Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General, World Trade Organization

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the first woman and first African to hold the position in the 75-year history of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the WTO.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala is an economist and international development expert with more than 40 years of experience, whose service includes Chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (2016–2020), the African Union’s African Risk Capacity Group (2014–2020), and Co-Chair of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. She was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Rockefeller Foundation. She co-chaired the G20 High Level Independent Panel on Financing for Pandemic Preparedness and was one of the founders of the COVAX Facility, designed to get affordable vaccines to Low and Low Middle-Income Countries. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum and is co-chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. She is also a member of the G30 Group of top 30 people in International Finance and the council of the Prince of Wales’s initiative Earthshot Prize.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala holds the distinction of being the first woman to serve as Nigeria’s Finance Minister, a post she held for seven years in two terms. She also served briefly as the first female Foreign Affairs Minister. As Finance Minister, she implemented policy and institutional reforms to help fight corruption and she spearheaded the complete write off by the Paris Club of $30 billion of Nigeria’s debt. She spent a 25-year career at the World Bank, rising to the number two position of Managing Director, Operations. Previously Dr Okonjo-Iweala, among other duties, served as Senior Advisor at Lazard Ltd. and sat on the boards of Standard Chartered Bank PLC and Twitter Inc. She served in 2020 as African Union COVID-19 Special Envoy as well as World Health Organization COVID 19 Special Envoy.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala is the recipient of numerous honors and accolades. She was inducted as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019 and featured in the Foreign Policy’s Top 100 Global Thinkers in 2011 and 2012. She was also listed among 73 “brilliant” business influencers in the world by Condé Nast International and received the Alumnae Recognition Award from the American Association of University Women in 2022. She was named in 2014 and again in 2021, one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the world. She was also featured on the TIME magazine cover page in 2021. She has been named six times by Forbes as one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in the World and in 2020, was named Forbes African of the Year. In 2021, she was named by Financial Times as one of the 25 Most Influential Women in the World. Dr Okonjo-Iweala was ranked by Fortune as one of the 50 Greatest World Leaders in 2015.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala is the recipient of 20 honorary degrees from some of the world’s most prestigious institutions, including Tel Aviv University, Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, USA, Brown University, University of Amsterdam, Luiss University, Italy, Trinity College Dublin, American University, and Nyenrode Business University. She is also the recipient of Nigeria’s second highest National Honor Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) in 2022. She has been awarded national honours by the government of the Republic of Liberia and from the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire in 2016. She also received the Grand Cross of the Order of Rio Branco from the Federative Republic of Brazil in 2023.

She is the author of several books, including Reforming the UnReformable: Lessons from Nigeria, (MIT Press, 2012), Fighting Corruption is Dangerous: The Story Behind the Headlines (MIT Press, 2018), The Debt Trap in Nigeria: Towards a Sustainable Debt Strategy (Africa World Press, 2003), and Women and Leadership: Real Lives, Real Lessons co-authored with Julia Gillard (Penguin Random House, July 2020). She has also published numerous articles, including Rethinking Multilateralism for a Pandemic Era (Finance and Development Magazine, 2021), Nigeria’s Shot at Redemption (Finance and Development Magazine, 2008), Mobilizing Finance for Education in the Commonwealth (Commonwealth Education Report 2019), and Shine a Light on the Gaps — an essay on financial inclusion for African Small Holder Farmers (Foreign Affairs, 2015).

Dr Okonjo-Iweala holds a Bachelor’s in Economics Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University and a PhD in Regional Economics and Development from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Panel Discussion:

Jake Colvin, President, National Foreign Trade Council; Executive Director, Global Innovation Forum 

Jake Colvin is President of the National Foreign Trade Council, the leading business association dedicated solely to advancing the interests of U.S. companies in international commerce.

As President, he leads efforts to advance global commerce through the promotion of international trade and tax policies that contribute to economic growth and job creation. He oversees NFTC’s work to strengthen the rules, norms and institutions that enable access to the global economy and emphasizes the role of trade in solving complex global problems. Prior to being named president, Jake served as NFTC’s Vice President for Global Trade and Innovation. He led efforts to promote an open global digital economy and elevate the role of trade policy in solving global climate and health challenges as well as the Council’s engagement with multilateral institutions including the World Trade Organization and APEC. From 2005 until 2008, Jake directed NFTC’s USA*Engage coalition to emphasize the benefits of U.S. economic, diplomatic and citizen engagement in the global economy.

He is a Co-Founder of the Global Innovation Forum (GIF), which engages a global network of small business, nonprofit leaders and government officials to explore the role of technology and trade policies and programs in fostering resilience and inclusive growth. From 2014 until 2021, he served as GIF’s Executive Director. Jake is a cleared advisor to the U.S. Government as a member of the Trade and Environment Policy Advisory Committee and has testified before Congress. He has written about trade and foreign policy for media including Business Week, Forbes, Inc. and Politico and has provided analysis for outlets including CNBC, CNN, NBC News and NPR.

He is a graduate of the University of Richmond and the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies. He lives in Washington, DC.

Cecilia Malmström, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics; former European Commissioner for Trade

Cecilia Malmström, a former member of the European Commission and the European Parliament, joined the Peterson Institute for International Economics as nonresident senior fellow in June 2021. She is host of PIIE’s Trade Winds biweekly virtual event series.  She is also a visiting professor at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg.

Malmström has devoted the better part of her career to global affairs and international relations and has extensive experience with multilateral leadership and cooperation. She served as European commissioner for trade from 2014 to 2019 and as European commissioner for home affairs from 2010 to 2014. She was first elected as a member of the European Parliament in 1999, serving until 2006, and was minister for EU affairs in the Swedish government from 2006 to 2010.

As European commissioner for trade, Malmström represented the European Union in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and other international trade bodies. She was responsible for negotiating bilateral trade agreements with key countries, including agreements with Canada, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, Vietnam, and the four founding Mercosur countries.

Malmström holds a PhD in political science from the department of political science of the University of Gothenburg.

Penny Naas, Senior Vice President, Innovation and Competitiveness, German Marshall Fund of the United States

Penelope (Penny) Naas is a global public policy leader who designs strategies on international economic issues that sit at the nexus of geopolitics, trade, and climate. She is an adviser for TradeExperettes, a global organization of women trade experts.

Naas has created innovative strategies and solutions for Citigroup and, more recently, for UPS as its president for international public affairs and global sustainability. She opened and was managing director of Citigroup’s first government affairs office in Brussels between 2007 and 2012 before leading UPS’s international team from 2012 to 2019. She started her career at the US Department of Commerce, where she worked for 13 years on international economic issues and advancing the commercial interests of US companies in Europe.

Naas holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is on several boards and has co-chaired the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Trade and Investment.

Ambassador Tan Hung Seng, Singapore Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the WTO and WIPO, Permanent Mission of Singapore

Ambassador Tan Hung Seng is the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Singapore to the World Trade Organisation and World Intellectual Property Organisation since February 2019. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1990, and served as Singapore’s Permanent Representative to ASEAN from August 2013 to January 2019, and Ambassador to the Arab Republic of Egypt, with concurrent accreditation to Libya, from July 2009 to July 2013. He was also concurrently accredited as Ambassador to the State of Kuwait until October 2012. 

Ambassador Tan’s other overseas postings included Embassy of the Republic of Singapore to Thailand in Bangkok, where he was Deputy Chief of Mission/Counsellor from 1999 to 2003; and two stints in Embassy of the Republic of Singapore to the Arab Republic of Egypt in Cairo as Deputy Chief of Mission from 2003 to 2005, and First Secretary from 1992 to 1995.

Ambassador Tan graduated from the National University of Singapore and did post-graduate studies at the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), under the Raffles/Chevening Scholarship. He was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Silver) in 2011 and the Long Service Medal in 2013. He is married to Mrs Kayo Suzuki-Tan and they have two daughters.

Moderator: Angela Ellard, Senior Advisor (non-resident), Center for Strategic and International Studies; former Deputy Director General, World Trade Organization

Angela Paolini Ellard is renowned for her expertise in trade and international economic policy, resolving trade barriers, negotiating outcomes, and building coalitions. She is Senior Fellow (non-resident) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC.

Ms. Ellard served as Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization from June 2021 to August 2025. During her tenure, she was responsible for dispute settlement/reform, trade remedies, market access/trade facilitation, and negotiations to curb harmful fisheries subsidies. As a diplomat and key member of the senior leadership team, she supervised the Secretariat’s facilitation of the successful conclusion and entry into force of the Fisheries Subsidies Agreement. She also oversaw the WTO budget and financial operations, providing transparency and accountability as well as sound fiscal management.

Previously, Ms. Ellard had a distinguished 26-year career as Majority and Minority Chief Trade Counsel in the U.S. Congress. She achieved significant bipartisan trade policy outcomes with Congressional leaders and five Presidential administrations, including trade agreement negotiation and implementation, development programs, and U.S. trade and customs laws. Before her tenure on the Hill, she practiced law at major U.S.law firms, focusing on trade litigation, policy, and legislation.

She earned her J.D. cum laude/Tulane Law School, M.A. in Public Policy/Tulane University, and B.A. summa cum laude/Tulane’s Newcomb College.

She speaks and lectures worldwide and has received numerous awards for her leadership and contributions to trade law and policy.