# Charles Koch ##### **Recipient of the 2025 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty** March 6, 2025 • Visual Feature ![Charles Koch - Freedom Partners Summit 2025](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/aside_3x/public/2025-03/charles-koch-hero.jpg?itok=pHVOwmVc) # Charles Koch ##### **Recipient of the 2025 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty** March 6, 2025 • Visual Feature 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. ![Wichita, Kansas - 1947](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/aside_3x/public/2025-03/wichita-1947-darkver.jpg?itok=kyUKqAts) 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. ![Koch Industries headquarters at sunrise.](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/aside_3x/public/2025-03/koch-industries-headquarters-desktop_upscaled%20%281%29.jpeg?itok=1IRFKU1M) In 1967, Charles became chairman and CEO of that company, which **he has grown into a diversified multinational business** with a broad portfolio spanning manufacturing, energy, agriculture, technology, investments and more. Since 1960, the company’s value **increased more than 8,000-fold**— more than 100 times the increase of the S&P 500. Under Charles’s leadership, Koch historically reinvests 90% of its earnings to fuel its ongoing transformation. Koch’s revenues have **exceeded $125 billion**, with 120,000 employees in more than 50 countries. ![Charles Koch, winner of the 2025 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty.](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/aside_3x/public/2025-03/2025_Charles%20Koch.jpg?itok=FR87Q-Uy) Charles attributes Koch’s success to its application of **Principle Based Management™**, a framework rooted in principles of human progress that enables individuals and organizations to succeed long-term by focusing on creating value for others and helping people achieve lives of meaning. This vision of entrepreneurship and individual empowerment based on a deep belief in the potential of all people guides his philanthropic work, as well. 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. ![Stand Together Logo](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/aside_mobile/public/2025-03/STF_LOGO_RGB_Cyan-e1654885416928.png?itok=T1pwgL8-) ![Mercatus Center Logo ](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/aside_mobile/public/2025-03/Mercatus_Center_logo.svg_.png?itok=Ub_gAtp1) ![Institute for Humane Studies Logo](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/aside_mobile/public/2025-03/Institute_for_Humane_Studies_logo_2015.svg_.png?itok=V80NAC0g) ![Institute for Justice Logo](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/aside_mobile/public/2025-03/ij-logo.png?itok=MyIznyAZ) ![Americans for Prosperity Logo](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/aside_mobile/public/2025-03/afplogo.png?itok=Yu8vqKu3) ![Bill of Rights Institute Logo](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/aside_mobile/public/2025-03/1722960185808.png?itok=l-auDqKV) ![Cato Logo](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/aside_mobile/public/2023-06/Cato_logo%20%284%29.png?itok=Ub435Fsa) Charles has authored four books on the application of these principles in business, philanthropy, social change, and personal transformation, and continues to write. ![Believe in People by Charles Koch - Cover](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/2025-03/book-believe-in-people.png?itok=c94p28M8) ![Continually Transforming Koch Industries - Book Cover](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/2025-03/book-continually-transforming-virtuous-cycles-of-mutual-benefit.png?itok=Ap2z28nT) ![Good Profit - Book Cover](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/2025-03/book-good-profit.png?itok=su4xaMdA) ![The Science of Success - Book Cover](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/2025-03/book-the-science-of-success.png?itok=Vmug1Gzl) ![F.A Hayek - Background for Koch VF (Dark Ver.)](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/aside_3x/public/2025-03/hayek-2.jpg?itok=wRoszr5C) 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. ![Friedman Logo Transparent (For Lai VF)](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/aside_mobile/public/2025-02/FriedmanLogo_PMS8002-white%20on%20transparent%20background.png?itok=SdpFVpeH) 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**