Overview
Join with us for an elegant Gala to celebrate the Independent Institute’s 30th Anniversary! In 1986, Independent began its tradition of boldly advancing the timeless principles of liberty by combining scholarly rigor with extensive communications and media coverage of the results, engaging new audiences in innovative, enterprising solutions. At our Gala for the Future of Liberty, we will celebrate our past successes as we look forward by honoring with the Alexis de Tocqueville Award world-renowned, tech-entrepreneur Timothy C. Draper; Nobel Laureate economist Vernon L. Smith; and North Korean refugee, defector, and human-rights activist Yeonmi Park; all exemplary champions of liberty, entrepreneurial innovation, and human well-being. P.J. O’Rourke, bestselling author and America’s leading political humorist, will be our master of ceremonies.
The Ritz-Carlton
San Francisco, California |
The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco
600 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
Map and Directions
WHEN
Friday, September 22, 2017
| 6:00 pm 7:00 pm |
Reception Dinner and Program |
TICKETS
Individual VIP Tickets: $1,000 per person
Individual General Tickets: $500 per person
Tables and Sponsorships Also Available
Dress: Black Tie Optional
Honored Speakers
P.J. O’Rourke, a Founding Member of the Independent Institute’s Board of Advisors, is America’s leading political humorist and the best-selling author of 16 books on subjects as diverse as politics and cars and etiquette and economics. After graduating from Miami University of Ohio and attending the graduate program at Johns Hopkins University, O’Rourke began his career of skewering both the left and the right on the ends of his razor-sharp one-liners.
A regular panelist on NPR’s Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me! and a member of the editorial board for World Affairs, O’Rourke is the former editor-in-chief of The National Lampoon and a popular contributor to a host of publications, as well as former Foreign Affairs Desk Chief for Rolling Stone, and correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, during which he traveled to wars, riots, rebellions, and other “Holidays in Hell” in more than 40 countries.
Among his many best-selling books are Thrown Under the Omnibus; Republican Party Reptile; Holidays in Hell; Parliament of Whores; All the Trouble in the World; Eat the Rich; On the Wealth of Nations: Books That Changed the World; and The Baby Boom.
Timothy C. Draper is the Founding Partner of Draper Associates and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. His original idea to use “viral marketing” in web-based email to geometrically spread an Internet product to its market was instrumental to the successes of Hotmail and YahooMail, and has been adopted as a standard marketing technique by hundreds of businesses.
Mr. Draper is the Founder and Chairman of BizWorld Foundation that teaches entrepreneurship and business to children. He also serves on the Harvard Business School Board of Dean’s Advisors. He also launched a California statewide cyber-initiative on school choice, and he has led an initiative to create six new states in California (“Six Californias”) to encourage competition and choice in government. He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Yeonmi Park is the renowned 23-year-old human-rights activist and North Korean refugee and defector who has become a leading voice of oppressed people around the world. Her 2014 article about North Korea’s “Black Market Generation” in the Washington Post has created a sensation worldwide and the memoir about her perilous escape from North Korea, In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom, has recently been published in 17 languages and 18 countries.
At the 2014 Oslo Freedom Forum and the One Young World Summit in Dublin, she became an international phenomenon, delivering a passionate speech about the repression of the North Korean regime. The BBC has named her one of their “Top 100 Global Women.”
Vernon L. Smith was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002 for his pioneering work in experimental economics and the economics of entrepreneurial discovery and innovation. Professor of Law and Director of the Economic Science Institute at Chapman University, he is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association; a Member of the National Academy of Sciences; and a Member of the Board of Advisors of the Independent Institute.
Dr. Smith received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, he received CalTech’s distinguished alumni award, and he has authored or co-authored more than 250 articles and books on capital theory, finance, natural resource economics, and experimental economics.
Sponsors
ROBERT W. ALSPAUGH
Former Deputy Chairman, KPMG LLP
Former Chief Executive Officer, KPMG International
WILLIAM H. DRAPER III
Founder and General Director, Draper Richards, LP
JOHN HAGEL III
Co-Chairman and Co-Founder, Center for the Edge, Deloitte & Touche USA LLP
KENNETH G. HECHT, JR., ESQ.
Of Counsel, Knox Ricksen LLP
PHILIP HUDNER, Esq.
Retired Lawyer
FRANKLIN P. JOHNSON, JR.
General Partner, Asset Management Ventures
JENNIFER M. JOHNSON
President and Chief Operating Officer, Franklin Resources, Inc.
KEVIN C. LEADER
Treasurer, Bechtel Corporation
DAVID J. TEECE, CNZM
Co-Founder, Chairman and Principal Executive Officer, Berkeley Research Group, LLC
LEIGH G. TEECE
Co-Founder and Chair, Silicon Valley Institute for Business Innovation
THE LOWNDES FOUNDATION
William Lowndes III, President; William Lowndes IV, Vice President
Asset Management Company
Phyllis & Bill Draper
Franklin Templeton Investments
Berkeley Research Group, LLC
Bitcoin.com
Gilbert I. Collins
The Charles D. and Frances K. Field Fund
Draper Foundation
KPMG, LLP
Peter & Jeanine Alexander Howley
Alexander Lloyd
Mannatt, Phelps, & Phillips, LLP
William J. Rutter, Ph.D.
Gary & Ruthanne Schlarbaum
Charles R. Schwab
David & Leigh Teece
topdog™
Roland and Giti Underhill
Andrew Tang & Emily Lopez and
Jim Withrow & Karen Mostes-Withrow
John & Teresa Estill
Philip M. Friedmann
James W. Garvey
Lincoln Network
Stephen Silver
Laurence H. Smead
Andreas Stavropoulos
Robert A. Zadek
Ernst S. Bauer
Everett A. Berg
Donald A. Best
Nicholas J. Bonavia
Caroline Winnett & Ernest Brown
Paula Cassin
John Chisholm
Henry Armour & Natalie Clark
William & Sara Cumbelich
Terry & Sue Easton
James M. Edwards
Daniel H. Fylstra
Terry & Carolyn Gannon
John C. Goodman, Ph.D.
John Hagel III
Hema C. Harichandran
Scott M. Harris
Ken & Betsey Hecht
Linda Huber
Hoogasian Flowers, Inc
C. Bradford & Dorothy Jeffries
Kevin C. Leader
Thais Rezende
Susan Solinksy & Paul Duryea
Hon. & Mrs. John A. Sutro, Jr.
Andrea Widburg
George Zimmer
Sponsorship Opportunities
-
An intimate Day on the Bay aboard the 80-foot, private sailing yacht Coconut
- Top line recognition in all promotional materials
- Preferred placement on event website
- Recognition on event signage
- Recognition in dinner program and on video program
- Special acknowledgment from podium
- May include commemorative item in gift bag
- 2 seats at head table with honorees at Gala
- One Gala table for 10 guests
- 12 tickets to VIP Reception with Honorees
- Photo opportunity with Honorees during VIP Reception
- Recognition as the Reception Sponsor
- Recognition on event signage
- Recognition in dinner program and video program
- Special acknowledgment from podium
- May include commemorative item in gift bag
- 2 seats at head table with honorees at Gala
- One Gala table for 10 guests
- 12 tickets to VIP Reception with Honorees
- Photo opportunity with Honorees during VIP Reception
- Recognition in dinner program
- Recognition on sponsorship signage
- Special acknowledgment from podium
- May include commemorative item in gift bag
- One Gala table for 10 guests
- 10 tickets to VIP Reception with Honorees
- Photo opportunity with Honorees during VIP Reception
- Recognition in dinner program
- Recognition on sponsorship signage
- Special acknowledgment from podium
- One Gala table for 10 guests
- 10 tickets to VIP Reception with Honorees
- Photo opportunity with Honorees during VIP Reception
- Recognition in dinner program
- One Ticket to Gala dinner and program
- VIP Reception with Honorees
- Photo opportunity with Honorees during VIP Reception
- Exclusive pre-gala roundtable reception Friday afternoon with Yeonmi Park, for you and your “Millennipreneur” guests (35 or younger)
- Recognition in dinner program and video program
- Preferred placement on event website
- Recognition on event signage
- Special acknowledgement from podium
- One Gala table for 10 majority Millennial guests
- Photo opportunity with Yeonmi Park during the afternoon reception
- Exclusive pre-gala reception Friday afternoon with Yeonmi Park for your “Millennipreneur” guest(s) (35 or younger)
- Gala program admission for your “Millennipreneur” guest
- Recognition in dinner program
