FEATURING:
Jeff Bozman
Special Counsel
Covington & Burling LLP
Jean Heilman Grier
Principal Trade Consultant
Djaghe LLC
Scott Paul
President
Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM)
Clete R. Willems
Partner
Akin Gump
Wendy Cutler
Vice President & Managing Director of Washington D.C. Office
Asia Society Policy Institute
Jeff Bozman is Special Counsel at Covington & Burling LLP. He draws on his past experience as a Marine Corps officer to advise companies who do business with the United States Government. Mr. Bozman’s practice includes procurement law and public policy, with an emphasis on national security issues. He has successfully represented clients in bid protests at both the GAO and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
Mr. Bozman helps companies secure approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) and craft efficient strategies to mitigate issues of foreign ownership, control or influence (“FOCI”). Mr. Bozman also advises government contractors on developments in labor and employment law, particularly with respect to Service Contract Act compliance.
Mr. Bozman maintains an active pro bono practice focused on veterans law and military personnel issues. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Armed Services Arts Partnership (“ASAP”) and on the Advisory Board of the Lewis B. Puller, Jr. Veterans Benefits Clinic at William & Mary Law School.
Jean Heilman Grier is the Principal and Manager, Trade Practice, at Djaghe, LLC., where she advises and provides assistance to businesses, governments, international organizations and trade groups in the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America on a wide variety of international trade and procurement issues. Her expertise includes trade policy, U.S. trade laws (including Sections 201 and 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 and Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962), international trade agreements and trade negotiations. She is the author of numerous publications and maintains a weekly blog, Perspectives on Trade, at http://trade.djaghe.com.
Ms. Grier has more than 30 years of experience in international trade as a U.S. trade negotiator, lawyer, adviser and consultant. She served as the Senior Procurement Negotiator for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). In that role, she was the U.S. negotiator for the WTO Government Procurement Agreement and procurement chapters in numerous free trade agreements (FTAs), including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). She also led preparations for the procurement negotiations in the U.S.-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
Prior to joining USTR, Ms. Grier served as Senior Counsel for Trade Agreements in the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Commerce. In that position, she dealt with a wide range of international trade issues, including the negotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), as well as numerous Japanese bilateral agreements and regulatory and administrative law issues. She also participated in anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations, as well as investigations conducted under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.
Before entering the U.S. government, Ms. Grier was an Assistant Attorney General with the State of Minnesota. With that Office, she served as Chief of the Public Utilities Division, representing the State in electric, gas and telecommunications rate cases, Chief of the Consumer Protection Division, which litigated consumer fraud cases, and as the first attorney for the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board.
Ms. Grier received law degrees from the University of Minnesota (J.D.) and the University of Washington (LL.M) and an undergraduate degree from South Dakota State University. She is admitted to the bar in Minnesota and in the District of Colombia. As a Fulbright Scholar at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, she conducted research on Japanese administrative law.
Scott N. Paul is President of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), a partnership established in 2007 by some of America’s leading manufacturers and the United Steelworkers union. Scott and AAM have worked to make American manufacturing and “Made in America” top-of-mind concerns for voters and our national leaders through effective advocacy, policy development, and data-driven research.
Scott is a sought-after expert on trade and manufacturing matters, testifying before numerous congressional committees and penning op-eds for The New York Times and other leading publications. He authored a chapter in the 2013 book ReMaking America and has written extensively about Alexander Hamilton’s role in forming U.S. national economic policy. Scott also hosts the Manufacturing Report podcast.
Scott currently serves as the Board Chair of the National Skills Coalition and on the Board of Visitors of the Political Science Department at the Pennsylvania State University. He sits on the Leadership Council of the Alliance for Manufacturing Foresight.
Scott earned a B.A. in Foreign Service and International Politics from Penn State and an M.A. with honors in Security Studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Raised in the small town of Rensselaer, Indiana, he currently resides in the Washington, DC area with his family.
Clete Willems is a Partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, where he advises multinational companies, investors, and trade associations on international economic law and policy matters. Until April 2019, Mr. Willems was Deputy Assistant to the President for International Economics and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council. In this role, he was a key negotiator with foreign governments, including China and the European Union, and the President’s lead negotiator at the G-7, G-20, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum. Prior to joining the White House, Mr. Willems was a trade negotiator and WTO litigator at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). He also worked as Legislative Director for Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI).
Mr. Willems graduated from the University of Notre Dame and Georgetown University Law Center.
Wendy Cutler joined the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) as vice president in November 2015. She also serves as the managing director of the Washington D.C. Office. In these roles, she focuses on building ASPI’s presence in Washington — strengthening its outreach as a think/do tank — and on leading initiatives that address challenges related to trade and investment, as well as women’s empowerment in Asia.
She joined ASPI following an illustrious career of nearly three decades as a diplomat and negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). Most recently she served as Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, working on a range of U.S. trade negotiations and initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region. In that capacity, she was responsible for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, including the bilateral negotiations with Japan. She also was the chief negotiator to the U.S.-Korea (Korus) Free Trade Agreement. Cutler received her master’s degree from Georgetown.