Speakers

Diego Arria is a Venezuelan economist and politician. He was a member of Congress, Minister of Information and Tourism and Governor of Caracas. In the international arena, he was director of the Inter-American Development Bank, ambassador to the UN, president of the Security Council and assistant secretary general and advisor to the secretary general of the United Nations. He was also an important agro-industrial entrepreneur.

Alberto Benegas Lynch is Latin America’s foremost liberal, among other recognized positions, he has been twice Member of the Board of Mont Pelerin Society, is member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Institute of Economic Affairs de Cato Institute and of Ludwig von Mises Institute, He is President of the Freedom and Progress Foundation (Fundación Libertad y Progreso) in Argentina. He is and author of 17 books and 6 more in collaboration with other authors.

Scott Bullock is the President of the Institute for Justice. He served as a senior attorney and litigated a wide variety of constitutional challenges in federal and state courts. Bullock’s articles and views on constitutional litigation have appeared in a wide variety of media. He received his law degree from the University of Pittsburgh and his B.A. in economics and philosophy from Grove City College.

Gabriela Calderon de Burgos is editor of ElCato.org, researcher at the Cato Institute, and columnist for El Universo since 2005. She holds a degree in Political Science with a concentration in International Relations from York College of Pennsylvania (2004) with a master’s degree in International Trade and Politics from George Mason University (2007). Her articles have been featured in prominent media outlets across Latin America and Spain. She is the author of “Entre el instinto y la razón” and co-author of “El estallido del populismo”.

Ángel Carrión-Tavárez is Director of Research and Policy at the Puerto Rico Institute for Economic Liberty. He is an editor, educator, and multidisciplinary researcher. He has a B.A. in Social Sciences from the University of Puerto Rico, an M.A. in Humanities from California State University, and a Ph.D. in Integration and Economic and Territorial Development from Universidad de León (Spain). He was founder and editor of the economic and public-policy magazine, Panorama 21 (published in English, Spanish, and Portuguese); managing editor of the business weekly, Caribbean Business; and editor-in-chief and president of the Board of the peer-reviewed journal, Fórum Empresarial.

Ricardo Castillo is a Guatemalan businessman. He is currently President and trustee of the Universidad Francisco Marroquín; member of the Board of Directors of the Centro de Estudios Económico-Sociales (CEES).

Lorenzo Córdova Vianello is a Mexican academic, researcher, writer, and civil servant. During his career, he has held key roles in electoral institutions, including the presidency of the National Electoral Institute, and is currently a researcher at the Legal Research Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He is the author of several books, the latest of which is “La democracia no se toca”.

Cossío Díaz was a Justice of the Supreme Court of Mexico from December 2003 to November 2018. He holds a PhD in Law from the Complutense University of Madrid. He has authored 27 books and published articles in various journals and newspapers. He served as Head of the Law Department at ITAM and as a Professor of Constitutional Law and Legal Theory. Currently, he is a Professor at El Colegio de México and UNAM, as well as a columnist for El País and El Universal.

Arturo Damm Arnal is an economist, philosopher, journalist and university professor. Throughout his academic career he has disseminated liberal economic principles through articles, more than 20 books and conferences, and has been part of the economic debate in Mexico and Latin America. In addition, he has been a contributor to various media outlets and a lecturer at universities, combining his academic work with journalistic dissemination.

Sebastián Edwards Figueroa is a prominent Chilean economist, international consultant, and writer. Formerly Chief Economist at the World Bank, he is currently Professor of International Economics at the University of California and co-director of the Africa Project of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is the author of several books, the latest of which is “The Chile Project. The Story of the Chicago Boys and the downfall of Neoliberalism”.

Enrique Ghersi is a lawyer specialized in economic analysis of law and criminal law. He is director of Estudio Ghersi Abogados and has been a professor at Universidad de Lima, Universidad Francisco Marroquín and other higher education institutions. He is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society and the Royal Economic Society and holds an honorary doctorate in Social Sciences from Universidad Francisco Marroquín.

Ricardo Gomes was president of Instituto de Estudos Empresariais, (IEE) and vice-president of Instituto Liberdade.  He has also served as professor of Law and secretary of Economic Development in the city of Porto Alegre, where he is a councilman.  He is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society, advisor to Rede Liberdade, which brings together more than 30 liberal organizations in Brazil, and was president of Red Liberal de América Latina.

Mike Gonzalez is the Angeles T. Arredondo E Pluribus Unum Senior Fellow at The Heritage Foundation. He writes on critical race theory, identity politics, diversity, multiculturalism, assimilation and nationalism, and foreign policy in general. He spent close to 20 years as a journalist, 15 of them reporting from Europe, Asia and Latin America. He left journalism to join the administration of President George W. Bush, where he was a speechwriter for Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox before moving on to the State Department’s European Bureau.

Mr. Guedes was Minister of Economy. He is the founder and majority partner of BR Investimentos a financial group in Brazil. He is a well-known Brazilian economist, with a PhD from Chicago and a distinguished career both in the Brazilian financial market as well as in the Brazilian education sector. He was one of the four founders of Banco Pactual and  CEO and majority shareholder of IBMEC, one of Brazil’s leading business schools, which became a landmark in business education in Brazil. He writes a weekly article for the newspaper O Globo, an influential newspaper in Brazil, and also a biweekly article for the magazine Época, also an important weekly magazine in Brazil.

Marcel Granier is a Venezuelan lawyer, businessman, journalist, and defender of freedom of expression. He was president of Radio Caracas Televisión until its closure and takeover by the government of Hugo Chávez and is currently president and chief executive officer of 1BC companies.

Daniel Hannan is the President of the Free Trade Institute. He serves as International Secretary of the Conservative Party. As well, he is a teacher at the University of Buckingham and the University of Francisco Marroquín. He has written nine books, including the New York Times bestseller Inventing Freedom: How the English-Speaking Peoples Made the Modern World. He sat as a Conservative MEP for 21 years and was a founder of Vote Leave. He is a regular columnist for, among others, The Sunday Telegraph, The Washington Examiner, and The Daily Mail.

Thomas W. Hazlett is Professor of Law & Economics at George Mason University, where he also serves as Director of the Information Economy Project. Prof. Hazlett has published his research in, for instance, the Journal of Law & Economics, the Columbia Law Review, and the Journal of Financial Economics. Prof. Hazlett’s special expertise is in government regulation of telecommunications markets and the information sector. He served as Chief Economist of the Federal Communications Commission.

He is a Mexican writer and journalist.  Former General Director of Notimex, Director of the newspaper El Nacional, founding Director of the journal La Crónica de Hoy, and founding Director of the daily La Razón. He is host of the program El Sillón de Pensar on Channel 40, and co-host of the program En la Mira de la Barra de Opinión on TV Azteca. He is General Director of Political and Social Information at El Financiero newspaper. He is a columnist for the newspaper El Financiero.

Bettina Horst was Senior Fellow at Atlas Economic Research Foundation in Washington DC, member of the Regional Council of the Metropolitan Region in Chile, Head of the Monetary Area of the Studies Department of the Central Bank in Chile. She was distinguished by El Mercurio and Mujeres Empresarias as one of the 100 Women Leaders of her country in 2019, 2021 and 2023. During 2023 she was a member of the Commission of Experts for the elaboration of a proposal for a new Constitution. She is currently Executive Director of Libertad y Desarrollo and Advisor to the High Public Management system. She was president of the Liberal Network of Latin America.

Daniel Lacalle is an expert in economics and investments. Bestselling author and international advisor. He holds a PhD in Economics and teaches Global Economics and Finance, and is Chief Economist at Tressis Sociedad de Valores.  He is actively involved in academia, leads the Instituto Mises Hispano and contributes to various organizations. Currently, he also plays an important role as Vice Chairman of ORFIN’s Advisory Board.

Ricardo López Murphy is an Argentine economist, politician and congressman. He was Minister of Defense, Minister of Economy and Minister of Infrastructure and Housing of Argentina. He is currently president of the Fundación Cívico Republicana and former president of the Red Liberal de América Latina (Liberal Network of Latin America). He holds a degree in Economics from the Universidad La Plata and a Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Chicago. He has developed a prestigious academic career for 25 years.

Jeffrey Miron is a Senior Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Economics at Harvard University, as well as Vice President of Research at the Cato Institute. His field of expertise is the economics of libertarianism; he has advocated for many libertarian policies, including legalizing all drugs and allowing failing banks to go bankrupt.

Eduardo Nolla holds a degree in Political Science and Sociology and a PhD in Political Science from the Complutense University of Madrid. He has been a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University and Professor of Political Theory at the same institution. He is recognized as one of the leading international experts on the work of Alexis de Tocqueville. He has published in several languages and has been distinguished with several national and international awards.

Mario Noya (Madrid, Spain, 1976) is a journalist. He has been linked for 20 years to Libertad Digital (Spain), where he was staff writer of International, head of Opinion, editor-in-chief of La Ilustración Liberal and co-host of LD Libros (esRadio) -and now he is a contributor to Es la Noche de Dieter (esRadio)-; and for the last two years he has been the editor-in-chief of voz.us, an online newspaper aimed at the U.S. Hispanic community but with a pan-Hispanic outreach. He has been co-founder and editor-in-chief of elmed.io, a Spanish digital magazine specializing in the Middle East, and is a member of the civic association Pie en Pared (Spain).

Alexandre Padilla is a Professor, the Chair of the Economics Deparment, and the Director of the Exploring Economic Freedom Project at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He has a BS, MA, and Doctorate in Economics from l’université d’Aix-Marseille. His current research involves studying how insider trading is perceived among academics and nonacademics. Other research interests include studying self-governance mechanisms in nontraditional industries and economic policy related to immigration.

Max Rangeley is the Editor of The Cobden Centre. He is the CEO of ReboundTAG Ltd, which produces microchip luggage tags and has been showcased by Lufthansa and featured on BBC World among other media outlets. Max has a Master’s in economics, following this he was given a scholarship to do a PhD at the London School of Economics, but decided instead to go straight into business.

Roberto Salinas León is the director of the Atlas Network’s Center for Latin America. He is president of the Alamos Alliance, a renowned economic colloquium that is held annually in Álamos, Sonora. He was a representative of The Economist Conferences in Mexico, from 1997 to 2010.