Andrei Illarionov was appointed as Russian president Vladimir Putin’s chief economic adviser in April 2000 and is director of the Institute of Economic Analysis in Moscow. Illarionov has been an assistant professor of international economics at St. Petersburg University, where he received a Ph.D. in 1987. In 1992 he became deputy director of the Center for Economic Reform, the Russian government’s think tank. In April 1993 he became chief economic adviser to Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, a position he resigned in February 1994. Illarionov has written three books and more than 300 articles on Russian economic and social policies.
Leon Louw
South African lawyer
Leon Louw is a well known South African personality who, for over a generation, has been active in diverse aspects of public life. He is credited with having had a significant impact on the course of events in South Africa, especially regarding the extensive economic reforms that have taken place during the past decade. He has received numerous international awards, and has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize. Presently he is the Executive Director of the Free Market Foundation (FMF) and of the Law Review Project, both in Johannesburg. In July 2002, he started the Informal Business Forum, of which he acts as the chairman.
Mr. Louw co-authored South Africa: The Solution and Let the People Govern – both of which had a significant impact on South Africa’s constitutional process. He frequently speaks in countries around the world, and also appears regularly in television, radio, and print media.
Martin Wolf
Associate Editor, Financial Times
Author, Why Globalization Works
Martin Wolf is Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times, London. He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2000 “for services to financial journalism”. Mr Wolf is also a visiting fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford University, and a special professor at the University of Nottingham. He has been a forum fellow at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, in Davos since 1999. His most recent publication is Why Globalization Works (Yale University Press, 2004).
Franklin Cudjoe
Director Imani, Ghana
Franklin Cudjoe is Ghanaian and formerly a programme officer and research assistant at the Institute of Economic Affairs in Ghana. He is currently the head of a pro-market think tank called Imani: The Centre for Humane Education whose vision is to educate and create a core of young scholars that will promote market oriented policies throughout Africa.
Franklin works closely with partner think tanks across the world to promote public policy ideas in Ghana and abroad. He is a frequent commentator in the media (see his recent article "Rock star economics are not helping poor Africans" from London's Daily Telegraph, April 2005).
Madhu Kishwar
Founder, Manushi Sangathan (Manushi Citizen’s Rights Forum) and
Manushi — A Journal About Women and Society
Madhu Kishwar is Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi, India. She has been a Fellow and Lecturer at numerous international organisations and for the past two and a half decades has campaigned tirelessly on political, economic and social issues in India.
She has authored or edited numerous books, including Zealous Reformers: Deadly Law, and she has also produced numerous documentaries, including "License Permit Raj", a study of street vendors and rickshaw pullers in Delhi.
Martin Krause
Dean of ESEADE University, Argentina
Martín Krause has PhD. in Management Sciences from Universidad Católica de La Plata where he graduated in 1978. In 1998 he was selected as a Professor of Economics at the Law School, University of Buenos Aires. He is Dean and Professor of Institutional Economics, Business Economics and Public Policy at ESEADE University.
He has been awarded with several prizes and fellowships such as the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowships in 1993, and the Freedom Project from the John Templeton Foundation in 1999 and 2000.
He has published several books: Economía para emprendedores, El cuento de la Economía, En Defensa de los Más Necesitados y Proyectos por una Sociedad Abierta (together with Alberto Benegas Lynch Jr and Democracia Directa (together with Margarita Molteni), and has also written many articles in academic journals, magazines and newspapers. He is a frequent speaker and commentator in the Latin American media.
Deepak Lal
James S. Coleman Professor of International Development Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
Author of In Praise of Empires
Deepak Lal He is James S. Coleman Professor of International Development Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, and Professor Emeritus of Political Economy at University College, London. He has had a varied and extensive career, including work for the Indian Civil Service, the World Bank and consultancy work for numerous global agencies including the OECD, UNCTAD, IMF and FAO.
He is author of hundreds of academic and popular articles, and numerous books on trade and development issues, the most recent of which is In Praise of Empires.
Barun S. Mitra
Director, Liberty Institute, New Delhi, India
Barun S. Mitra (b. 1960) is a writer and commentator on public policy with a special interest in development, environment, trade and technology related issues. He is founder and president of the Liberty Institute (www.libertyindia.org), a non-profit, independent public policy research and educational organisation.
His writings have published in a wide range of national and international newspapers and magazines including The Economic Times in India, and The Wall Street Journal. He has also contributed essays for books published by Hoover Institute at Stanford University, and many others. He recently won the 2005 Julian Simon Memorial Award.
Nonoy Oplas
Economist, Philippines
Nonoy Oplas is Chairman of Minimal Government, a think-tank and political movement advocating free markets, small government, small taxes, and greater individual freedom and responsibility in the Phillippines. He manages a private agro-forestry plantation showcasing sustainable practices in forestry, horticulture and animal husbandry in the Phillippines.
Mr. Oplas was for five years an economist at Think Tank Inc. and previously worked as a Supervising Economist in the Congressional Planning and Budget Office (CPBO), House of Representatives, Quezon City, Philippines.
He has also worked in television as a co-ordinator on “Public Forum”, IBC Channel 13’s Public Affairs Program and also as a performer on “Sic-O-Cloc News”, IBC Channel 13’s political satire programme.
Nonoy Oplas has participated in numerous international banking, development and conferences in the USA, China, Hong Kong and Sweden and has organised similar events in the Phillipines.
Mohit Satyanand
Inlingua New Delhi, India
Mohit Satyanand is a management consultant, entrepreneur, and writer. After obtaining a Master's in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, he began his career as a management trainee with Unilever in India. He then went on to establish companies in areas as diverse as food processing, advertising, television/ film production, and language teaching. He has also been closely involved, as board member or advisor, with the setting up of three rural non-governmental NGOs in India, and founded and ran a shelter for street children in New Delhi.
From 1997-2003, he lived in a remote hamlet in the Indian Himalayas, an experience that has afforded him a direct, 'grassroots-up' experience of the successes and failures of development aid in alleviating rural poverty.
James Shikwati
Director, Inter Region Economic Network, Kenya
James Shikwati [B. 1970] is a writer and a commentator on public policy with a special interest in development, environment, trade and agriculture related issues.
He is currently the founder and Executive Director of the Inter Region Economic Network [IREN Kenya], a non-profit independent public policy research and educational organization that promotes market-based responses to contemporary social - economic and environmental issues. He is also the Country Director for Students In Free Enterprise [SIFE Kenya].
He has written widely on a variety of subjects in Kenyan and international newspapers, magazines, such as The Times - London, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Sydney Herald, The Business News, The Daily Nation and The East African Standard.
