Robert Benedict is founder and Chairman of the Board for The Institute for Economic Freedom.

Mr. Benedict’s background includes being elected mayor of Minnesota’s fourth largest city (Bloomington) at age 23. Two years later he was re-elected by the largest majority in the city’s history. At age 26, he was elected as one of the youngest members of the Minnesota State Senate. After not seeking re-election, Benedict was named at age 30 as Vice President and Division General Manager at National Computer Systems, where he served for 2 ½ years.

Shortly thereafter, he formed his own company, Benedict Negotiating Seminars Inc. Since 1984, Benedict has personally taught his Real World Negotiating Seminar™ and related courses to over 25,000 purchasing, engineering, sales, marketing, and information systems professionals for some of the world’s largest corporations. He has also trained other trainers to implement his negotiating seminars, and they now serve as consultants for Benedict Negotiating Seminars, teaching his courses in North America, South America, Europe and Asia.

In 2010, after watching the United States decline from having one of the top savings rates in the world to one of the lowest – and Americans plunge into $1 trillion in credit card debt – Benedict founded the Institute For Economic Freedom "to help Americans live as savers and givers, rather than debtors and financial slaves."

He has authored fast paced, highly visual financial literacy programs for high school and college students, low income Americans, and families that are deeply in debt. Together with the Institute’s other trainers, Benedict speaks at schools, churches, businesses and community organizations to help change America “one person, one family, one friend at a time.”

He has received public recognition from the Jaycees in being named as one of Minnesota’s Ten Outstanding Young Men and by the Sun Newspapers as Metropolitan Man of the Year. Mr. Benedict has also been covered nationally by the Reader’s Digest and ABC-TV.