World-renowned economist Hernando de Soto is president of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy in Lima, Peru. According to The Economist magazine, the institute is one of the two most important research and policy organizations in the world, and de Soto himself is among the leading influential intellectuals of our time. He and his colleagues at the ILD primarily focus on designing and implementing legal and economic reforms that will encourage capital formation among the poor in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and the former Soviet bloc.