Charles Koch is chairman and Co-CEO of Koch, Inc., one of the largest privately held companies in the world, and founder of the Stand Together philanthropic community.
Through his business and philanthropy, Charles has long championed principles of human progress that characterize a free and open society, one of equal rights and mutual benefit where people are empowered to innovate, succeed, and realize their potential by creating value for others.
Charles was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1935, the second son of Fred and Mary Koch.
A lifelong learner, he earned three engineering degrees from MIT before returning in 1961 to the company his father co-founded.
Beginning in the 1960s, Charles has supported a broad community of scholars, students, and organizations working to inspire America to live up to the promise of the Declaration of Independence.
He has founded or provided vital seed support to help build many of the leading organizations that advance civil society and personal and economic freedom worldwide.
In addition to Stand Together, this list includes the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, the Institute for Humane Studies, the Institute for Justice, Americans for Prosperity, Empowered, the Bill of Rights Institute, the Cato Institute, and others.
Charles’s commitment to F. A. Hayek’s insight that
“the possibility of men living together in peace and to their mutual advantage without having to agree on common concrete aims, and bound only by abstract rules of conduct, was perhaps the greatest discovery mankind ever made”
has inspired business leaders, philanthropists, policymakers and scholars worldwide.
In recognition of his extraordinary efforts to advance human flourishing, in both business and social change, the Cato Institute is proud to present the
2025 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty
to
Charles Koch