based on a "Lemonade Stand" case :
Art (Dane Finch) is a South African-American entrepreneur known for his work in international business and innovative governance models. He proposed Yung Drung City in Bhutan, a sustainable charter city, and leads the League of Free Cities. The League is working with Charter and Free City founders, as well as investors and zone tenant companies globally, to unlock and grow new zones. The objective is to realize 50+ new self regulating locally governed spaces, which can experiment with new or best practice laws, to unlock parallel models of human flourishing. His efforts have been covered in Forbes.
Born in South Africa, Finch later moved to the United States. He studied at the University of South Carolina’s Honors College (top ranked public honors program in the US at the time), pursuing a custom tailored curriculum with core of hard sciences and specialization in Biomedical Engineering, and a minor in cultural anthropology, earning Dean’s and President’s list honors. He also attended two other universities. He completed eight years of credit over 4-5 years in his tertiary studies. He attended the Royal Thimphu College in Bhutan for a year to study the local environoment and economics. He continues to self study on ecountries and cultures around the world.
Finch’s key entrepreneurial ventures include:
Finch is the original visionary behind the 60,000 acre Gelephu Mindfulness City in Bhutan, which has complete autonomy to craft its own law, including criminal law. Finch proposed transforming Gelephu (Sarpang Dzongkhag), Bhutan, into an eco-industrial charter city with a nature integrated built world. Finch advocates for a robust economic FDI basis for organic city growth based first on primary sector production, rather than a top down capital heavy master plan. He secured $1 million for Bhutan in a round led by Pronomos Capital (LPs include Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen and Jon Lonsdale) and letters of intent from 19 large companies worth over $2B in capital investment commitments. The project was registered as an FDI company in 2021 and licensed by the Bhutanese government in 2022 as an advanced special economic zone.
Finch now focuses on the League of Free Cities where he works with entrepreneurs and zone developers globally to help them navigate and safely unlock legistaltively sound new zones of local governance. The League is positioning to incubate and fund 50+ new Free City projects - many of which present exciting and options for a healthier, more prosperous, more envionmentally integrated society of people, who are free to move between cities, rather than being trapped under one global world order. Finch (and many more important visionaries) see this as an existential struggle for human freedom to innovate and live better lives and to survive - people and planet.
The 2023 statement was released two days after the government quietly informed Finch they cancelled his Bhutan company license. Finch no longer works with Bhutan, despite having family there and being among the foremost foreign experts on the country. Forbes undertook months of research in 2023 and released an article that validates that Finch's leadership in the visionary project, entitled: A Thiel-Backed Startup Pitched A Futuristic City In Bhutan. Its Dragon King Is Building It Without Them ".