Please join WITA International and the WITA Academy for a three-day Intensive Trade Seminar exploring key aspects of U.S. trade policy and U.S.-India economic relations. All sessions will be streamed live and recordings will be available for registered attendees.
Over three days, speakers will help attendees increase their professional knowledge by learning the nuts and bolts of trade policy directly from career trade policy professionals from across government, industry, and law.
Each part will highlight a different aspect of U.S. and India relations in international trade law and policy.
Tuesday, May 19, 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM (US Eastern Time)/6:30 PM – 8:30 PM (India Standard Time)
Wednesday, May 20, 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM (US Eastern Time)/6:30 PM – 8:30 PM (India Standard Time)
Thursday, May 21, 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM (US Eastern Time)/6:30 PM – 8:30 PM (India Standard Time)
Program Agenda
Tuesday, May 19
Strategic Context & Trade Relations
9AM ET/6:30PM IST: India on the Global Stage
Angela Ellard, Senior Advisor (non-resident), Center for Strategic and International Studies; former Deputy Director General, World Trade Organization
Dr. Ajay Kumar, Minister (Commerce), Embassy of India in Washington DC
Rachel Rizzo, Senior Fellow, Strategic Studies Programme, Observer Research Foundation
Moderator: Neena Shenai, Partner, International Trade Investment and Market Access, WilmerHale; former Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Industry and Security at the US Department of Commerce; and former Trade Counsel, House Committee on Ways and Means
9:40AM ET/7:10PM IST: U.S.–India Trade & Economic Relations
Brendan Lynch, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for South and Central Asia, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
Anthony Renzulli, Managing Director, North America, Albright Stonebridge Group
Moderator: Mark Linscott, Senior Advisor, Asia Group & US-India Strategic Partnership Forum; former Assistant USTR for South and Central Asia and WTO and Multilateral Affairs
10:20 AM ET/7:50PM IST: India & the Global Trading System
Ignacio García Bercero, Senior Fellow, Bruegel; former Director for Strategy, Multilateral Affairs & Economic Analysis, DG Trade
Maria Pagan, former Deputy United States Trade Representative and U.S. Ambassador to the WTO; Former Deputy General Counsel, Office U.S. Trade Representative
Jhanvi Tripathi, Associate Fellow – Geoeconomics Programme, Observer Research Foundation
Moderator: Dawn Shackleford, President at Looking Glass Trade, LLC; former Executive Director for Trade Agreements Policy & Negotiations, Department of Commerce; former Assistant USTR for WTO & Multilateral Affairs
Wednesday, May 20
Competitiveness, Market Access & Digital Trade
9AM ET/6:30PM IST: Competitiveness & Economic Strategy
Dr. Aparna Pande, Senior Fellow, India & South Asia, Hudson Institute
Richard M. Rossow, Senior Adviser and Chair on India and Emerging Asia Economics, Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS); Managing Director, India & South Asia, McLarty Associates
CA Pankaj Mundhra, Co-Founder & Chairman of 360tf
Moderator: Arun Venkataraman, Partner, Covington & Burling; former Assistant Secretary of Commerce & Director General of the US & Foreign Commercial Service; former Director for India, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
10AM ET/7:30PM IST: Digital Trade and Market Access
Hera Abbasi, Vice President, Government Affairs & Policy, Mastercard
Jay Gullish, Executive Director, Policy & Digital Economy, Media & Entertainment, U.S. India Business Council; former Senior Economic Advisor, ICT and Trade, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Embassy in New Delhi
Jonathan McHale, Vice President, Digital Trade, Computer & Communications Industry Association; former Deputy Assistant USTR for ICT Services and Digital Trade, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
Moderator: Kumar Deep, Country Director, India, ITI
Thursday, May 21
Challenges and Opportunities – Sectoral Deep Dives
9AM ET/6:30PM IST: Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals and Biopharma
Philip Chen, Deputy Vice President, International, PhRMA; former Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Innovation and Intellectual Property
Sudarshan Jain, Secretary General, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA); Chairman, Indian Institute of Health Management and Research (IIHMR), Jaipur
Aileen Nandi, Vice President, Global Strategy and Analysis, AdvaMed
Moderator: Dr. Brajesh Barse, Senior Director, Lifesciences, U.S. India Business Council
9:40AM ET/7:10PM IST: Critical Minerals Partnership
Siddharth Aryan, Senior Director, Energy & Infrastructure, US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF)
Pradeep Karuturi, Director, Energy, Environment, and Infrastructure, U.S. India Business Council
Ambassador Geoff Pyatt, Senior Managing Director, Critical Minerals and Energy, McLarty Associates; former Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources
Moderator: Mahnaz Khan, Vice President of Policy, Critical Supply Chains, Silverado Policy Accelerator; former Director for South Asia, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
10:20AM ET/7:50PM IST: AI, Semiconductors & Emerging Technologies
Vikram Meghal, Senior Vice President, Global Head of Engineering for Networks, Communication, Media, and Technology, Infosys
Dipakshi Mehandru, Director, India Government Affairs, Intel Corporation
Arvind Pai, Founder and Managing Partner, Creative Insights
Moderator: Nigel Corey, Director – Digital, Trade, and Technology Policy, Crowell Global Advisors
Who Should Attend?
Indian and U.S. government officials, business leaders, and trade professionals, along with all WITA members or non-members.
Speaker Biographies
Hera Abbasi is the Vice President of Government Affairs and Policy, at Mastercard. She is the Washington, D.C. lead for all international trade, tax, and market access issues.
Prior to Mastercard, she was a Government & Regulatory Affairs Executive at IBM, where she worked on market access and global trade across a range of tech issues.
Previously, she was the bicameral, bipartisan Hill strategist & lobbyist for CSI, a trade association that represents three dozen U.S. companies & associations from various services sectors.
Prior to CSI, Hera was a Congressional Advisor in the State Department’s Bureau of Legislative Affairs, where she served as Congress’s point of contact on all Europe issues, including TTIP, Russia, Ukraine, Brexit, Turkey, NATO, the European Union, Ambassadorial nominations, and Congressional Delegations.
Before her appointment in the Obama Administration, Hera worked on Capitol Hill for nearly a decade, including two years with House leadership and five years with a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, where she was a top staffer for the Turkey Caucus, Taiwan Caucus, Korea Caucus, and Congressional Study Group on Turkey. As a Hill staffer, Hera worked on the passage of the KORUS, Colombia, and Panama Free Trade Agreements. She has worked on several political campaigns in various capacities. She was a co-chair of Women in International Trade’s (WIIT) Africa and Middle East section, a board member of WIIT, and was selected as a 2017 Fellow for the Next Generation National Security Leaders Program by the Center for a New American Security. She is also a member of the U.S.-Asia Institute’s Congressional Circle and a board member of the Women’s Foreign Policy Group.
Hera received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and her master’s degree from the Naval War College; she also studied at the Air Command and Staff College. Her languages include Spanish, Urdu/Hindi, Arabic, and Latin. She has extensive travel experience, including a semester in Cairo, a summer in Morocco, two summers in South Asia; and several trips to Europe, East Asia, South America, Central America. Hera is the recipient of the Secretary’s Meritorious Honor Award and the Secretary’s Superior Honor Award; while on Capitol Hill, she was cited as a “Hill Staffer to Watch” in Foreign Policy’s blog, The Cable.
Siddharth Aryan serves as Regional Lead for the South (USA) and Senior Director – Energy & Infrastructure at the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), based in Houston. With nearly 15 years of global energy sector experience, he drives strategic policy advocacy that mitigates political risk for multinational corporations and advances the U.S.-India commercial partnership.
In his current role, Siddharth leads high-level working groups on natural gas, critical minerals, flexible resources, infrastructure finance, hydrogen, energy access and mobility, facilitating collaboration between the Government of India, U.S. Government, industry leaders, and multilateral organizations. He has successfully developed and executed advocacy programs across multiple platforms, with particular focus on the U.S.-India Gas Task Force, critical minerals supply chain security, infrastructure finance initiatives, and energy security partnerships.
His deep technical foundation was built during his comprehensive tenure with Baker Hughes across multiple oil and gas markets including India, Qatar, Dubai, Angola, and Yemen. He specialized in critical formation evaluation, sampling services, and wireline logging.
Siddharth holds a Master’s in International Business from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, with concentrations in International Finance and International Energy Policy, and a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Manipal University. He is also a Chevening Research, Science, and Innovation Leadership Fellow from the University of Oxford.
Dr. Brajesh Barse, Senior Director, Lifesciences, U.S. India Business Council
Ignacio García Bercero is a Senior Fellow at Bruegel. He specialises in trade policy and its relationship with regulatory policies and other global policies.
He covers the reform of multilateral trade institutions, new trends in bilateral trade policies, relationships between strategic partners and the interface between trade, climate policies and economic security issues.
He speaks English, Spanish and French.
He is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Political Science of University College London. Previously, he was a Fellow at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford, where his research focused on World Trade Organization (WTO) reform. His work in the European Commission included contributing to the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations. In the WTO, he served as Head of legal affairs and dispute settlement, Counsellor in the Delegation to the UN and Chief Negotiator for free trade agreements with South Korea, India and the United States. He has also overseen relations with Mediterranean countries on trade and sustainable development. His last position in the Commission was Director for strategy, multilateral affairs and economic analysis. Ignacio holds a LLM from University College London.
Philip Chen is the Deputy Vice President of International at PhRMA, where responsibilities include leading engagement in key Asia markets such as India, Japan, Korea, and Australia. Prior experience includes a significant tenure at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, holding roles such as Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Innovation and Intellectual Property and Chief Counsel for China Trade Enforcement. Additional experience encompasses positions at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Yale Law School as a Senior Fellow, Sidley Austin LLP, and a judicial clerkship at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Philip Chen holds a Doctor of Law degree from Yale Law School and an AB in Government from Harvard University.
Nigel Cory is a Director of Digital, Trade, and Technology Policy with Crowell Global Advisors. He focuses on cross-border data flows, data governance, intellectual property, and how they each relate to digital trade and the broader digital economy. Nigel has provided in-person testimony and written submissions and has published reports and op-eds relating to these issues in the United States, the European Union, Australia, China, India, and New Zealand, among other countries and regions, and he has completed research projects for international bodies such as the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation and the World Trade Organization. Nigel is a member of the United Kingdom’s International Data Transfer Expert Council and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)’s Data Free Flow with Trust Expert Community.
He previously covered trade and digital policy at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. Nigel also previously worked as a researcher in the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Prior to that, he worked for eight years in Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which included positions working on G20 global economic and trade issues and the Doha Development Round. Cory also had diplomatic postings in Malaysia, where he worked on bilateral and regional trade, economic, and security issues, and in Afghanistan, where he was the deputy director of a joint U.S.-Australia provincial reconstruction team. Nigel holds a master’s degree in public policy from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree in international business and commerce from Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia.
Kumar Deep is the Country Director of India for ITT. He leads ITI’s engagement with the Indian government and other technology and business groups in the region. He has nearly two decades of experience across the media and corporate sectors, where he’s been a leading voice in telecommunications and technology. Deep has worked with government officials across India, think tanks, and the business community on key policy issues regarding emerging technologies. Deep most recently worked for one of the largest telecom companies in the world, Vodafone Idea Limited. Prior to Vodafone, Deep was a journalist with over a decade of policy reporting experience. He anchored leading news channels, such as Bloomberg TV, Aaj Tak, and Zee News, covering unfolding political and economic events. He is a graduate of St. Xavier’s College in Kolkata and has a post-graduate degree in journalism from Indian Institute of Mass Communications, New Delhi.
Angela Paolini Ellard is a Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). She is renowned for her expertise in trade and international economic policy, resolving trade barriers, negotiating outcomes, and building coalitions.
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.
Jay Gullish is the Executive Director of Policy & Digital Economy, Media & Entertainment for the U.S. India Business Council. He is a seasoned professional with nearly 30 years of experience in government, industry, and civil society. He has been instrumental in promoting digital development across more than 20 countries and has a reputation as an innovative critical thinker and industry expert. Gullish has held various leadership roles, including Executive Director at US Chamber of Commerce, U.S.-India Business Council. Prior, he was a digital policy officer at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi. His expertise spans telecoms, information technology, satcom, and cyber sectors, and he is known for his thought leadership and problem-solving abilities. He studied at UCSD and Johns Hopkins SAIS, and is a diplomate living in Geneva,
Sudarshan Jain is the Secretary General of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) and Chairman of the Indian Institute of Health Management and Research. He also serves as a Board Member of Abbott India, Sunshine Holdings PLC and various educational institutions, and is a Senior Advisor with EQT (Private equity firm). He has a strong passion for business, healthcare policy and the education sector.
Sudarshan is on the Advisory Committee of the Biotechnology Ignition Grant, Government of India, Member of Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) and a Visiting Faculty at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM A). He is a Certified Executive Coach from the Coaching Foundation of India.
Sudarshan has a rich healthcare business experience of over 45 years and has contributed to shaping healthcare policy and improving access to healthcare in India. He has held several leadership positions in Abbott, J&J, Boots and leading Indian companies and last served as the Managing Director at Abbott Healthcare Solutions.
His experience spans across Pharmaceutical, OTC, Hospital, Diagnostic and Nutrition businesses. He has been associated with over 30 brands which are among the top 300 in the Indian pharmaceutical market. He also served as Chairman of the Life Sciences Skill Sector Development Council (LSSSDC) of India under the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship. He has been the Chair of International Generic and Biosimilar Medicines Association (IGBA) 2021. Till recently, he was associated with APAX partners as Seniors Advisor and also the board member of Healthium.Sudarshan is the first Indian recipient of the Global Chairman’s Award at Abbott. More recently, IPA has been recognized as “Maverick Effect Pioneer Award 2024” at the Indian Merchant Chambers’ (IMC) and honored with the “Best Association Excellence Award” at the India Association Congress 2024.
Sudarshan is an alumnus of St. Stephens College, Delhi and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM A).
Pradeep Karuturi is the Director of Energy, Environment, and Infrastructure at the U.S. India Business Council. He is a dedicated sustainability advocate with experience in diverse fields such as public policy, climate action, electric vehicles, and community development. His impactful work spans collaborations with governments, think tanks, and non-profit organizations both in India and internationally.
As a youth ambassador for the 2041 foundation, Pradeep embarked on an enlightening expedition to Antarctica in 2016, deepening his understanding of climate change’s global impact. In 2017, he established community centers benefiting over 1000 indigenous tribal communities in South India till date, focusing on essential aspects such as education, healthcare, and livelihood.
During his tenure as a consultant and project head for the state Government of Andhra Pradesh, India, Pradeep played a pivotal role in providing access to educational technology for over a million children across 2500+ public schools. His adept coordination with philanthropists and NRI groups in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and the Middle East led to successful fundraising efforts exceeding $2 million.
Pradeep’s influence extends to the electric vehicle sector, where he contributed to shaping EV-friendly policies while working with the prominent startup Bounce. His efforts facilitated the expansion of Bounce’s services to six new cities across three states in South India.
Volunteering with the Global Shaper Community, an initiative of the World Economic Forum, Pradeep actively promoted sustainable mobility in Bangalore. He further enhanced his expertise by undergoing the Climate Reality Leadership training course under the guidance of Al Gore, a Nobel Laureate.
Additionally, he frequently contributes thought leadership to the public discourse by penning opinion editorials on various electric mobility policy issues. His articles are featured in esteemed publications such as the Economic Times, Hindu Business Line, and Hindustan Times.
Dr. Ajay Kumar is the Minister of Commerce at the Embassy of India in Washington DC. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 2002. He served in India’s Embassies in Cairo, Egypt from 2004-2007 and in Khartoum, Sudan from 2007-2010.
On returning to the Ministry of External Affairs of India in New Delhi, he served as Deputy Secretary dealing with Disarmament and International Security Affairs from 2010-2012. He represented India in meetings of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) at working level.
From January 2013 to June 2016, Dr. Kumar worked as First Secretary/Counsellor at the Embassy of India, Washington D.C. where he looked after India-U.S. trade and commercial relations. He also represented India on the Standing Committee of the International Cotton Advisory Committee in Washington D.C.
In July 2016 to August 2017, as Counsellor at the Embassy of India in Kathmandu, he worked on India’s post-earthquake reconstruction projects in Nepal. Additionally, from December 2016 to August 2017, he worked as Director (Economic, Trade and Finance) at the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Secretariat based in Kathmandu for promoting deeper economic integration in South Asian region. From August 2017 to July 2020, he was Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of India in Kathmandu, Nepal.
From July 2020 till July 2023, as Joint Secretary and Chief of Protocol, he looked after Parliament of India’s Inter-Parliamentary cooperation.
Since September 2023, as Minister (Commerce), he is heading the Commerce Wing of the Embassy of India, Washington D.C.
Dr. Kumar has completed his Doctorate Degree in Agronomy from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi. He speaks Hindi, English, Urdu and Arabic.
Mahnaz Khan is the Vice President of Policy for Critical Supply Chains. Ms. Khan has more than 15 years of experience developing international trade strategies and advising on the economic and legal impacts of trade policy measures at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, U.S. International Trade Commission, and the U.S. Department of Commerce. Prior to joining Silverado Policy Accelerator, she was the Director of South Asia at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, where she restarted high-level bilateral trade discussions with South Asian countries, leading to the resolution of longstanding trade barriers for U.S. companies. While at the U.S. International Trade Commission, Ms. Khan spearheaded a number of impactful projects on environmental goods, digital trade, industry competitiveness, and trade preference programs. As a senior industry expert at the U.S. International Trade Commission, she also authored or co-authored over 20 publications and spoke at international conferences on these trade topics. Ms. Khan started her career in the private sector, investigating securities fraud and insider trading at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority during the peak of the 2008-10 financial crisis. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in finance and operations management from Boston University and holds a Juris Doctor from Chicago-Kent College of Law.
Mark Linscott is a Senior Advisor with The Asia Group, where he works closely with clients on trade and investment priorities across South Asia. He also serves as a Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center.
Previously, Mark was the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) for South and Central Asian Affairs from December 2016 to December 2018. He was the U.S. government lead in developing trade policy with the countries in South and Central Asia and led efforts in the bilateral Trade Policy Forum with India and in Trade and Investment Framework Agreements (TIFAs) with Central Asia, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
Mark served as the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for World Trade Organization (WTO) and Multilateral Affairs from 2012 to 2016 with responsibility for coordinating U.S. trade policies in the WTO. He and his team were responsible for negotiation and implementation of WTO accessions and the Trade Facilitation Agreement and regionally managed negotiations in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) on customs matters, government procurement, subsidies and trade remedies, and technical barriers to trade. Mark also represented the United States in trade meetings of the Group of Twenty (G-20) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Mark was the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Environment and Natural Resources from October 2003 to March 2012. In this capacity, he oversaw all trade and environment issues for USTR, including related free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations, such as the TPP, and the WTO and OECD. During this period, he developed a robust agenda on illegal logging and associated trade through Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and bilateral agreements with Indonesia and China.
From 1996 to 2002, Mark represented the United States at the U.S. Mission to the WTO in Geneva, covering trade in services, customs, antidumping, subsidies, and government procurement. He was a founding member of the WTO Pension Fund Management Board. Prior to serving in Geneva, he worked in the Office of WTO and Multilateral Affairs in USTR Washington, where he concluded the Uruguay Round Government Procurement Agreement as the lead U.S. negotiator and was responsible for preparations for the entry-into-force of the WTO.
Mark started his career at the Department of Commerce, serving from 1985 to 1988 in Import Administration, and from 1988 to 1992 in the Office of Multilateral Affairs. He was awarded a Gold Medal Award, the Commerce Department’s highest honor, for his work on the 1986 Canadian softwood lumber investigation.
Mark holds a BA in economics from the University of Virginia and a JD from Georgetown University Law Center. He and his wife, Karen, live in Washington D.C., where he tinkers on his café racer and bicycles and paddles on the Potomac.
Brendan Lynch is the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for South and Central Asia. In this position, Mr. Lynch oversees the development and implementation of U.S. trade policy with regard to 15 countries in the region, including management of the U.S.-India Trade Policy Forum (TPF) as well as coordination of activity under Trade and Investment Framework Agreements (TIFAs) with regional partners.
Previously, Mr. Lynch was the Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for South and Central Asia. Mr. Lynch managed negotiations in the region across sectors, including agriculture, manufacturing, services, and intellectual property rights. Prior to this, he was USTR’s Director for India, where he managed the bilateral trade relationship with India. Mr. Lynch initially joined USTR in 2013 and served in the agency’s Office of Agricultural Affairs, where he promoted U.S. agricultural trade interests in a variety of international fora and managed bilateral negotiations related to agriculture with countries in the South and Central Asia region as well as Taiwan, Israel, Central America, the Caribbean, Mexico, Canada, and Russia.
Prior to his work at USTR, Mr. Lynch served as an International Trade Analyst at the U.S. International Trade Commission, where he provided economic analysis of free trade agreements and advised Congressional committees and USTR on trade barriers affecting U.S. exports in key sectors and markets. He has a B.S. from Boston College and received his M.B.A. from George Washington University.
Jonathan McHale is the Vice President, Digital Trade at CCIA, where he leads the Association’s digital trade advocacy in the United States and international fora.
Until 2022, he was the Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for ICT Services and Digital Trade. He has two decades of experience working to open foreign markets in the telecommunications and digital trade sectors at both the Department of State and USTR, through policy development, negotiation, enforcement, and dispute settlement. He was the lead negotiator for the USMCA Digital Trade chapter, the Telecommunications and Electronic Commerce issues in the Trans-Pacific Partnership FTA, as well as KORUS, AUSFTA, and the Singapore-U.S. FTA. He was responsible for digital issues in the U.S.-China Bilateral Investment Treaty negotiations, and led the formulation of policy on trade-related aspects of electronic commerce in WTO and regional organizations, and the enforcement ICT and digital trade commitments in the WTO.
Prior to joining USTR, he served as an economic officer at the Department of State in Tokyo, Washington D.C. and Paris. He holds a B.A. from Brown University and an M.A. in international relations from Columbia University.
Dipakshi Mehandru is the Director of Government Affairs for Intel Corporation. She brings extensive expertise in government affairs, public policy, and corporate strategy, honed through significant roles within the technology and consulting sectors. Currently serving as Director, Government Affairs (India) at Intel, a global leader in technology and semiconductor manufacturing, Mehandru leverages a deep understanding of policy landscapes to navigate complex regulatory environments and foster strategic engagement. This role builds upon a robust background in shaping public policy and government relations, notably during a tenure as Director, Government Affairs & Public Policy (India) at Dell Technologies, where they managed policy engagement and advocated for business-enabling opportunities while evaluating and mitigating potential risks.
Mehandru’s career demonstrates a consistent ability to drive strategic initiatives and manage stakeholder relationships. As a Senior Advisor in Government Affairs & Public Policy at Dell Technologies, they focused on establishing technology’s role in addressing critical issues across education, healthcare, cybersecurity, and manufacturing, collaborating across legal, R&D, sales, and marketing teams to develop unified viewpoints. Earlier, as Principal Designate at Astrum Management Advisory, a reputation management firm, Mehandru advised C-suite executives and political leaders, developing research-backed strategies for reputation enhancement, crisis communication, and stakeholder engagement. This involved integrating marketing, social citizenship, and thought leadership functions to create impact, and successfully devising risk mitigation strategies, launching products amidst regulatory hurdles, and advocating for policy changes.
Further experience includes a role as Corporate Strategy & Client Advocacy Senior Associate at Penn Schoen Berland, a communication and strategy consulting firm, where Mehandru led engagements in political advocacy, marketing, and crisis management, defining messaging and outreach strategies for diverse clients, including technology majors and NGOs. Their foundational experience includes serving as a Research Analyst at McKinsey & Company, where they conducted industry research on the Indian media landscape and developed knowledge documents, earning recognition for analytical contributions and quality coaching. Mehandru also contributed to revenue generation and product development as a Founding Member and Senior Manager at the International Institute of Financial Markets, significantly increasing enrolments and revenue while designing curriculum and managing operations.
Academically, Mehandru holds a Master of Business Administration from both Asian Institute of Management and HEC Paris, complemented by a Master of Commerce from Delhi University and a Bachelor of Commerce from Hansraj. This strong educational foundation underpins their strategic acumen and analytical capabilities
Vikram Meghal is the Vice President of Engineering Services at Infosys and is responsible for the Global Engineering Business focusing on Network, Communication, Media, and Technology. He is passionate about driving software driven open architectures for simplification of products. He has helped multiple technology and network product organizations realize their product roadmap through innovative solutions and partnerships. His current responsibilities allow him to understand the entire semiconductor to cloud eco-system and contribute to accelerated product journeys through automation and AI.
CA Pankaj Mundhra, Co-Founder & Chairman of 360tf
Aileen Nandi, Vice President, Global Strategy and Analysis, AdvaMed
Dr. Aparna Pande is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute where her work focuses on India and South Asia.
Dr. Aparna Pande wrote her PhD dissertation on Pakistan’s foreign policy. Her major field of interest is South Asia with a special focus on India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, foreign policy, and security. She has contributed to the American Interest, the Hindustan Times, the Times of India, the Live Mint, Huffington Post, the Sunday Guardian, The Print, and RealClearWorld.
Dr. Pande’s books include Explaining Pakistan’s Foreign Policy: Escaping India (Routledge, 2011), From Chanakya to Modi: Evolution of India’s Foreign Policy (Harper Collins, 2017), Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Pakistan (Routledge, August 2017), and Making India Great: The Promise of a Reluctant Global Power (Harper Collins, 2020).
A 1993 graduate of Delhi University, Dr. Pande holds a master of arts in history from St. Stephens College at Delhi University and a master of philosophy in international relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University. Dr. Pande received a doctorate in political science from Boston University in 2010.
Aravind Pai is founder and managing partner of Creative Insights, a deep-tech-focused market intelligence, business consulting and advisory firm based in Bengaluru India. For the last 14 years, Creative Insights has supported deep-tech companies of both Indian and global origin in identifying business opportunities, gathering market intelligence, establishing business viability leading to incubation, defining product and portfolio strategy, establishing product-market fit, developing go-to-market strategy, securing initial customer buy-in, and handling business development all the way till first sales. Creative Insights has advised clients in semiconductors, wireless telecommunications, secure identification, HPC and data centers, space and strategic electronics, consumer electronics and mobile devices, and healthcare devices and services, and electronics manufacturing services (EMS). sectors. Over 18 years, Arvind has worked in design and development, applications engineering, product marketing, business development and sales management at Philips Semiconductors, NXP Semiconductors, and ST-Ericsson. Arvind graduated in industrial electronics engineering from Pune University in 1994, completed a work-integrated master’s in software systems from BITS Pilani in 2006, and finished Executive General Management Programs in Semiconductor Business from IIM Bangalore and Ashridge B-School, UK.
Maria L. Pagan is an American attorney who served as the US Ambassador to the World Trade Organization in the Biden administration.
She also served as US Deputy Trade Representative. Pagan was formerly the Deputy General Counsel in the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), working on trade negotiations, agreements, and regulations.
From 1993 to 2003, Pagan was an attorney advisor in the Office of the Chief Counsel for International Commerce at the US Department of Commerce. She then joined the USTR where she provided legal counsel and litigated disputes before the World Trade Organization.
Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt is a Senior Managing Director of the Energy and Critical Minerals practice at McLarty Associates, and a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center. He held a variety of senior leadership positions across a distinguished 35-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service.
As Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources (2022-2025), he was the U.S.’s chief energy diplomat, leading U.S. diplomacy to mobilize international support for Ukrainian energy resilience and counter Russian weaponization of its energy resource.
Amb. Pyatt also led negotiations with U.S. allies on energy security partnerships and critical mineral agreements. Amb. Pyatt served as Ambassador to Greece (2016-2022) across the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations and was U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine (2013-2016).
Earlier in his career, Amb. Pyatt was the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs as well as Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Mission to International Organizations in Vienna, Austria, where he represented the United States before the IAEA.
Amb. Pyatt was nominated to Career Ambassador — the highest rank in the U.S. Foreign Service — and is the recipient of numerous federal honors, including the Presidential Meritorious Service Award and Secretary of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Award. He serves in several corporate advisory roles, including the Excelerate Energy International Advisory Board, the U.S.-India Business Council Board of Directors, and the Business Executives for National Security and the Advisory Council of the Partnership to Address Global Emissions (PAGE).
Anthony Renzulli is a Managing Director at DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group, a founding member of DGA Group, and is based in Washington, D.C. With over two decades of work as a Foreign Service Officer, he advises clients in the South Asia practice on business and investment strategies across the region.
Most recently, Mr. Renzulli served as Director for India at the National Security Council, driving U.S. policy during one of the most transformative and productive periods in U.S.-India relations. Previously, he served as Acting Director for India at the Department of State, as Political-Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and as Deputy Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan. He also served in the Political Section of U.S. Embassy Rome as Unit Chief for Internal Political Affairs. Other overseas assignments include postings at the U.S. Consulate General in Mumbai, India, and the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey. From 2011 to 2013, he served as Special Assistant to Deputy Secretary of State, William J. Burns, coordinating policy on South and Central Asia, counterterrorism and cybersecurity, energy, and economic affairs. He also worked in the State Department as Senior India Desk Officer and Sri Lanka Desk Officer.
Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Mr. Renzulli served in the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration, where he was responsible for trade development and environmental policy in the metals, materials, and chemicals sectors, and was the lead officer for the Nonferrous Metals and Mining Industry Sector Advisory Group.
Mr. Renzulli received an M.A. in international economic policy and a B.A. in international relations, both from American University. He speaks Italian and Spanish.
Rachel Rizzo is a Senior Fellow with ORF’s Strategic Studies Programme. Her work focuses on US foreign and defence policy, the transatlantic partnership, and US-Europe-India relations.
Rachel was previously a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center based in Washington, DC (2021-2025); a Robert Bosch Foundation Fellow in Berlin, Germany where she served as a visiting foreign policy advisor to a member of the German Bundestag (2019-2020); and at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, DC where she served as a Research Associate (2016-2018) and was awarded the 1LT. Andrew J. Bacevich Jr. Fellowship (2018-2019), which recognizes emerging leaders who demonstrate a commitment to public service. She began her career as a Financial Analyst at Goldman Sachs working on the institutional fixed income sales desk.
Rachel often briefs senior policymakers from the United States, the European Union, and European member states. She writes for news publications as well as scholarly journals and is a frequent TV and print commentator on US national security and foreign policy, providing analysis for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, CNN, NPR, Bloomberg, and more. She covered the 2024 US presidential election for TV as a full-time on-air political analyst.
Richard Rossow is a senior adviser and holds the Chair on India and Emerging Asia Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). In this role, he helps frame and shape policies to promote greater business and economic engagement between the two countries, with a unique focus on tracking and engaging Indian states. He has been working on U.S.-India relations for over 25 years. He joined CSIS in 2014 after a long career in a range of private sector roles focused on India. Prior to CSIS, he served as director for South Asia at McLarty Associates, leading the firm’s work for clients in India and the neighboring region, and he retains his affiliation with the firm.
From 2008 to 2012, Mr. Rossow was with New York Life Insurance company, most recently as head of international governmental affairs, where he developed strategic plans for the company’s public policy and global mergers and acquisitions work and helped manage the firm’s policy issues in India. From 1998 to 2008, Mr. Rossow served as deputy director of the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC), the world’s leading advocacy group on behalf of strengthening economic ties between the United States and India. While at USIBC, he managed the council’s policy groups in the energy, information technology, insurance, media and entertainment, and telecommunications sectors. Mr. Rossow received his BA from Grand Valley State University in Michigan.
Dawn Shackleford is the President of Looking Glass Trade, LLC, providing strategic trade policy solutions for complex international trade challenges. She is a Director-at-Large on ANSI’s Board of Directors and a member of ANSI’s International Policy Advisory Group. Dawn was awarded the Association of Women in International Trade’s 2025 Government Service Award due to her long and distinguished career with the U.S. government, serving the United States and representing U.S. companies in the global trade space.
She served as the Executive Director for Trade Agreements Policy & Negotiations at the U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration from 2022 to 2025. In this capacity she oversaw Commerce Department engagement in multilateral trade institutions to help U.S. exporters, monitoring and import licensing of steel and aluminum trade to help U.S. importers and domestic industry, 232 related matters in cooperation with the Bureau of Industry & Security, and the facilitation of the U.S. Foreign Trade Zones program to bring jobs and manufacturing to the United States.
Prior to this position, Dawn served in various positions in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative from 2004 to 2022, including as the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for the Office of Southeast Asia and the Pacific where she served as senior official for the Trade Pillar of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) negotiations, the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for WTO and Multilateral Affairs where she served as senior official for WTO, OECD, G20 and G7 engagement, and the Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for India, Nepal and Bhutan. She also served as the lead U.S. negotiator for the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, the customs and trade facilitation chapter of the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement, multiple WTO accession negotiations, and the government procurement chapters in the U.S. FTA negotiations with Oman and the United Arab Emirates. She also worked on various WTO, OECD, APEC, G20, and UN trade policy issues.
Ms. Shackleford was elected to an international leadership position as the first female chairperson of the Trade Committee of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) from 2020 to 2021.
From 1998 to 2004 Ms. Shackleford served as a policy analyst within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and in the Department of the Navy. From 2003 to 2005 she served as an adjunct professor at American University’s School of International Service.
She holds a Master of Arts Degree in International Affairs from American University in Washington, DC, a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Politics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and studied at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany.
Neena Shenai is a Partner in International Trade Investment and Market Access at WilmerHale. She is a seasoned legal professional with over 20 years of legal, compliance and policy experience in global cross-border activities in the private sector and in government. Ms. Shenai focuses her practice on sanctions and export controls, import/customs, CFIUS, M&A due diligence and trade policy.
From 2015-2023, Ms. Shenai held several senior roles for Medtronic, the world’s largest medical technology company. While at Medtronic, she served as chief legal counsel and head of compliance for global trade matters impacting the company’s operations in over 150 countries, including sanctions and export controls, import and strategic supply chain issues, risk management and mitigation, corporate due diligence and trade policy.
Ms. Shenai served as a trade counsel for the House Committee on Ways and Means during the chairmanships of then-Reps. Dave Camp (R-MI) and Paul Ryan (R-WI). She has also worked as a trade policy counsel for the Senate Republican Policy Committee and as the senior adviser to the assistant secretary for export administration in the Bureau of Industry and Security at the US Department of Commerce.
Ms. Shenai previously was in private practice as an associate in the Washington, DC office of another international law firm and a professional trainee in the Rules Division of the World Trade Organization. She clerked for the Hon. Evan J. Wallach on the US Court of International Trade.
Neena has deep experience advising on U.S.–India trade and market access issues. She previously led U.S.–India trade policy work for the House Ways and Means Committee and directed U.S.–India high‑technology engagement at the Department of Commerce, including management of the U.S.–India High Tech Dialogue. Her practice includes advising multinational clients on India-related regulatory challenges, including market access barriers, tariffs, digital taxation (equalization levy), and trade enforcement strategies.
Jhanvi Tripathi is an Associate Fellow with the Observer Research Foundation’s (ORF) Geoeconomics Programme. She served as the coordinator for the Think20 India secretariat during India’s G20 presidency in 2023. She currently serves on the International Advisory Board Secretariat of Think20 Brasil.
Her research includes international trade policy, including new trade issues like digital trade policy, and gender and trade, besides World Trade Organization reform, and NTMs. She also has a keen interest in conflict resolution and negotiation.
Prior to this, she was an associate researcher on international trade policy for the Confederation of Indian Industry, where she worked on day-to-day government advisory on India’s FTA negotiations with the EU and the RCEP, in addition to WTO policy positions. She published multiple papers on Africa-India trade, global trade architecture, and trilateral cooperation in international trade.
She holds a BA(H) in political science and diploma in conflict transformation and peacebuilding from the University of Delhi’s Lady Shri Ram College and an MSc in Comparative politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Arun Venkataraman is a Partner at Covington & Burling. He leverages 20 plus years of government and private sector experience to provide legal, policy, and strategic advice to clients on a range of international trade matters.
Arun joined the firm after serving in senior roles at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Most recently, he served as the Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service at the International Trade Administration (ITA) from 2022-2025. Arun led the federal government’s efforts to expand commercial opportunities for U.S. firms overseas and foreign firms in the United States, including by facilitating deals between U.S. and foreign companies, improving commercial policy environments, resolving barriers to trade and investment, and negotiating governmental agreements to promote commercial partnerships. He also served as Counselor to the Secretary of Commerce, advising the Secretary on all aspects of foreign economic policy within the Department. In this role, Arun led negotiations with foreign governments on technology policy, as well as Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs.
Before joining the Biden Administration, Arun was Senior Director, Global Government Engagement, at Visa. He developed and executed engagement strategy, in advocacy before the U.S. and foreign governments, as well as with trade associations, international organizations, and other stakeholder groups on a range of international policy issues including digital economy, trade, tax, and sanctions.
During the Obama Administration, Arun served as ITA’s first-ever Director of Policy, where he led efforts across the Commerce Department to remove global trade and investment barriers and strengthen the global competitiveness of U.S. industry, including in such markets as China and India. This included leading Department efforts to support Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, pass Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) legislation, and secure improvements in China’s competition law and semiconductor policies.
Arun also served in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) as the Director for India, where he led the development and implementation of U.S.-India trade policy, for which he received the agency’s Kelly Award for outstanding performance and extraordinary leadership. He also served as USTR’s Associate General Counsel, representing the United States in litigation before the World Trade Organization (WTO) and in bilateral and multilateral negotiations on international trade agreements.
Prior to USTR, Arun was a Legal Officer in the Appellate Body Secretariat at the WTO, where he advised on appeals in litigation between countries under WTO rules. He also served as a Law Clerk for Judge Jane A. Restani at the U.S. Court of International Trade.
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