Elena Leontjeva

Elena Leontjeva (LT) is a native of Lithuania and studied economics at the University of Vilnius. She is the cofounder and current president of the acclaimed think tank, the Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LFMI). Based on the ideas of the  Austrian School of Economics, Leontjeva played a key role not only in building the legal and institutional foundations for Lithuania’s economy, including the currency board and laws to assure the value of the currency. She also participated in the forming of the securities market, of the banking sector, tax and budget reforms, private pension insurance, and downsizing state functions and deregulation known as the Sunset and Sunrise initiatives. In addition Leontjeva served as senior economic advisor to Lithuania’s President Valdas Adamkus and as state counselor on economic reform under six administrations. She also led a multidisciplinary research of the phenomenon of scarcity and lack, bridging philosophy, theology, anthropology, psychology, economics, and
sociology. In 2019 Leontjeva co-created the documentary Sublime Thirst, an interdisciplinary study examining the phenomenon of scarcity from the ancient Greeks to the present day. In addition, she is author of the several novels, among them The Market Square and Story of Two Joannes. In 2022 Leontjeva was awarded a Dr.h.c. from the private Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala City and the 2022 Sir Anthony Fisher Price.