Adam Thierer

Adam Thierer was a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University from 2010-2022. He specializes in innovation, entrepreneurialism, Internet, and free-speech issues, with a particular focus on the public policy concerns surrounding emerging technologies.

Thierer serves on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Artificial Intelligence Commission on Competitiveness, Inclusion, and Innovation. He is also a member of the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project.

Thierer has authored and edited several books, including his foundational book on the freedom to innovate, Permissionless Innovation: The Continuing Case for Comprehensive Technological Freedom. In his latest book, Evasive Entrepreneurs and the Future of Governance: How Innovation Improves Economies and Governments, he makes the case that we should accept—and often even embrace—a certain amount of disruptive entrepreneurship that fosters innovation, drives economic growth, and makes government accountable to the governed. He examines how “evasive entrepreneurs”—innovators who don’t always conform to social or legal norms—are changing the world and challenging the status quo of governance, culture, and the way we earn a living. 

Previously, Thierer was president of the Progress & Freedom Foundation, director of Telecommunications Studies at the Cato Institute, and a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation. He received his MA in international business management and trade theory at the University of Maryland and his BA in Journalism and Political Philosophy from Indiana University.