|
|
|
George Soros was
born in Budapest, Hungary in 1930. In 1947 heemigrated to
England, where he graduated from the London School of Economics.
While a student at the London School of Economics, Mr. Soros
became familiar with the work of the philosopher Karl Popper,
who had a profound influence on his thinking and later on
|
| his philanthropic activities.
In 1956 he moved to the United States, where he began to accumulate
a large fortune through an international investment fund he
founded and managed. |
|
|
| Mr. Soros currently serves
as President and Chairman of Soros Fund Management LLC, a private
investment management firm which serves as principal investment
advisor to the Quantum Group of Funds, a series of international
investment vehicles. |
|
|
Mr.
Soros established his first foundation, the Open Society Fund,
in New York in 1979 and his first Eastern European foundation
in Hungary in 1984. He now funds a network of foundations
that operate in thirty-one countries throughout Central and
Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and Central Eurasia,
as well as in Southern Africa, Haiti, Guatemala, and the United
States. These foundations are dedicated to building and maintaining
the infrastructure and institutions of an open society. Mr.
Soros has also founded other major institutions, such as the
Central European University and the International Science
Foundation. In 1996, the foundations in the network spent
a total of approximately $362 million; in 1997, $428 million;
in 1998, $574 million; and in 1999, $560 million. Giving for
2000 is expected to be maintained at a similar level.
|
|
| In addition to many articles
on the political and economic changes in Eastern Europe and
the former Soviet Union, Mr. Soros is the author of The Alchemy
of Finance, published by Simon & Schuster in 1987 and republished
in 1994 by John Wiley & Sons; Opening the Soviet System,
published by Weidenfeld & Nicholson in 1990; Underwriting
Democracy, published by The Free Press in 1991, Soros on Soros:
Staying Ahead of the Curve, published by John Wiley & Sons
in 1995, and The Crisis of Global Capitalism: Open Society Endangered,
published by PublicAffairs in 1998. His next book, Open Society:
Reforming Global Capitalism will be published by PublicAffairs
in October 2000. |
|
| Mr. Soros has received
honorary doctoral degrees from the New School for Social Research,
the University of Oxford, the Budapest University of Economics,
and Yale University. In 1995, the University of Bologna awarded
Mr. Soros its highest honor, the Laurea Honoris Causa, in recognition
of his efforts to promote open societies throughout the world.
|
|
| The Soros Foundations
are a network of foundations, programs institutions established
and supported by George Soros to foster the development of open
societies around the world, particularly in the communist countries
of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet. |
|
|
