Featuring
Angela Ellard, House Ways and Means Committee
Monica de Bolle,The Peterson Institute for International Economics
Dan Brinza, Office of the United States Trade Representative
Marideth Sandler, Sandler Trade LLC
Stephen Claeys, Wiley Rein LLP
Stacy J Ettinger, K&L Gates
Charles Freeman, John L. Thornton China Center, Brookings Institute
Erin Ennis, U.S.-China Business Council
Katrin Kuhlmann, New Markets Lab
Paul DeLaney, Kyle House Group
Pat Kirwan, Department of Commerce
Randy Dove, HP
Anissa Brennan, Motion Picture Association of America
Brian Pomper, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
Ed Brzytwa, Information Technology Industry
Amy Porges, Law Offices of Amelia Porges PLLC
Monica de Bolle is an adjunct professor at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. De Bolle was nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics between March 2015 and January 2017. Named as “Honored Economist” in 2014 by the Order of Brazilian Economists for her contributions to the Brazilian policy debate, de Bolle focuses on macroeconomics, foreign exchange policy, monetary and fiscal policy, trade and inequality, financial regulation, and capital markets. Prior to joining the Institute, De Bolle was professor of macroeconomics at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, as well as managing partner of Galanto | MBB Consultants, a macroeconomics advisory firm. She was also a director of the Institute for Economic Policy Research (IEPE/Casa das Garças), a prestigious think tank based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and an economist at the International Monetary Fund. De Bolle has authored and coauthored a number of books on the global economy and Brazil’s policy challenges, including How to Kill the Blue Butterfly: A Chronicle of the Dilma Era (2016), The State of the World Economy, Challenges and Responses: Essays in Honor of Pedro S. Malan (2014), The Future of Brazilian Manufacturing: The Deindustrialization Debate (2013), New Dilemmas in Economic Policy (2011), Financial Regulation Reform in the US: New Global Architecture and the Brazilian Regulatory Context (2009), and How to Respond to the Global Financial Crisis? Economic Policies for Brazil (2009). Her views on Brazil’s economy and economic policy have been published widely by the international and Brazilian media. She contributes regularly to major Brazilian newspapers Exame, O Globo and O Estado de São Paulo. De Bolle obtained her BA in economics from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and holds a PhD in economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Daniel Brinza is responsible for overseeing the monitoring and enforcement activities of the United States related to U.S. trade agreements, including disputes under the World Trade Organization and the free trade agreements of the United States. He is also a U.S. negotiator for the negotiations on clarifying and improving the WTO dispute settlement rules and procedures. Prior to his current position, Mr. Brinza was the Senior Legal Advisor with the Office of the United States Trade Representative at the Permanent Mission of the United States to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. While in Geneva, he was responsible for WTO legal issues, including issues involving all aspects of the WTO dispute settlement system, as well as being a United States representative for other WTO committees and working groups. Before his move to Geneva, Mr. Brinza was the Senior Advisor and Special Counsel for Natural Resources at USTR, where he was the primary attorney responsible for such issues as agriculture, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, the environment, energy, technical barriers to trade, and space launch services. Mr. Brinza has participated in WTO dispute settlement since the inception of the WTO. He has represented the United States in a number of WTO disputes and has participated in every phase of the dispute settlement process. He has also been involved in a number of negotiations, including for the United States-Canada Free-Trade Agreement, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the Uruguay Round. Mr. Brinza previously served as the Chief Counsel for the Committee on Agriculture of the U.S. House of Representatives where he supervised legislation setting United States agricultural policy as well as programs governing international agricultural trade, forestry, farm credit, and agricultural research. Mr. Brinza also served in the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture where he was responsible for legal issues concerning international trade and domestic commodity programs. Mr. Brinza received his A.B. in economics from the University of Michigan (Phi Beta Kappa), his J.D. from the Harvard Law School, and his Masters in Public Policy from the JFK School of Government at Harvard University.
Ed Brzytwa is ITI’s director of global policy for localization, trade, and multilateral affairs. Ed’s work focuses primarily on leading ITI’s efforts to craft and pursue both global and market-specific approaches to ensuring free cross-border data flows and addressing government policies relating to the localization of data, products, services, and business activities. 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). There he led U.S. government interagency teams at APEC meetings, led innovative initiatives in APEC to advance U.S. trade and investment policy interests, negotiated substantial trade and investment outcomes for the U.S. in APEC Leaders and Ministerial statements, was responsible for developing, analyzing, and coordinating policy on APEC matters within USTR and in the interagency process, and worked closely with private sector stakeholders, academia, and representatives from multilateral organizations. 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 also 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 Monterey Institute of International Studies in California (now 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. He grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and there attended St. Ignatius High School. Ed, his wife Mary Chasko, and their daughter Lila reside happily in Bethesda, Maryland.
Stephen Claeys is a partner in the law firm of Wiley Rein LLP. He assists clients on a variety of international trade law and policy matters, including bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, trade remedies and safeguards, foreign market access barriers, e-commerce and digital trade, agriculture trade, and customs enforcement. He has 25 years of experience advising members of Congress, senior White House and U.S. Department of Commerce officials, and clients on international trade law and policy, and supervising the enforcement of the U.S. trade remedies laws. Steve obtained his law degree at Northwestern University and his B.A. at the University of Notre Dame.
Paul DeLaney leads Kyle House Group’s international commercial counseling and advocacy efforts. Paul spearheads many of KHG’s coalition, trade and development, and partnership projects. He specializes in international trade, investment, tax, supply chain, regulatory and customs advocacy. Paul has worked extensively with Executive branch agencies, two Administrations, Congress, foreign governments, business associations, non-profit groups and a wide range of companies and sectors. His diverse professional background and experience offers KHG clients a broad set of advising and advocacy services. Prior to joining KHG, Paul served as International Trade Counsel to Ranking Member Orrin G. Hatch for the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance where he 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 the trade and customs agencies, and met with stakeholders and foreign governments. Paul assisted in managing the Senate floor during the consideration of seven trade bills. He also drafted a bipartisan customs modernization and reauthorization bill, the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2013 (S. 662), with Chairman Max Baucus’ staff. Before joining the Finance Committee, Paul worked as Senior Attorney for Trade and International Affairs at FedEx Express on trade policy and international regulatory issues before the U.S. and foreign governments, as well as with industry and trade associations. His work focused on 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. He helped open the FedEx Express Washington, DC Office of Trade and International Affairs, and he coordinated advocacy efforts with FedEx Express regional and country teams around the world. Prior to joining FedEx Express, Paul worked at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative for three years, including serving 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. Paul was the front office point of contact for the White House Staff Secretary, National Security Council, and National Economic Council staff to coordinate interagency actions. Before joining USTR, Paul was a litigation associate at Vinson & Elkins, LLP in Washington DC. 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 been a speaker at a wide range of association meetings, conferences, and panels. Paul is a Washington DC native, having grown up in Northwest DC and attended the St. Albans School for Boys. He lives in Virginia, with his wife Meghan and their daughters Charlotte and Maia.
Randolph “Randy” Dove is an independent government relations counselor. He recently retired from HP as executive director of Government Relations for the Americas based in Washington, DC. He managed a team responsible for US federal, US state and local, Canada and Latin America government relations. He joined HP as part of the EDS acquisition in 2008. He joined EDS in 1988 as media relations manager. While at EDS he directed Public Relations and Marketing Communications for the EDS’ government business as well as for corporate issues. In 2000, Randy joined EDS Government Affairs to lead the Congressional team. Prior to the HP split in 2015, he managed government relations for Latin America and the US Public Sector. Before EDS/HP, he was on the staff of US Senator Charles McC. Mathias, Jr. (R-MD) as press secretary and special assistant. He is on the board of the Center for Public Policy Innovation. Randy served on the board of the National Foreign Trade Council and the Digital Dialogue Forum. He is also past Chairman of the Canadian American Business Council. He has a degree in Political Science and International Studies from McDaniel College and studied corporate strategy at the London Business School.
Angela Ellard is the Ways & Means Committee Chief Trade Counsel and Trade Subcommittee Staff Director of the U.S. House of Representatives. She advises and represents Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) and Trade Subcommittee Chairman David Reichert (R-WA) on a variety of trade matters, including negotiation and implementation of all U.S. bilateral and regional free trade agreements since 1995, the operation of U.S. trade and customs laws, trade promotion authority, antidumping and countervailing duty issues, bilateral relationships with U.S. trading partners, preference programs for developing countries, and World Trade Organization negotiations, dispute settlement, and accessions. Before joining the Committee staff in 1995, Ms. Ellard was in private practice, specializing in international trade litigation and policy, including antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings and appeals on behalf of petitioners and respondents, other trade remedy proceedings, and bilateral and multilateral agreements. Ms. Ellard received her J.D. from Tulane Law School, cum laude, and she was an associate editor of the Tulane Law Review. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Public Policy from Tulane University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Newcomb College of Tulane University, summa cum laude. Ms. Ellard frequently speaks on trade litigation and policy and lectures at universities. She has been awarded the 2013 Award for Outstanding Performance by an International Lawyer in a Government or International Organization by the American Bar Association International Law Section. She has also received the 2011 Lighthouse Award from Washington International Trade Association and Washington International Trade Foundation, the 2009 Woman of the Year award by the Organization of Women in International Trade, and the 2005 Woman of the Year award by the Trade Policy Forum.
Erin Ennis is Senior Vice President of the US-China Business Council and has been since February 2015. She served as USCBC’s Vice President from 2005 to 2015. She directs USCBC’s government affairs and advocacy work for member companies and oversees USCBC’s Business Advisory Services. She also leads a coalition of other trade associations on issues of interest to companies doing business with China. Founded in 1973, the US-China Business Council provides extensive China-focused information, advisory, and advocacy services, along with comprehensive events, to nearly 250 US corporations operating within the United States and throughout Asia. She is a cleared advisor as part of the US Government’s International Trade Advisory Committee (ITAC) system and Vice Chair of the ITAC’s Investment Working Group. Prior to joining USCBC, Ms. Ennis worked at Kissinger McLarty Associates, the international consulting firm headed by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former White House Chief of Staff Thomas “Mack” McLarty. At Kissinger McLarty, Ms. Ennis was responsible for implementing strategies for international business clients on proprietary trade matters, primarily in Vietnam and Japan. Before entering the private sector, Ms. Ennis held several positions in the US Government. From 1992 to 1996, Ms. Ennis was a legislative aide to former U.S. Senator John Breaux, working on international trade and commerce. She also worked on health care issues during the Senate’s consideration of President Bill Clinton’s health care reform, an issue on which Senator Breaux actively worked to broker a compromise. At the Office of the US Trade Representative from 1996 to 2000, Ms. Ennis first worked in Congressional Affairs on Asia issues, including annual approvals of China’s most favored nation status and the ill-fated 1997 push to renew presidential “fast track” negotiating authority. Beginning in 1998, she was assistant to Deputy US Trade Representative Richard Fisher, who led US trade negotiations and enforcement with Asia, the Americas, and on intellectual property rights. A native of Louisiana, Ms. Ennis has a BA from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts and a Masters in International Affairs from Catholic University in Washington, DC. She is trustee of Mount Holyoke College and an active volunteer at the Washington National Cathedral. In 1999, Ms. Ennis completed the Marine Corps Marathon in under a quarter of a day and successfully laid to rest any lingering desire to run future races.
Stacy J. Ettinger is a Partner at K&L Gates LLP, and directs the firm’s trade policy practice. She has over 25 years of experience working with U.S. and foreign government officials and assisting businesses in navigating complex international trade legal, regulatory and compliance regimes. Stacy joined K&L Gates after serving as senior legal and policy advisor to Senate Democratic Leader, Charles Schumer, on international trade, investment, and regulatory issues, including food and product standards. Prior to her work on Capitol Hill, Stacy served 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 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. Stacy routinely works with the firm’s international trade, infrastructure, financial services, maritime, and energy areas to provide coordinated services to clients on policy, legal and regulatory matters. Stacy has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University since 2007, where she teaches a seminar course on International Trade Remedies and the WTO. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the American University Washington College of Law.
Charles W. Freeman III is a nonresident senior fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings. He is managing director at BowerGroupAsia. Formerly, he was an international principal at Forbes-Tate, directing the firm’s global efforts. Freeman previously served as assistant U.S. trade representative for China affairs. In his role as the United States’ chief China trade negotiator, he helped to shape U.S. trade policy toward China, as well as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, and Mongolia. Freeman also oversaw U.S. efforts to integrate China into the World Trade Organization. Earlier in his government career, he served as legislative counsel for international affairs for Senator Frank Murkowski of Alaska. After leaving government, Freeman has advised a wide array of firms and associations on Chinese and East Asian business and regulatory matters. He also served as vice president for global public policy and government affairs at PepsiCo Inc., and led the company’s government relations activities across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. In addition to his work in private practice, Freeman has held the chair in China studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has been a frequent commentator on U.S.-China relations and Chinese economic issues and has published extensively on Chinese trade and regulatory matters. Freeman received his Juris Doctor from the Boston University School of Law and his bachelor’s in Asian studies with a concentration in economics from Tufts University. He studied Chinese economic policymaking at Fudan University in Shanghai and Mandarin Chinese at the Taipei Language Institute. He is a director of Harding Loevner Funds and the National Committee for U.S.-China Relations.
Katrin Kuhlmann is the President and Founder of the New Markets Lab, a non-profit law and development center. She is also a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center, and she serves as a member of the Trade Advisory Committee on Africa of the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). Her areas of focus include trade and development, economic law and regulation, entrepreneurship, regional trade, and international legal and regulatory reform. She is published widely and frequently speaks on these topics, and she has testified before Congress on several occasions. Ms. Kuhlmann is a member of the Advisory Boards of the Law and International Development Society (LIDS) at Harvard and Georgetown Law Schools, the Advisory Group of the Global Food Security Project of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Bretton Woods Committee, the Trade Policy Forum, and the Trade, Finance, and Development Experts Group of the E15 Initiative led by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development and the World Economic Forum. She serves on the boards of the Washington International Trade Association and Malaika Foundation and is a member of the Portland Communications Advisory Council. Ms. Kuhlmann was previously a Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow at Harvard Law School and a Senior Advisor at the Corporate Council on Africa. Earlier in her career, she was trade negotiator at USTR and practiced international law at Skadden Arps and Dewey Ballantine. Before founding the New Markets Lab, she held leadership positions in several non-profit organizations and think tanks, including positions as a Senior Fellow and Director at the Aspen Institute and Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund. She holds degrees from Harvard Law School and Creighton University and was the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship to study international economics.
Kenneth I. Levinson is the Executive Director of the Washington International Trade Association (WITA), 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 2,200 members, and more than 160 corporate sponsors and group memberships. Mr. Levinson has over 20 years of experience working with companies, associations, NGOs and governments, advocating innovative solutions to complex public policy challenges. He was also a principal in the firm KLC Strategies, and a senior advisor to Fontheim International, Rasmussen Public Affairs, and the Advocom Group. Over the years, Mr. Levinson has worked with clients in the technology, telecommunications, bio-pharmaceuticals, agriculture and food, financial services, retail, energy, and consumer products sectors. Previously, Mr. Levinson served as Senior Director for Global Government Affairs for AstraZeneca. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, Mr. Levinson served as Senior Vice President and COO at the Washington D.C. consulting firm of Fontheim International. Mr. Levinson 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. Mr. Levinson received his Master’s Degree from New York University after doing his undergraduate work at the University of Massachusetts, in Amherst. He also spent a year studying at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Mr. Levinson and his wife, the Reverend Donna Marsh, live in Bethesda, MD, with their two daughters.
Brian A. Pomper is the co-chair of the Public Law & Policy group at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. He formerly served as chief international trade counsel to former Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT). In that role, he was responsible for advising Chairman Baucus and other members of the Senate Finance Committee on all aspects of the Committee’s international trade and economic agenda. In his current practice, Brian offers public policy, political, and strategic business advice to Fortune 500 companies and industry associations on a wide range of policy issues, including international trade and intellectual property. He represents companies before Congress, the White House, and federal agencies on a diverse set of public policy matters, including advocacy and lobbying on domestic and foreign legislation and regulations; market access problems, foreign investment, and international trade negotiations and trade disputes; and intellectual property, international tax, and customs issues. Brian also serves as an adjunct professor teaching international trade policy and politics at George Washington’s Graduate School of Political Management, and as an Educational Counselor for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. He received a J.D. from the Cornell University Law School and is a member of the U.S. patent bar.
Amy Porges provides strategic legal advice and problem-solving to help her clients gain or maintain access to world markets for the products they make and the services they supply. She assists them through rights-based advocacy based on trade agreements including the WTO Agreement and free trade agreements. She advises on trade negotiations, trade policy, legislation, administrative proceedings and WTO or FTA litigation. Before opening her own firm in 2009, Amy was in large international law firms for nine years. She spent 16 years at USTR and four years as a GATT Secretariat lawyer during the Uruguay Round. In private practice and in government, she has litigated, managed or advised on over 100 government-to-government trade disputes. As USTR’s Senior Counsel for Dispute Settlement and head of enforcement in 1995-2000, she managed USTR’s WTO and NAFTA litigation, including key cases that shaped WTO law in the WTO’s first five years. She has drafted WTO submissions and arguments for governments and stakeholders and appeared before GATT and WTO panels and the WTO Appellate Body. She has handled problems from agriculture to high tech, including negotiations, digital and internet trade, regulatory barriers, China issues and more. She is a Member of the Roster of External Counsel of the Advisory Centre for WTO Law in Geneva. Amy’s involvement with digital trade issues started with legal advising on the 1996 Information Technology Agreement and has included work on market access issues abroad for software, cloud services, video games, online music, streaming video, publishing and other digital content. She teaches trade policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She is a graduate of Cornell University, Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Marideth Sandler is the Chief Executive Officer and International Trade Advisor of Sandler Trade LLC, a certified woman-owned small business. Ms. Sandler’s work is fueled by her passion to make international trade really happen – especially with developing-country producers and U.S. artisans. She has a unique combination of unparalleled knowledge of U.S. import preference programs and import/export overall, hands-on experience with more than 95 emerging markets, effective public speaking on an international basis, and advanced training and trainer certification in microfinance. She also brings to the firm high-level and successful advocacy experience in Congress and within the Executive Branch as well as project management and policy development expertise in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Prior to her return to the private sector in 2010, Ms. Sandler served as the Executive Director of the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) in the President’s Office of the U.S. Trade Representative under both President Bush and President Obama. As Executive Director, Ms. Sandler managed the U.S. program that provided duty-free entry for an annual average of $27.5 billion in imports, during her tenure, from two-thirds of the world’s economies. Ms. Sandler made outreach to producers, artisans, and government an essential aspect of her work and worked to ensure that the GSP played a vital role for U.S. manufacturers and wholesalers as well as for U.S. companies seeking to export their inputs, equipment, and products abroad. Ms. Sandler is an honors graduate of Harvard University with a Master’s Degree in Public Administration. She holds a second Master’s Degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Colorado at Denver and a Bachelor’s Degree from Cornell University. Ms. Sandler is also a globally certified (with distinction) advisor to microfinance institutions.