Leader Analysis: George Soros

“An Open Society Is An Imperfect Society That Holds Itself Open to Improvement."

George Soros

George Soros was born in 1930 in Hungary and comes from a Jewish family. He attended London School of Economics and was quite interested in philosophy which was influenced to him by Karl Popper, under whom he studied at LSE. He was so much influenced by Popper that he used Popper’s book "The Open Society and Its Enemies" to name his most well-known organization, the Open Society Institute, which is nowadays one of the cornerstones of his philanthropic work. He moved to New York City in 1956, where he worked as an arbitrage trader with F. M. Mayer from 1956 to 1959, and then as a financial analyst with Wertheim & Company from 1959 to 1963. He started very early to deal with investment opportunities and in 1970 co-founded the Quantum Fund, which created the bulk of the Soros fortune nowadays[1].

He has been one of the most influential figures in helping Eastern Europe in the collapse from communism in late 80-s and early 90-s. He invested a lot of his fortune towards various political organizations established against the communist regimes and for freedom of speech and an independent media. In 2009 alone, he donated over $100 million to Central and Eastern Europe to help these countries better and faster integrate in a democratic society[2].

Soros is a well-known advocate for an open society, justice for all, education, free media and public health. He has worked hard and is a strong advocate of the drug policy reform in the US. He donated $400,000 to help fund a successful ballot measure in the state of Massachusetts, known as the Massachusetts Sensible Marijuana Policy Initiative which decriminalized possession of less than 1 oz (28g) of marijuana in the state and has funded similar measures to other states, such as California, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Nevada and Maine. In 2008, he donated over $1.4 million to California Proposition 5, a...