WITA Community Virtual Happy Hour Featuring Co-Hosts:
Karen Antebi, Senior Director, IQOM Strategic Advisors/Business Council of Mexico
Nicole Bivens Collinson, Managing Principal, Sandler Travis & Rosenberg PA
Ed Brzytwa, Director of International Trade, American Chemistry Council
Paul DeLaney, Vice President, Trade and International, Business Roundtable
Stacy Ettinger, Partner, K&L Gates
Kenneth Levinson, Executive Director, Washington International Trade Association
Kellie Meiman Hock, Partner, McLarty Associates
Lisa Schroeter, Global Director, Trade and Investment Policy, The Dow Chemical Company
Yuri Unno, Director for International Trade Policy, Government and Industry Affairs, Toyota Motor North America
Karen Antebi is a Senior Director at IQOM Strategic Advisors Washington Office and counsel to the Business Council of Mexico. Prior to joining IQOM, Karen served as Economic Counselor at the Embassy of Mexico in Washington, D.C., where she led Mexico’s trade advocacy and communication strategies with the U.S. Congress, Administration, and private sector. Karen was also Director of Policy and Global Compliance Programs at BSA | The Software Alliance. She has 25 years of experience at the highest levels of government as a diplomat and global advocate on international trade, investment and data issues.
Nicole Bivens Collinson leads the International Trade and Government relations practice of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A., and serves as managing principal of the Washington, D.C., office. She is also a member of the Firm’s Operating Committee and a commentator on trade matters on MSNBC and NPR. Ms. Collinson prepares countries, companies and associations for negotiations with the United States on free trade agreements, trade and investment agreements, labor disputes or other preferential programs. Further, her work representing clients before Congress has earned her a well-respected position among politicians involved in international and business affairs.
Ms. Collinson has over 30 years of experience in government, public affairs and lobbying. She has drafted and guided the successful implementation of several pieces of key international trade legislation positively affecting the bottom line of many U.S. companies. Clients have saved millions of dollars through the successful drafting, guidance and passage of legislation that reduces or eliminates duties — crafting creative measures to benefit clients such as blocking changes to the First Sale doctrine, Miscellaneous Tariff Bills, specific trade preference legislation, the Generalized System of Preferences, etc. Such a track record demonstrates her ability to effectively move your agenda forward.
Prior to joining the Firm, Ms. Collinson served as assistant chief negotiator for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, responsible for the negotiation of bilateral agreements with Latin America, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, the Sub-Continent and Africa. She also served as a country specialist in the International Trade Administration at the Department of Commerce, where she was responsible for the preparation of negotiations on specific topics between the U.S. and Latin America, Eastern Europe, China and Hong Kong, as well as the administration of complex textile agreements.
Ms. Collinson holds a master’s degree in international relations from The George Washington University and a triple bachelor’s degree in political science, European studies and French from Georgetown College. She also studied at the Université de Caen in France. She is current Chair of the Women in International Trade Charitable Trust, past president of Women in International Trade, an Advisory Board member of America’s TradePolicy.com, and a member of the Washington International Trade Association, the Washington International Trade Association Foundation, and the National Association of Manufacturers and Women in Government Relations. She serves on the board of trustees for Georgetown College and the board of directors for Imojeans, and she is the past Executive Director for the U.S. Hosiery Manufacturers Coalition, the U.S. Apparel Industry Coalition and the U.S. Sock Distributors Coalition. She is conversant in both French and Spanish.
Ed Brzytwa is the American Chemistry Council’s Director for International Trade and leads the ACC’s trade policy and advocacy work, with a strong focus on influencing U.S. trade negotiation and policy initiatives to strengthen the business of chemistry.
Ed previously served as a director for global policy at the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), where he led initiatives on trade, cross-border data flows, and multilateral affairs. Prior to joining ITI, Ed Brzytwa served as the director for APEC affairs at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and the lead policy advisor for USTR on issues arising in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). From 2005-2012, Ed was a U.S. negotiator on non-tariff barrier to trade issues in the Doha Development Agenda negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO), first at the Department of Commerce and then at USTR. He has worked on a wide array of policy issues related to digital trade, localization barriers to trade, investment, technical barriers to trade, export restraints, trade facilitation, and sanitary and phytosanitary measures.
As a Fulbright fellow in 2003-2004, Ed earned a Master’s degree at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna in Austria. He also has a Master’s degree in Commercial Diplomacy from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and a Bachelor’s degree in The Classics from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Ed, his wife, and their two daughters reside happily in Bethesda, Maryland.
Paul DeLaney leads Business Roundtable trade and international policy and advocacy efforts and oversees the Trade and International Committee, advocating for trade and international economic policies that promote U.S. growth, competitiveness and jobs.
Prior to joining Business Roundtable, Paul was a Partner at the Kyle House Group where he advised clients and led advocacy on international trade, customs, investment, tax and business policy working with a wide-range of sectors and organizations.
Paul served as International Trade Counsel to Chairman Orrin G. Hatch for the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance and advised Senators and their staff on trade, investment, customs and international economic issues. Paul assisted with Finance Committee hearings and legislative markups, drafted trade legislation and amendments, briefed Senators and staff, consulted with the Administration and trade agencies, and met with stakeholders and foreign governments. Paul assisted in managing the Senate floor during the consideration of seven trade bills.
Before joining the Finance Committee, Paul worked as Senior Attorney for Trade and International Affairs at FedEx Express. He advocated on behalf of FedEx Express to shape trade policies, trade agreements and international regulatory policies that impacted the company’s international operations and investments. He was appointed to serve on Industry and Trade Advisory Committee 10 on Services and Finance by the Bush and the Obama Administrations.
Prior to joining FedEx Express, Paul worked at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and served as Deputy Chief of Staff for U.S. Trade Representatives Rob Portman and Susan C. Schwab. Paul was integrally involved in strategic planning, agency operations, and decision-making with senior political and career staff.
Before joining USTR, Paul was a litigation associate at Vinson & Elkins, LLP in Washington D.C. Paul attended Yale University and the University of Virginia School of Law. Paul has lectured at the University of Virginia School of Law, the Georgetown McDonough School of Business, and Georgetown University on international trade and disputes, as well as speaking at a wide range of association meetings and conferences.
Stacy Ettinger is a partner at K&L Gates in the Washington, D.C. office and focuses her practice on international trade. Stacy advises U.S. and foreign companies operating across a diverse range of sectors including manufacturing, energy (LNG, solar, wind), infrastructure, and maritime, in various geographic regions including Asia and the Arctic.
Her practice covers international trade, investment and regulatory matters, including trade investigations, tariff actions (232, 301, 201), customs rulings, national security reviews of foreign acquisitions and investments (CFIUS), free trade zones, bilateral and multilateral negotiations, market access issues, international IP, and food/product standards. She has over 25 years of experience working with U.S. and foreign businesses and foreign governments on international trade, regulatory, investment, and policy matters.
Stacy joined K&L Gates after serving for over nine years as senior legal and policy advisor to Senate Democratic Leader, Charles Schumer, on trade, investment and regulatory matters.
Prior to her work in the United States Senate, Stacy served for 15 years as a trade negotiator, legal and policy advisor, and litigator at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where she represented the United States in bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations, investigated and litigated unfair trade practices (dumping, subsidies) involving industrial and agricultural products, and managed complex federal rulemaking projects. Stacy also represented the United States in more than 30 appearances in World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement proceedings.
Kenneth Levinson is the Executive Director of the Washington International Trade Association (WITA). WITA is Washington’s largest non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to providing a neutral forum in the U.S. capital for the open and robust discussion of international trade policy and economic issues. WITA has over 3,00 members, and more than 170 corporate sponsors and group memberships.
Previously, Ken served as Senior Director for Global Government Affairs for AstraZeneca. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, Ken served as Senior Vice President and COO at the Washington, DC consulting firm of Fontheim International. Ken joined Fontheim after spending six years on the staff of U.S. Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, where he served as the Senator’s chief advisor for international trade, tax, foreign policy, and national security.
Ken received a Master’s degree in European History from New York University after doing his undergraduate work at the University of Massachusetts, in Amherst. Ken also spent a year studying at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Ken and his wife, the Reverend Donna Marsh, live in Bethesda, MD, with their two daughters.
Kellie Meiman Hock is the Managing Partner at McLarty Associates and is responsible for external matters for the firm. In addition, she has led the Brazil & Southern Cone and trade practices of McLarty Associates since 2000.
During this time, Ms. Meiman has helped major multinational companies in this dynamic region and beyond to take advantage of opportunities, as well as to troubleshoot obstacles to market access and investment. She has worked on various aspects of national industrial policies, ranging from local content requirements to data localization and trade remedies. Ms. Meiman has been deeply engaged in companies’ efforts to manage increased unilateral US trade actions, as well as renegotiation of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS).
Ms. Meiman previously worked at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) as Director for Brazil and the Southern Cone, where she had primary responsibility for trade negotiations with Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. Prior to her work at USTR, Ms. Meiman served as a foreign service officer with the US Department of State, where her posts included handling crisis management in the State Operations Center. An Economic Officer in the foreign service, Ms. Meiman previously had served in Porto Alegre, São Paulo, and Recife, Brazil, and in Bogotá, Colombia. She has lived and studied in Central America and Japan.
Ms. Meiman is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Inter-American Dialogue. She sits on the board of the Brazil-US Business Council and of the New York-based BrazilAmerica Chamber of Commerce. She also is Chairwoman of the Chile-based development NGO América Solidaria US. Ms. Meiman often writes and speaks on policy matters related to trade, Brazil, and Latin America.
A native of Omaha, Nebraska, Ms. Meiman is a graduate of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. She fluently speaks Spanish and Portuguese and is active in policy and politics at the national level and in the Commonwealth of Virginia, where she resides with her husband Jim and their two sons.
Lisa Schroeter is the Global Director of Trade and Investment Policy for The Dow Chemical Company. As part of the corporate Government Affairs & Public Policy team, Lisa has direct responsibilities for defining and managing the company’s trade agenda as well as developing strategy on the international aspects of key corporate issues. Based in Washington, DC, Lisa’s responsibilities focus on trade policy and legislation, trade negotiations, and investment issues that foster growth in Dow’s global businesses through identification of policies facilitating market access and reducing global distribution costs.
Before joining Dow, Lisa was the Executive Director of the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue (TABD). TABD is a unique trade-facilitation process by which American and European corporations work with the U.S. Administration and the European Commission to implement practical, detailed recommendations. Lisa was responsible for staffing the U.S. Chair CEO, working with the issue committees to develop and promote their recommendations, and facilitating business and government interaction. Ms. Schroeter joined TABD in 1999, and has managed the process on behalf of the Boeing Company, PricewaterhouseCoopers, United Technologies Corporation and Xerox.
Previously, Lisa was the Director of European Policy for EDS Corporation. In that capacity, she developed corporate strategies and responses to legislative initiatives related to Europe. Lisa was directly responsible for managing EDS’ contributions to the TABD electronic commerce committee, providing issue management, liaison between U.S. and European co-chairs, and staffing the American business community committee.
Yuri Unno is a part of the Government Affairs team for Toyota Motor North America in Washington, DC, she is responsible for defining and managing the company’s trade agenda for the company.
She led the NAFTA or USMCA negotiations for the company.
Unno represents interests of Toyota on trade issues in front of the Executive Branch, Congress, and Embassies in Washington as well as in key diplomatic places such as Geneva, Brussels and Tokyo.
Prior to joining Toyota in 1999, Unno worked as the Asia Analyst at G7 Group, a political and economic research and advisory firm.
Unno received a Master of Arts from the Elliott School for International Affairs at George Washington University and Bachelor of Arts in Economics, and Bachelor of Arts with honors in Political Science from Penn State Erie, the Behrend College.