Madeleine K. Albright served as the 64th secretary of state of the United States. In 1997, she was named the first woman secretary of state and became, to that time, the highest ranking woman in the history of the US government. From 1993 to 1997, Dr. Albright was the United States permanent representative to the United Nations. Dr. Albright is also the founder of The Albright Group LLC, a global strategy firm, and is the first Michael and Virginia Mortara Endowed Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service. She is the Chairman of The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, Chair of The Pew Global Attitudes Project, President of the Truman Scholarship Foundation and serves on the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Aspen Institute.

Hernando de Soto is President of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy headquartered in Lima, Peru considered by The Economist as one of the two most important think tanks in the world. Time and Forbes have chosen him as one of the leading innovators in the world, and more than 20,000 readers of Prospect and Foreign Policy ranked him as one of the world’s top 13 “public intellectuals”.  He has served as President of the Executive Committee of the Copper Exporting Countries Organization, as CEO of Universal Engineering Corporation (one of Europe’s largest consulting engineering firms), as a principal of the Swiss Bank Corporation Consultant Group, and as a governor of Peru’s Central Reserve Bank.  He is the author of several books and papers on economic policy, including the seminal work The Mystery of Capital.

Photo courtesy - EFE/Miguel Rajmil

Co-Chairs Madeleine Albright and Hernando de Soto at the first meeting of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor