Luis Razo

Activist, Business leader, Change Agent, Concerned citizen, Consultant, Educator/Teacher, Parent, Social entrepreneur

I am a business and social entrepreneur from Orange County, California. I studied psychometrics at Harvard University and for the past 25 years I have been thinking about and working on the intersection between business, philosophy and social science. I am currently a professor of Public Economics at the Barcelona Graduate School of Management and Executive Director of a knowledge management consulting firm based in Los Angeles and Barcelona. However, my primary passion involves my work with the International Voluntary Tax Fund, a non-profit organization whose mission is to stimulate dialogue among business, political and academic leaders about the role of taxation in the evolution of democracy.

I am passionate about human dignity, individual freedom, creativity and the fundamentally important role of taxation as a lever of human flourishing.

I firmly believe that the concept of voluntary taxation is the surest and shortest way to arrive at public policy that is truly motivated by the common good, i.e., the good of the rich, poor, and middle class.

Business Strategy, Intelligence and Class Structure, Learning and Performance, Political Philosophy, Public Economics

I learned about TED through social media and I immediately liked the concept. The 18-minute format is perfect for me because my mind has always hungered for the central idea, the intellectual kernel, of a proposal or project. When I discovered the existence of local chapters of TED, I immediately went to the next meeting in Barcelona. There, I was lucky enough to meet Jose Crucet, the massive and very active mind behind TEDxBarcelona. He accepted my proposal to give a talk about voluntary taxes. Today, I am not only an avid viewer and follower of TED, I am also a former TEDx speaker.

Making large boxes of chocolate disappear.