To view the event’s video, click here.
Featuring
Panel 1:
Nile Gardiner, Director of The Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom.
Thomas Wright, Director, Center on the United States and Europe, Brookings.
Lucinda Creighton, CEO Vulcan Consulting Ltd and Former Irish Minister for European Affairs.
Moderated by: Dorothy Dwoskin, d2 Strategies
Panel 2:
Karl Brophy, CEO, Red Flag Consulting
Peter Matheson, Managing Director, International Policy and Advocacy at SIFMA
Marjorie A. Chorlins, Vice President for European Affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Moderated by: Timothy Keeler, Mayer Brown, LLP
Karl Brophy is the Founder and CEO of Red Flag, a specialist global risk analysis and strategic communications consultancy. He advises, and runs multi-discipline campaigns on behalf of, some of the world’s largest corporations and industry associations. Karl is a former senior international media executive, editor, journalist, and government party communications strategist. Under Karl’s leadership and with issue expertise ranging from agriculture and food to technology and the digital economy, Red Flag has successfully fought and won campaigns on behalf of tier one clients and industries across more than 50 countries. In October 2017, Red Flag was awarded best Reputation Management and Crisis Management at the prestigious PR News Platinum Awards for global campaigns on behalf of the National Coffee Association during review by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer. (IARC). Red Flag also represented the North American Meat Institute (NAMI) and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) in managing strategic advice and communications related to the 2015 IARC review of red and processed meat.
Marjorie A. Chorlins, vice president for European Affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, develops policies and executes programs related to trade and investment with Europe. She is also executive director of the U.S.-UK Business Council and oversees the work of the Business Coalition for Transatlantic Trade (BCTT). With 30 years of experience in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors, Chorlins has focused on forging consensus among competing points of view. She has represented the U.S. government in multilateral trade negotiations, advocated in support of global sales, and consulted with multinational corporations on corporate responsibility. Chorlins began her federal government service in the office of former Sen. John C. Danforth (R-MO). Through active participation in drafting the 1988 Trade Act and the 1989 implementing legislation for the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement, she gained firsthand experience in managing the intersection of public, private, and independent sector priorities. She continued her government service as principal deputy assistant secretary for Import Administration at the Department of Commerce, representing the United States in the GATT Uruguay Round and NAFTA negotiations. Chorlins then became director for international trade relations at Motorola Inc. She played a leadership role in early business community efforts to normalize U.S.-China commercial relations and was an early proponent of a balanced approach in addressing commercial, human rights, and environmental priorities. Subsequently, Chorlins served as executive vice president of Business for Social Responsibility. With the CEO, she developed the strategic direction for and managed the continued growth of the organization, which provides technical assistance on socially responsible business practices. She later rejoined Motorola’s government relations organization as senior director of advocacy & global strategy. She leveraged political resources to support the company’s international sales and resolve matters of strategic importance to the corporation. Chorlins also served as director of government & regulatory affairs at Lockheed Martin, where she managed the international portfolio and focused on export control reform and defense trade policy. Chorlins holds an M.A. in international relations and economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a B.A. in French from Wellesley College.
Lucinda Creighton is a former Irish Minister for European Affairs and CEO of Vulcan Consulting Ltd. As a member of the Irish Parliament for nine years, she ran Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2013 and represented the EU in trade talks with the United States, leading to the formal start of TTIP negotiations in 2013. From 2012 to 2014 she also served as Vice President of the European People’s Party – the largest political party in Europe. Lucinda is an advisory board member of the International Republican Institute and the European Council on Foreign Relations. By training, she is a Barrister and qualified as a New York attorney. In addition to leading Vulcan Consulting, she is retained as a special advisor on Brexit by Fipra, the international public affairs company. Through this connection, she also collaborates with the London School of Economics providing advisory services on the fallout from Brexit. Vulcan Consulting advises a range of corporate clients on EU policy, regulatory and political issues. They specialize in assisting CEOs and other members of leadership teams in understanding the political and decision-making environment in Europe.
Nile Gardiner is Director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation. Before joining Heritage, Dr. Gardiner served as Foreign Policy Researcher to Lady Thatcher in her private office, assisting with her final book, Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World. He is a leading authority on US-British relations and the transatlantic alliance, and received his M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees in History from Yale University, and B.A. and M.A. in Modern History from Oxford University. He has served as a foreign policy adviser to three US presidential candidates: Senator Ted Cruz, Governor Mitt Romney and Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Dr. Gardiner has testified several times before Congress on foreign policy issues, including most recently on the impact of Brexit and a US-UK free trade agreement. He has advised the Executive Branch of the United States Government on the Anglo-American Special Relationship and US policy on Europe. He frequently provides analysis of global events for US and international television networks including Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, CNN, Sky News and the BBC. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The London Daily Telegraph, The London Times, The London Sunday Times, The London Daily Mail, USA Today, The New York Times Room for Debate, The Washington Times, The Boston Globe, National Review and The Weekly Standard.
Peter Matheson has served as Managing Director of International Policy at SIFMA for the last 2.5 years. He leads SIFMA’s efforts to promote trade and investment opportunities for the financial services sector as well as helping ensure international voices and policy experiences are brought to positively influence US policymaking. Prior to joining SIFMA, Peter was Financial and Economic Counsellor at the British Embassy in Washington D.C. seconded from Her Majesty’s Treasury in London. He spent over five years in that position, interacting with a number of US policymakers and helping the UK understand, anticipate and influence US developments. Peter spent 12 years at HM Treasury before arriving in the United States, working in a variety of roles. He was head of the Treasury’s Economic Strategy team through the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers and ensuing financial crisis, coordinating the Treasury’s response across different policy teams. He also previously headed up HM Treasury’s Trade and Competitiveness and Economic Forecast Presentation Divisions. Peter was born in Inverness, Scotland in the United Kingdom. He lives in Washington D.C. with his American wife, Peep. He graduated from Strathclyde University with 1st Class BA (hons) in Economics.
Thomas Wright is the director of the Center on the United States and Europe and a senior fellow in the Project on International Order and Strategy at the Brookings Institution. He is also a nonresident fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy. Previously, he was executive director of studies at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, a lecturer at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, and senior researcher for the Princeton Project on National Security. Wright works on U.S. foreign policy and grand strategy, Donald Trump’s worldview, the future of Europe, and Asian security. His book “All Measures Short of War: The Contest For the 21st Century and the Future of American Power” was published by Yale University Press in May 2017. Wright has a doctorate from Georgetown University, a Master of Philosophy from Cambridge University, and a bachelor’s and master’s from University College Dublin. He has also held a pre-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and a post-doctoral fellowship at Princeton University. Wright’s writings have appeared in the American Political Science Review, Orbis, Survival, The Washington Quarterly, Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, and The Washington Post, as well as a number of international newspapers and media outlets.
Dorothy Dwoskin is an independent consultant on international economic and trade issues and an active member of WITA’s Board. She is an experienced trade negotiator and expert in trade policy given her roles in government and the private sector.
Until recently she was Senior Director Global Trade Policy and Strategy for Microsoft Corporation and a member of Microsoft’s US Government Affairs team in Washington DC. She was responsible for leading the company’s policy efforts on international trade and economic issues, focusing on open markets for services and devices. In addition to leading the trade support to subsidiaries in the field on these matters, she worked with Congress and the Executive Branch on trade issues of concern to Microsoft such as (e.g., China, digital agenda, intellectual property rights (IPR), standards, services, and cloud policy).
Before joining Microsoft in 2007, Dorothy served nearly 30 years as a member of the career staff at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), managing various teams and staffs spanning the globe. In her last post she served as the Assistant USTR for the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Multilateral Affairs, responsible for multilateral trade negotiations and policy matters before the WTO and OECD. She was a senior member of the team for the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations, participating in negotiations that resulted in the creation of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), and leading the negotiating team on goods market access. In addition to the multilateral trade rounds, she served as lead U.S. negotiator on a variety of trade issues, concluding the original landmark Information Technology Agreement (ITA), and led the negotiating teams setting the terms of membership for countries acceding to the WTO, including China and Taiwan. She led negotiating teams that completed successful bilateral WTO market access agreements with Russia and Ukraine and concluded membership negotiations for the accession of Vietnam and Saudi Arabia to the WTO.
From 1985 to 1988, she served in USTR’s Geneva office, which represented the United States to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) where she was the officer in charge of trade in services and development-related issues.
During her time at Microsoft, Dorothy engaged in many professional activities with the trade and high- tech community. She served on the Board of the National Center for APEC (NCAPEC) including as Executive Committee as Vice Chair, responsible for policy, and chaired the Coalition of Services Industries (CSI) Strategy Group and was Chair of the Washington Council on International Trade (WCIT) in Washington State. Dorothy remains active with WITA and WCIT.
Dorothy was born and raised in Seattle, Washington and attended the University of Washington and graduated cum laude from the American University School of International Service.
Tim Keeler, an attorney in the Government Relations & Public Law and International Trade practices, joined Mayer Brown in 2009, and brings an in-depth knowledge of international trade law and economic policy matters, and a history of working in the Executive Branch and Congress on major economic, legislative and regulatory issues. Prior to joining Mayer Brown, Tim served in a variety of senior positions in the U.S. Government for almost 12 years. Most recently he was the Chief of Staff in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) from 2006 – 2009, where he oversaw implementation of U.S. policy, strategy and negotiations involving all aspects of international trade and investment matters. He worked on a number of key issues including: climate change and trade; US and China relations; WTO negotiations and litigation; free trade agreement negotiations and implementation; and CFIUS decisions. Before working for USTR, Tim spent more than five years at the Treasury Department from 2001 – 2006. He joined the Office of Legislative Affairs in 2001 as a Deputy to the Assistant Secretary for International Issues, where he was responsible for Treasury’s legislative strategy on issues including capital market sanctions, foreign exchange rate policy testimony, appropriations for U.S. agreements to replenish the World Bank and other Multilateral Development Banks, multilateral debt relief, and U.S. participation in the International Monetary Fund. He later managed the Office of Legislative Affairs from 2002 – 2006 and assisted on all policy and personnel issues in the Office. This included leading Treasury nominees through the U.S. Senate confirmation process, legislative strategy on Treasury Intelligence and Terrorist Financing matters, and advising on major economic legislative initiatives such as the 2003 tax cuts and social security reform proposals. Tim also served on the Presidential Transition Team in 2000–2001 as a policy coordinator on export control and trade remedy policy, handling the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Export Administration (now called the Bureau of Industry and Security) and the International Trade Commission (ITC). Earlier in his career, Tim served as a professional staff member for international trade on the US Senate Finance Committee under Chairman William V. Roth (R-DE). There he worked on legislation establishing permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) between the U.S. and China, preferential trade programs for Sub-Saharan Africa (the African Growth and Opportunity Act) and the Caribbean basin, the Generalized System of Preferences, legislation to bring the U.S. into compliance with the WTO decision on the Foreign Sales Corporation provisions of the Internal Revenue Code, and the miscellaneous tariff bill. In recognition of his government service, Tim was awarded the USTR Distinguished Service Award, the Treasury Distinguished Service Award, and the Treasury Secretary’s Honor Award twice. Tim is also an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University School of Law, co-teaching a course on U.S. and WTO law, policy, and politics; is a member of the Board of Directors of the Washington International Trade Foundation; and is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Tim has spoken at conferences on international trade and economic issues sponsored by, inter alia, the American Bar Association (Climate Change and Trade, March 2009), the Korea Economic Institute (the U.S. – Korea Free Trade Agreement, October 2010), and the U.S.-China Business Council (Sec. 421 tires safeguard case, July 2009; and the U.S. – China Economic and Political Relationship, January 2010).