AMHERST, Mass.—World-renowned investor, writer and philanthropist George Soros discussed “My Philanthropy” in a lecture titled “A Conversation with George Soros” at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, May 2, in Amherst College’s Johnson Chapel. Watch video below or download an MP3 of the talk.
The talk, which was free and open to the public, was co-sponsored by Amherst’s Office of the President and the Amherst Political Union student group.
Soros is chair of Soros Fund Management LLC and the founder of the Open Society Foundations. Born in Budapest in 1930, he survived the Nazi occupation and fled communist Hungary in 1947 for England, where he graduated from the London School of Economics, having studied with Karl Popper. He then settled in the United States, where he founded and has managed an international investment fund.
Soros has been active as a philanthropist since 1979, when he began providing funds to help black students attend Cape Town University in apartheid South Africa. In the intervening years, he has established a network of philanthropic organizations active in more than 50 countries around the world. These organizations are dedicated to promoting the values of democracy and an open society. His foundation network spends about $900 million annually.
In addition to his business and philanthropic activities, Soros is a regular commentator on politics, society and economics. He has penned numerous articles and essays that have appeared in major newspapers and magazines around the world and has published 11 books, the most recent of which is The Soros Lectures at the Central European University. His essay titled “My Philanthropy” is included in The Philanthropy of George Soros, by Chuck Sudetic.
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