The Adam Smith Institute

Madsen Pirie, Eamonn Butler and Stuart Butler (the Butlers are brothers) were students together at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. In 1973, they left Scotland to work with Edwin Feulner, who became co-founder of the free-market think tank the Heritage Foundation, in 1973.

The Adam Smith Institute (ASI), based in London, has been a major force for the introduction of market-based policies in Britain. It operates as a UK think tank.

In the early 1990s, the Institute extensively licensed and sold its name around the world. IIR, the world's largest conference company, has the rights to the name Adam Smith Institute in Russia. In Western Europe, Marketforce Communications Ltd has the right to organise conferences under the ASI name. At one point Business Seminars International Ltd had a license to use the ASI name.

After their apprenticeship in the United States, Pirie and Eamonn Butler returned to Scotland in 1977 to found their own think tank, the Adam Smith Institute, set up with the help of Antony Fisher of the Institute of Economic Affairs. Stuart Butler is a conservative activist in Washington, D.C., remaining at the Heritage Foundation.

Sources:
Sourcewatch

Related:
THE INFLUENCE OF THE ADAM SMITH INSTITUTE
Dr Pirie Changes Trains