Bio

Alvaro Vargas Llosa, a citizen of Peru and Spain and a permanent resident in the United States, is an award-winning writer and author focusing on developing countries and international affairs, as well as a value investor. His most recent book is “Global Crossings: Immigration, Civilization, and America.”

Mr. Vargas LLosa received his BSC degree in International History at the London School of Economics and a Master´s degree in value investing and theory of the economic cycle at Omma in Spain.

Mr. Vargas LLosa is Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute and a former Director of the Center on Global Prosperity at the same public policy institute, a columnist in the United States, Latin America and Spain, and a member of the board and director of the council of business advisors of the Fundación Internacional para la Libertad (Foundation for International Liberty) based in Spain. He currently writes a weekly column in Spanish for “La Tercera” in Chile and a monthly column in English that is widely distributed by the Independent Institute in the United States.

Mr. Vargas LLosa is a former columnist for the Washington Post Writers Group, and the author of the book Liberty for Latin America, which obtained the Sir Anthony Fisher International Memorial Award for its contribution to the cause of freedom in 2005. In 2008, he presented the four-part series “Consecuencias” on contemporary history for National Geographic, which aired in 100 countries. In 2007 he was nominated as Young Global Leader 2007 by the World Economic Forum in Davos. In 2010, he obtained the Templeton Award for “Lessons from the Poor.” Foreign Policy magazine nominated him one of the top 50 public intellectuals in the Spanish-speaking world in 2012. That same year he was a member of the Task Force on Latin America put together by the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC, and charged with making recommendations with a view to enhancing relations between the United States, Europe and Latin America.

He is the author of the books Liberty for Latin America, The Myth of Che Guevara, the Madness of Things Peruvian, Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot (which he co-authored with Carlos Alberto Montaner and Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza), and the editor of “Lessons from the Poor.”  He has also published in Spanish El Diablo en campaña, La contenta barbarie, El exilio indomable, En el reino del espanto, Tiempos de Resistencia, La mestiza de Pizarro, and, recently, “Príncipes del valor.” He is also the co-author of Fabricantes de miseria and El regreso del idiota. His most recent book is “Global Crossings: Immigration, Civilization and America.” His books have been translated into several languages.

He has lectured widely on world economic and political issues. Among other venues, he has spoken at The World Economic Forum, The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the International Monetary Fund, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Council on Foreign Affairs (U.S.), The World Affairs Council (U.S.), The Inter-American Dialogue (U.S.), Florida International University (U.S.), University of New York (U.S.), Harvard University, Brown University, The Cato Institute (U.S.), The Atlas Economic Research Foundation (U.S.), The Mount Pelerin Society (Chile), The  Naumann Foundation (Germany),  the FAES Foundation (Spain), the Brazilian Institute of Business Studies, the Fundación Libertad (Argentina),  the CEDICE Foundation (Venezuela),  the Ecuatorian Chamber of Commerce (Ecuador), and University of San Marcos (Peru).

In 2021 he received the Thomas Jefferson Award given by the Association of Private Enterprise Education (APEE).