The pleasure of your company is requested on Thursday evening, September 18th for the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s annual Julian L. Simon Memorial Award Dinner. Please join us in honoring Simon’s vision of mankind as the ultimate resource.

Julian L. Simon Memorial Award Dinner 2025

Keynote Speaker

Hernando de Soto

Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto is the unparalleled advocate of free trade in the Americas. He is the president of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy in Lima, Peru, which he founded in 1981. His accolades include the 2018 Julian L. Simon Memorial Award, Adam Smith Award, Hayek Medal, Freedom Prize, and being named one of fifteen innovators “who will reinvent your future” and the world’s most important living economist.

Dust off your ruby slippers—we’re gathering to celebrate the power of people and ideas.

Thursday, September 18, 2025, 6:00 pm – 11:00 pm

Organization of American States, 17th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20006

Cocktail or Themed Attire

Simon Awardee

James R. Otteson

James R. Otteson is the John T. Ryan Jr. Professor of Business Ethics at the Mendoza College of Business at his alma mater, Notre Dame University. Known as the “Adam Smith professor,” Otteson has taught the morality of markets, honorable business practices, and the principles of a purpose-driven life. He has published and coauthored many explorations into Smith’s philosophy beginning with Adam Smith’s Marketplace of Life in 2002 and including his forthcoming Human Dignity: Surprising Implications for Taking a Key Idea Seriously.