The Mont Pelerin Society was created after World War II, in 1947, when a group of 36 scholars, mostly economists, some historians and philosophers held a first meeting at Mont Pelerin, near Montreux, conducted by Professor Friedrich von Hayek to discuss the state and the possible fate of liberalism in thinking and practice at that time. The Mont Pelerin Society has grown and its objective is to facilitate an exchange of ideas between like-minded scholars, hoping to strengthen the principles and practice of a free society and to study the workings, virtues, and defects of market-oriented economic systems.