also a founding member of JA in Spain and helped launch its branches in Paraguay, Chile, Brazil, and Colombia. Among his other accomplishments, he is the president of the Foundation Education for the Future and a member of the Board of Directors of Fundacion Atlas. He also produced and directed BOOM, a news and analysis program that won in 1996 the “Entrepreneur Prize” from Argentina’s business magazine, Tomorrow Professional. Marty has been active in conference circuits, having attended numerous international conferences, including Mont Pelerin Society meetings. He has also assumed academic posts as professor of economics and political economy at the University Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala, at the Fepade in El Salvador, and the University of Buenos Aires, teaching political economy. He was also a fellow at the Institute of Humane Studies. Marty earned a bachelor’s degree in economics at the Grove City College in Pennsylvania and also graduated as a Public Accountant in the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires. He is currently doing a PHD in Economics at the College of Economics and Business Administration in Buenos Aires.
Mario Ivan Carratu Molina, a retired vice admiral of the Venezuelan Navy, is a political and military analyst on defense and security issues in Venezuela. He served as the Defense Attache for the Venezuelan Government at the Defense Department (1994-95), representing the Venezuelan Embassy. Prior to this position, he was Superintendent of the Venezuelan Institute for Studies in National Security and Defense (1992-95) and served as the Military House Chief for former President Carlos Andres Perez (1990-92). He also served as a staff member of the Naval Operations Staff, Director of Operations and was Commander of several Naval combat units. Mr. Molina obtained his bachelors and masters degrees in Operations Research from The Naval Postgraduate School (1979-1982). He also attended a naval command course, “la Scuola diComando Navale” in Livorno, Italy (1970-71) and a “Crisis and Conflict Management” seminar at the US State Department. He is currently writing his thesis for a doctoral degree in Political Science.
Christopher Smith is a native of Philadelphia, where he was born into a blue collar family. At age 15, he found himself living on his own. Without a place to live, he decided to drop out of school. With the help of his high school history teacher, he stayed in school, finished first in his engineering class at Northern Arizona University and earned an MBA from Arizona State University. As a civil engineer and geodesist, he served on the first commercial GPS crew – mapping the Amazon jungles, the Himalayan mountains, and polar ice caps. Smith then worked on water resource management in the U.S. and abroad. Smith assumed several federal and state government posts. He then later served as chief executive officer of the Goldwater Institute in Arizona. Finally, he became the founding CEO of the Internet Education Exchange, an experimental non-profit school choice organization. Smith resides in Scottsdale with his wife, Vanessa Bertini, and three daughters.
Ugnius Trumpa is responsible for presenting the Lithuania Free Market Institute’s work and ideas to the business community and state institutions in Lithuania, thus expanding the circle of advocates and supporters of the free market. Having joined LFMI in 1996, Mr. Trumpa generates ideas on how to reduce bureaucracy, combat corruption and liberalise business conditions. He holds a master’s degree in philosophy from Lomonosov University in Moscow and a diploma in economics from Vilnius University.
SPECIAL SESSION: LATIN AMERICAN HEALTH ISSUES (April 29, 2005)
In the aftermath of the Liberty Forum conference, Atlas held a special session to discuss Latin American health issues on Friday, April 29th at the Intercontinental Hotel in Miami. The goal of the meeting was threefold: 1) to expose Latin American think tanks to health care policy topics and current research, 2) to create momentum for them to tackle these issues within their think tanks and 3) mobilize a group of individuals/institutes that could work together to elevate the issues in their countries.
PRESENTATIONS
- Health Care Reform: Challenges and Pitfalls, The Chilean Case by Rodrigo Castro (Libertad y Desarrollo, Chile)
- Salud Y Reformas by Jose Isern (Argentina)
- Countering the Anti-capitalists Through Issue Networks by Julian Morris (International Policy Network, UK)
- Bolivia in South America by Sylvia Pasquier (Bolivia)
- The Brazilian Health Reform and the Role of the Private Sector by Marcus Xavier (IBMEC, Brazil)
COMMENTARIES
- International Inspiration by Lynn Harsh, Executive Director Evergreen Freedom Foundation (Washington)
- Conquering a New Frontier: Insights from the Liberty Forum by Sorin Cucerai, Romania
No comments have been made on this post.