Elena Leontjeva is co-founder and president of the Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LFMI), an independent non-profit think tank that promotes individual freedom and responsibility, free market, and limited.
Elena played a key role in building the legal and institutional foundations for Lithuania’s post-independence economy, including the currency board and Litas Credibility Law, the securities market and stock exchange, banking, tax and budget reforms, private pension insurance, deregulation and downsizing of state functions known as the Sunset and Sunrise initiatives. She served as senior economic advisor to Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus and as state counselor on economic reform issues under six administrations. Her impactful publicistika has shaped intellectual debates in Lithuania and beyond.
Since 2015, Elena Leontjeva has pioneered and led a multidisciplinary research project on the phenomenon of scarcity and lack, embracing philosophy, theology, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and economics. Elena co-authored a peer-reviewed publication The Phenomenon of Lack: Being, Man and Society and co-created a documentary Sublime Thirst (2019) based on the study. Her co-edited publication Government Against Scarcity: How It Changes Who We Are was released in 2017.
Elena Leontjeva has written a novel The Market Square, or the Story of Two Joannes (2021 Alma Littera).
