Mark Lutter
---
---
LI 6 26
I am the Founder and Executive Director of the Charter Cities Institute, a non-profit building the ecosystem for charter cities. I have a PhD in economics from George Mason University where his research focused on charter cities. I have been published or quoted in publications including the New Yorker, Financial Times, Atlantic, and more.
Charter cities are new cities with better laws. They are an important tool to help improve governance in the 21st century. I have worked on charter cities around the world in a variety of capacity, including fundraising, strategy, government engagement, planning, and development. Please contact me if you are interested in how charter cities can attract investment and spur economic growth.
Experience
Founder and CEO
Braavos Cities · Full-time
Mar 2022 - Present · 4 yrs 4 mos
Braavos Cities is a charter city development company. We work with governments and local partners to develop new cities with improved governance.
---
Founder and Executive Director
Charter Cities Institute · Full-time
Oct 2017 - Present · 8 yrs 9 mos
Washington DC
The Charter Cities Institute is creating the ecosystem for charter cities, new city developments with a special jurisdiction that allows them to adopt more competitive business practices. Our goal is to lift tens of millions of people out of poverty by creating governance for the cities of tomorrow.
We bring together stakeholders, governments, investors, new city developers, entrepreneurs, and the international development community to develop a shared understanding of charter cities and foster relationships that lead to charter city construction. We also work with new city developers and governments to develop and implement legal systems to improve governance.… more
---
Director
RadicalxChange
Nov 2018 - Jan 2020 · 1 yr 3 mos
Activism and Government Track Lead for the inaugural RadicalxChange conference. Member, Board of Directors
---
[Lead Economist NeWAY Private Capital
Oct 2016 - Oct 2017 · 1 yr 1 mo](https://www.linkedin.com/company/9288380/)
---
[Graduate Lecturer George Mason University
Aug 2013 - May 2014 · 10 mos
4400 University Drive Fairfax Va. 22](https://www.linkedin.com/school/5489/)
[George Mason University Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Economics
2011 – 2016](https://www.linkedin.com/school/5489/)
---
[George Mason University Master's degree, Economics
2011 – 2014](https://www.linkedin.com/school/5489/)
---
[University of Maryland Bachelor of Science (BS), Mathematics
2008 – 2010](https://www.linkedin.com/school/3638/)
EG
Co-Founder & CEO at Sherbro Alliance Partners/Sherbro Island City
1yr •
Follow
Ratification by parliament of Sherbro Alliance Partners’ agreement with the Government of Sierra Leone
The Parliament of Sierra Leone has officially ratified the Investment Framework Agreement between the Government and Sherbro Alliance Partners, enacting it into law.
This is more than a legal milestone. It marks the beginning of a bold new chapter, one that positions Sherbro Island as a semi-autonomous, investor-friendly Special Economic Zone with legal/fiscal autonomy and reaffirms Sierra Leone’s capacity to deliver something world class.
In late 2015, this journey began with nothing but a vision and a stubborn belief that Sierra Leone could be home to something extraordinary
At the time, many laughed. I was dismissed, told it was too ambitious, too unrealistic but I held firm. Through endless challenges, moments of doubt, and sacrifices few will ever know, I stayed the course. I did it because I believe this is my calling, it’s in my blood.
Today, that belief has been vindicated
The ratification of this Act is not just a document. It is a declaration of intent, of belief, of future and represents a new beginning, not just for us, but for a generation ready to dream beyond limits
First, I thank my Creator for the strength and clarity to keep going…
SCRAPE
More profiles for you
[
Elle Griffin
- 3rd
Founder of The Elysian, Author of We Should Own The Economy](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellegriffin/)
Follow
[
Kurtis Lockhart
- 3rd
Founder & Director of the Africa Urban Lab @ ASE-Zanzibar](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurtis-lockhart-6b549a3b/)
[
Jonathan Hillis
- 3rd
Head of Product at New Theory](https://www.linkedin.com/in/hillisjd/)
[
Patrick Hiebert
- 3rd
Autris (symbol: AUTR) - CEO,
Veritas Villages - Founder,
Help Them Help Themselves - Charitable Foundation Creator](https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-hiebert/)
Follow
[
Alex Voss, CFA®, FRM
- 3rd
CFO & Director](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-voss/)
[
Peter Young
- 3rd
Director, Kynara Ltd](https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-young-70b80a42/)
Follow
[
Jeffrey Mason
- 3rd
Head of Policy at Charter Cities Institute](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-mason-934292106/)
[
Marcell Heinrich
- 3rd
Talent development and HR expert with a global perspective and proven track record across industry and education. Talent profiling wizard. Leadership developer. Building systems for hiring success | Generations XYZA](https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcellheinrich/)
[
Mikkel Thorup
- 3rd
Expat Consultant | Founder & CEO of Expat Money® | Helping You Secure Your New Life Abroad®](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikkelthorup/)
[
Vikram Bharati
- 3rd
Nation Core Labs I DSH Ventures I Zerra I Founder Startup House I India 2047 Ventures](https://www.linkedin.com/in/vikrambharati/)
Follow
[
Dr. Titus Gebel
- 3rd
The future of governance is private.](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-titus-gebel-557bb2141/)
Follow
[
Marc-Felix Otto
- 3rd
Partner & Chairman, The Advisory House](https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-felix-otto-67a68990/)
[
Mailyn Salabarria
- 3rd
Consultant. Bilingual Communications Professional. Born in 🇨🇺, made in 🇺🇸. Communism Survivor. Conservatarian. Mamá. Public Speaker. Nomad Entrepreneur. Host and Producer of Cafecito Libre Podcast. #WhoIsJohnGalt ✝️](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mailyn-salabarria/)
Follow
[
Nuria Forqués Puigcerver
- 3rd
Founder & Principal Urban Designer, FITTED PROJECTS](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nuriaforques/)
[
Trey Goff
- 3rd
Chief Of Staff at Honduras Próspera Inc.](https://www.linkedin.com/in/trey-goff-3b458a150/)
[
Natalie Fawn Danelishen
- 3rd
Graphic arts, booker, outreach, media](https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-fawn-danelishen-0b399321/)
[
Jan Mošovský
- 3rd
European Program Manager at Students For Liberty, Director for Research at Institut liberálních studií](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jan-mo%C5%A1ovsk%C3%BD-7848b231b/)
[
Jordi Llonch Esteve
- 3rd
I help community leaders grow profitable communities](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordillonchesteve/)
Follow
[Stephen Jennings · 3rd
Founder at Rendeavour](https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-jennings-4b3659104/)
[
Joseph McKinney
- 3rd
CEO at Catawba Digital Economic Zone](https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-mckinney-2a973aba/)
---
GL 6 26
[### Dr. Mark Lutter - The Future of Development
The Charter Cities Institute
https://chartercitiesinstitute.org › people](https://chartercitiesinstitute.org/people/mark-lutter/)
Mark Lutter is the Founder and Executive Director of the Charter Cities Institute. He has a PhD in economics from George Mason University where his research ...Read more
[### Mark Lutter PhD
Mark Lutter
https://www.marklutter.com](https://www.marklutter.com/)
I am the founder and Executive Chairman of the Charter Cities Institute, a nonprofit building the ecosystem for charter cities.Read more
[### Mark Lutter - Founder and Executive Director of the Charter ...
LinkedIn · Mark Lutter
2.5K+ followers](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-lutter-a23a7669)
I have worked on charter cities around the world in a variety of capacity, including fundraising, strategy, government engagement, planning, and development.Read more
AI Overview
+7
Dr. Mark Lutter is an urban economist and the Founder of the Charter Cities Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building the ecosystem for charter cities and advancing sustainable urban development globally.
The Charter Cities Institute +2
The Concept
A charter city is an urban settlement granted a special legal or economic jurisdiction, allowing it to implement improved commercial laws and streamlined governance.
YouTube·Network State Podcast +1
- Goal: The primary objective is to drive economic growth and reduce poverty in emerging markets by creating zones where the best practices in governance can be tested and scaled.
YouTube·Network State Podcast +1
- Mechanism: They act similarly to enhanced Special Economic Zones (SEZs) where a national government delegates a degree of authority to a local entity to streamline building, business, and regulatory processes.
YouTube·Network State Podcast
Key Career Highlights
- Charter Cities Institute: Founded by Dr. Lutter in 2017, the institute serves as a centralized hub for real estate developers, governments, and finance stakeholders in the urban development space. After a period advising other initiatives, he returned to the organization in a full-time capacity as Executive Director.
The Charter Cities Institute +1
- Academic Background: He holds a PhD in Economics from George Mason University, where his academic research centered heavily on charter cities.
The Charter Cities Institute +1
- Other Endeavors: Dr. Lutter has served as the Founder and CEO of Braavos Cities, a charter city development firm, and previously worked as the Lead Economist for NeWAY Capital.
International Strategy Forum +1
- Media & Outreach: He frequently publishes articles on urban economics and hosts the Charter Cities Podcast, which explores innovative approaches to governance and city building.
Apple Podcasts +2
Learn more about his vision and research by exploring his Official Website or reading his Beginner's Guide to Building Charter Cities.
If you are interested, I can provide more details on:
- Specific charter city projects currently under development globally
- The economic and legal theories behind the movement
- How you can get involved with the Charter Cities Institute
---
- Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › OpenGov
OpenGov - Wikipedia
OpenGov, which is headquartered in San Francisco, [3] was founded in 2012 by Nate Levine, Dakin Sloss, Joe Lonsdale, and Zachary Bookman in response to the 2008 financial crisis. [4] The company's founders and several advisors met while working with California Common Sense, a non-profit non-partisan organization, which advocates for open data and open government principles. The group founded ...
The Cicero Institute
https://ciceroinstitute.org › people › joe-lonsdale
Joe Lonsdale - Cicero Institute
Joe Lonsdale is an American entrepreneur and technology investor; he founded Palantir, Addepar, OpenGov and other companies, and is a Partner at 8VC, his venture capital firm. Along with friends and colleagues, he is building the Cicero Institute to help policymakers and entrepreneurs work together on
mpu 6 26 mpu
Peter Thiel's Plan To Replace Democracy (And Profit Off What Comes Next)
milton grandson 
lonsdale
gil duran: 9
In 1997, there was a book that came out called “The Sovereign Individual.”
3:03
It argued that in the 21st century, two technologies would result basically in the overthrow of democracy
3:11
and the demise of nations like the United States.
3:14
Cyber currency, which we would call crypto today.
3:17
And the other one was advanced automation that would create a world without jobs,
3:21
and that wealthy individuals who were savvy investors could profit from this coming doom
3:27
and prepare for it by making the right investments.
3:30
This book had a major impact on Peter Thiel.
3:33
And of course, it influenced the people Thiel was paying.
3:37
Joe Lansdale got to work.
3:39
He started a nonprofit, California Common Sense , allegedly dedicated to transparency and government
3:44
spending, so that voters could make a difference if they found things they were unhappy with.
3:48
On the surface, that sounds great, but two founders of that nonprofit started a for-profit:
3:53
OpenGOV.
3:54
OpenGOV is a software service for government agencies to manage data.
3:57
The idea of replacing democratic processes in the hands of all of us
GHIS MAXWELL!
4:29
But the think tanks would herald a few successful versions of their privatization plan.
4:34
Like Sandy Springs, Georgia, famously the first city in America
4:38
to privatize nearly all government services.
4:41
It was the darling of the libertarian press.
4:43
Everything for-profit, nothing public.
4:46
And a consulting firm making a little cash off the taxpayers at every juncture.
4:49
Those extra taxes for corporate profit started adding up, though.
4:54
Eventually, Sandy Springs unprivatized
4:56
saving taxpayers millions of dollars a year.
4:59
There were also nascent communities focused on Christian values
5:03
that the network state media heralds.
5:05
Battle Ground, Washington,
5:06
where a data center billionaire is buying up all the property to own the town,
5:11
the mayor is on his payroll,
5:12
and Highland Rim, a series of developments in Appalachia
5:16
run by the investment firm New Founding.
5:18
And that's not even including the California Forever Project,
5:21
a proposed tech city in Solano County
5:24
funded by Marc Andreessen, Reid Hoffman, Sam Altman and other billionaires.
5:29
But what if this was never really about these little mini governments?
5:33
Here's Peter Thiel saying the quiet part out loud in 2010.
5:37
[Thiel] Technology is this incredible alternative to politics.
...
7:13
You could pass laws, know, Cicero's in 15 states, we're getting dozens of laws passed.
7:17
And then we're going to teach people that and go to the national level.
7:20
[Gil] Riling people up is definitely part of their game plan.
7:22
That's what we saw in the San Francisco recalls.
7:24
San Francisco had a spike in crime during the pandemic,
7:28
but so did almost every big city in the United States.
7:30
Only in San Francisco,
7:32
which has extremely low crime rates compared to most cities in red states,
7:37
did they create this massive panic using social media and doom influencers
7:43
to convince everybody that everything was worse than it ever been.
7:47
And as Lonsdale got into nonprofits and think tanks,
7:49
Patri Friedman – remember him?
7:51
Milton Friedman's grandson?
7:53
Started his own VC firm with backing from Peter Thiel
7:56
called Pronomos Capital, existing entirely for investing in privatized governments.
8:01
In Honduras, Pronomos invested in the first government
8:04
run entirely by a for-profit corporation: Prospera.
8:08
[Gil] Prospera is this little enclave on the island of Roatan in Honduras
8:13
That claims to be its own little charter city
8:16
that was funded by American venture capitalists and has been touted
8:20
as the flagship project of the network state movement.
...
lonsdale
8:24
But the real flagship project is something bigger:
8:27
the entire United States government.
8:30
It shows in policy.
8:32
Remember the whole thing about taking over Greenland?
8:35
That idea emerged and was celebrated by the people we've been talking about.
8:38
I think having a frontier is very healthy.
8:40
I think part of America being great is that it's is growing and creating more wealth for everyone.
8:44
If the people in Greenland want to be part of us, if we can use those resources
8:48
better and make sure Russia and China don't get advantages in the Arctic.
8:51
The Freedom City as a name didn't really gain momentum,
8:54
but the idea is there, and the influence in the administration is clear.
8:58
Joe Lansdale helped staff up the Trump administration
9:01
and just recently accompanied administration officials to the Philippines
9:04
to christen a new regulatory zone.
9:07
Just last week, we signed a historic deal with the Philippines, 4000 acres
9:11
right next to Subic Bay, where we're going to build a
9:14
first-of-its-kind, AI-native industrial park.
9:17
I was there for a day in the Philippines with everyone.
9:20
They’re, they’re excited, what you guys are doing.
9:22
That sounds a lot like a startup city....
9:37
that this stuff could travel to the White House.
9:42
[Gil] In September 2024, there was a conference at Fort Mason
9:46
in San Francisco called Reboot 2024,
9:49
and its website announced that we are now in a new reality.
9:53
And that Silicon Valley was waking up and about to become this powerful force in politics.
9:58
And the guest speaker was Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation
10:02
who was the guy who had shepherded Project 2025.
10:05
So here you had tech VCs in San Francisco...
kishner
10:20
for maritime prosperity zones,
10:23
districts on American soil with fewer regulations
10:26
for corporations to build ships and reinvigorate the industrial base.
10:30
Then there's the New American Industrial Alliance,
10:33
a tech industry interest group pushing for unrestricted data center growth.
10:37
They were listed as co-sponsors of the Blueprint for America,
10:41
lobbying for prosperity zones on American soil.
10:44
A plan to sell federal and public land to private companies
10:48
to build low regulation, low tax havens for progress.
10:52
Their co-sponsor on the Blueprint was the company behind Prospera in Honduras,
10:56
whose lobbying disclosures show they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars
11:00
pushing for prosperity zones.
11:02
But they also spent big on begging the American government for handouts of your money.
11:08
They've lobbied on refunding the US International Development Financial Corporation,
11:12
a government organization run by Epstein associate Ben Black
11:15
that uses tax dollars to invest in American companies abroad.
11:20
That's privatized foreign aid.
11:22
And they might finally get their way.
11:24
Black went to Honduras and promised investment in real estate and technology there,
11:28
including an investment in La Ceiba, which is slated to be absorbed by Prospera.
11:34
But it's more than just government handouts.
11:37
It's war crimes.
11:38
So we did a master plan.
11:39
And we've developed ways to redevelop Gaza.
11:41
Gaza is President Trump's and saying has amazing potential.
11:44
And this is for the people of Gaza.
11:45
We've developed it into zones.
11:47
[Gil] It was sort of insane to see it all come together in this way.
...11:55
there's always the idea of a new city that they're proposing.
11:59
And it's not clear why we need these new cities.
12:01
You know, Gaza should be rebuilt for for the Palestinians.
12:05
But these guys see it as an opportunity to take the land.
12:09
And so that shows you the degree to which this thinking is starting to imbue everything that they do.
12:15
[Sean] Look at how the people in this fringe movement
12:18
reacted to other invasions.
12:20
In 2019, Mark Lutter, leader of a Peter Thiel funded new city think tank, said that
12:25
overthrowing the Venezuelan government would be an opportunity for these projects.
12:30
And when the invasion did happen, Lutter suggested America
12:33
establish a Florida or Texas style government there.
12:36
He cites America paying for a wholesale development plan after regime change.
12:41
Which is exactly what we're doing in Iran today,
12:44
to the tune of $300 billion.
12:47
Palmer Luckey, Lonsdale and Thiel associate, and founder of AI defense contractor Anduril,
12:52
pictured here in cosplay,
12:54
suggested a privatized city on Guantanamo Bay in Cuba,
12:57
which President Trump also threatened with invasion.
13:01
Again, nobody wants this.
13:02
They know that.
13:03
That's why they hate populism.
13:05
That's why they hate democratic representation
13:07
despite all of this being couched in freedom.
13:10
What they're asking for is to exit entirely from any government structure.
13:14
But that's just not how it works,
13:16
especially when most of these guys are government contractors, and are still wanting
13:20
to have the benefits of our society without having the responsibilities of our society.
13:26
These are people who don't like being told “no.”
13:28
They're angry at the pushback against data centers, that we don't want AI to take over everything,
gil
13:33
that no one supports annihilating a civilization to replace it with one they can profit from.
13:38
People need to understand that the billionaires have become radicalized against democracy,
13:42
and they're in the process of using everything they have to try to destroy it.
13:45
And that's the battle of our moment.
13:47
That's the battle of our time.
...
13:49
It's not too late to push back.
13:51
Public response to data centers works.
13:53
Many of the governance as a service startups are starting their work
13:56
in towns and states where you can still have a voice to stop them.
14:01
The billionaire class wants to turn your home into their playland,
14:05
completely change how everything is run to funnel more wealth to themselves,
14:09
create chaos,
14:11
and then when everything is all f*cked up,
14:13
walk away with their winnings to their own private enclaves,
14:16
all under the guise of fixing a broken government.
14:20
A government that they broke.
14:21
And yeah, sure, the government is broken,
14:24
but it's not because of democracy or lack of corporate privatization.
14:28
It's because of corporate power.
14:30
We need more democracy and less corporate control.
---
---