Nonresident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Ajit Pai, a former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), is a nonresident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on issues pertaining to technology and innovation, telecommunications regulatory policy, and market-based incentives for investment in broadband deployment. Concurrently, he is a partner at Searchlight Capital Partners, a global investment firm.
Mr. Pai’s distinguished career at the FCC includes two leadership roles following presidential appointments. He was appointed commissioner by President Barack Obama in 2012, designated chairman by President Donald Trump in 2017, and twice confirmed by the US Senate. While at the helm of the FCC, Mr. Pai had a transformative impact on the future of US technology and communications policy, implementing major initiatives to help close the digital divide; advance US leadership in 5G and other wireless technologies; promote innovation; protect consumers, public safety, and national security; and make the agency itself more open, transparent, and data-driven.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Pai served in various public-sector positions in the FCC’s Office of General Counsel, the US Department of Justice, the US Senate Judiciary Committee, and the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. He also worked as a partner at Jenner & Block and associate general counsel at Verizon Communications.
Mr. Pai graduated with honors from Harvard University, where he received a bachelor’s degree, and from the University of Chicago Law School, where he received a law degree and was an editor on the University of Chicago Law Review.
President and Founder, JKC Consulting LLC
John Kneuer is the President and Founder of JKC Consulting LLC. He sits on multiple public and private company boards.
Prior to starting Kneuer LLC, Mr. Kneuer served as the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information. In this capacity Mr. Kneuer was the principal advisor to the President of the United States on telecommunications policy and the Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration ("NTIA").In addition to representing the Executive Branch in domestic and international telecommunications and information policy activities, NTIA also manages the federal use of spectrum; performs cutting edge telecommunications research and engineering, including resolving technical telecommunications issues for the federal government and private sector; and administers infrastructure and public telecommunications facilities grants.
Prior to his service at NTIA, Mr. Kneuer served as a Senior Associate at the law firm of Piper Rudnick in Washington, D.C., providing regulatory and legislative representation to corporate clients in the telecommunications, defense, and transportation industries. Earlier in his career, Mr. Kneuer served as the Executive Director for Government Relations at the Industrial Telecommunications Association, and prior to that served as an Attorney-Advisor in the Commercial Wireless Division of the Federal Communications Commission's Wireless Bureau. Mr. Kneuer received B.A. and J.D. degrees from the Catholic University of America.
Partner, HWG LLP
Patricia Paoletta is a partner with the law firm of HWG LLP, where she specializes in telecommunications, trade and technology policy. Ms. Paoletta provides advice on regulatory, trade and legislative policy to clients before the FCC, Congress and the Administration. Her clients include providers of content, cloud, mobile broadband, VoIP, international telecommunications, small cells, cognitive radio, public safety and homeland security solutions. She serves on Advisory Boards for several entities engaged in information services, communications and technology.
Ms. Paoletta has accrued considerable experience with telecommunications trade and policy in the public sector. From 1990 to 1995, she was senior advisor to the International Bureau Chief and Office Director at the Federal Communications Commission. In the mid 1990s, Ms. Paoletta served as Director of Telecommunications Trade Policy in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Executive Office of the President, where she worked on the WTO Information Technology Agreement (ITA) and the Basic Telecommunications Agreement. After USTR, Ms. Paoletta served as Majority Counsel to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. She then moved to Level 3 Communications, as Vice President, Government Relations.
Ms. Paoletta is on the Steering Committee of the Transatlantic Roundtable on Telecommunications and Information Technology of the European Institute. She is a member of the USTR Alumni Association, Washington International Trade Association, the Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA), and Women in Technology. Ms. Paoletta has served on the Board of Advisors for the Inter-American Dialogue's Latin America Telecom Advisor, Co-Chairman of the American Bar Association International Communications Committee, and as a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Technology Policy Committee.
Ms. Paoletta served as a delegate in 2012 to the ITU-R's Study Group 6 Working Party 6A Meeting and in 2009 and 2010 to the ITU-R's Study Group I Working Party IB Meetings; the 2009 meetings of CITEL (the Committee on International Telecommunications at the Organization of American States) PCC-II; the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Telecommunications Standards Assembly (2000); the ITU Internet Protocol Telephony Experts Group and the ITU World Telecommunications Policy Forum in 2001; as Chairman of the National Reliability and Interoperability Council (NRIC) Steering Committee (2000-2001); as Board Member for the Voice on the Net Coalition (2001); as Co-Chairman of the FCBA's Annual Seminar Committee (2009-2011); as a member of the FCBA's Ad Hoc Speakers Committee (2006-2007); as Co-Chairman for the FCBA International Practice Committee (2001-2002 and 2005-2006); and as a Co-Chairman of the FCBA Legislative Practice Committee (1999-2000).
President, Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Public Policy Studies
Lawrence J. Spiwak is President of the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that studies broad public-policy issues related to governance, social and economic conditions, with a particular emphasis on the law and economics of the digital age. Mr. Spiwak is a prolific scholar whose work is frequently cited by policymakers, major news media and academic journals around the world, and is in the top 1.3%of authors downloaded on the Social Science Research Network. Mr. Spiwak currently serves as the co-chair of the Federal Communications Bar Association’s (FCBA) committee responsible for overseeing the FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS LAW JOURNAL and is a member of the program committee of the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (“TPRC”). Mr. Spiwak is also the recipient of the FCBA’s Distinguished Service Award. Prior to joining the Phoenix Center, Mr. Spiwak was a Senior Attorney with the Competition Division in the FCC’s Office of General Counsel from 1994-1998. While in college, Mr. Spiwak was accepted into the Presidential Stay-In School program where he was responsible for delivering classified and confidential material among senior White House and Reagan Administration officials and received a full FBI security clearance. Mr. Spiwak received his B.A. with Special Honors from the George Washington University and his J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Mr. Spiwak is a member in good standing of the bars of New York, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Director, Americas Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Ryan C. Berg is director of the Americas Program and head of the Future of Venezuela Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is also an adjunct professor at the Catholic University of America and a course coordinator at the United States Foreign Service Institute. His research focuses on U.S.-Latin America relations, strategic competition and defense policy, authoritarian regimes, armed conflict and transnational organized crime, and trade and development issues. Previously, Dr. Berg was a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he helped lead its Latin America Studies Program, as well as visiting research fellow at the University of Oxford’s Changing Character of War Programme. Dr. Berg was a Fulbright scholar in Brazil and is a Council on Foreign Relations Term Member. He has been published in a variety of peer-reviewed academic and policy-oriented journals, including The Lancet, Migration and Development, the SAIS Review of International Affairs, and the Georgetown Security Studies Review. His articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, CNN.com, Los Angeles Times, and World Politics Review, among other outlets. He routinely testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Dr. Berg obtained a PhD and an MPhil in political science and an MSc in global governance and diplomacy from the University of Oxford, where he was a Senior Hulme Fellow. Earlier, he obtained a BA in government and theology from Georgetown University. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and is conversational in Slovenian.
Senior Attorney, Sensient Technologies Corporation
Editor-in-Chief, Americas Quarterly
Brian Winter is editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly and the vice president for policy at Americas Society/Council of the Americas. A best-selling author, analyst and speaker, Brian has been living and breathing Latin American politics for the past 20 years.
Brian spent a decade living in Latin America as a journalist for Reuters, based in São Paulo, Buenos Aires and Mexico City. Since 2015 he has been based in New York City, overseeing Americas Quarterly’s growth into a must-read for Latin America's most influential investors and opinion leaders, while more than tripling its readership online. Brian is also the author or co-author of four books including Why Soccer Matters, a New York Times bestseller he wrote with Brazilian soccer legend Pelé; The Accidental President of Brazil, co-authored with President Fernando Henrique Cardoso; No Lost Causes, with President Álvaro Uribe; and Long After Midnight, a memoir about his time in Argentina.
Brian is a regular presence in TV, radio and print media, from NPR and CNN en Español to Folha de S.Paulo and The Wall Street Journal. Proficient in Spanish and Portuguese, he speaks frequently about Latin America's past, present and future to investors and general-interest audiences.
Associate Administrator, Office of Telecommunications and Information Applications, performing the non-exclusive functions and duties of the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Department of Commerce
Doug Kinkoph is Associate Administrator of NTIA’s Office of Telecommunications and Applications, performing the non-exclusive functions and duties of the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information. Kinkoph joined the Department of Commerce in 2010 and has served in a number of roles, most recently as Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary where he worked on issues including spectrum management, broadband, and public safety communications.
While serving as head of the Office of Telecommunications and Applications, Kinkoph created the agency’s BroadbandUSA program, which works to promote broadband deployment and adoption across communities nationwide. He also oversaw a $4 billion broadband grant program that funded the deployment of broadband infrastructure, public computer centers, sustainable adoption of broadband service, and statewide broadband planning.
Before joining the Department of Commerce, Kinkoph held multiple executive roles in the communications industry as well as in the public and private sectors as a telecommunications policy expert. He served as Vice President of Operations at Soundpath Conferencing where he was responsible for all sales, marketing, and customer service operations. His private sector experience also includes serving in senior regulatory and policy roles at XO Communications, Nextlink, and LCI.
Kinkoph earned his M.A. in Administration from Central Michigan University and his B.S. in Telecommunication Management from Ohio University.
U.S. Amb. and Head of Delegation to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Radiocommunication Conference 2019
Ambassador Grace Koh is the U.S. Ambassador and Head of Delegation to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 (WRC -19). She also serves as a Special Advisor for International Communications and Information Policy in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs.
Prior to joining the State Department in 2019, Ambassador Koh was a partner in DLA Piper LLP’s telecommunications group, where she represented technology and telecommunications companies before Congress and government agencies.
Before joining DLA Piper, she served as Special Assistant to the President for Technology, Telecom, and Cybersecurity Policy at the National Economic Council, coordinating policy and advising the White House on these matters. Ambassador Koh also previously served as Deputy Chief Counsel to the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology in the U.S. House of Representatives. In this role, she advised the chair and committee members on policy and legal issues arising in the telecommunications and technology sectors.
Ambassador Koh was previously Policy Counsel at Cox Enterprises, Inc.’s Public Policy Office, working on technology policies affecting the Cox Enterprise’s Internet, cable, and broadcast properties. Ambassador Koh began at Cox Enterprises after working in the communications group at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP.
Ambassador Koh received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Humanities from Yale University and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Partner, HWG LLP
Patricia Paoletta is a partner with the law firm of HWG LLP, where she specializes in telecommunications, trade and technology policy. Ms. Paoletta provides advice on regulatory, trade and legislative policy to clients before the FCC, Congress and the Administration. Her clients include providers of content, cloud, mobile broadband, VoIP, international telecommunications, small cells, cognitive radio, public safety and homeland security solutions. She serves on Advisory Boards for several entities engaged in information services, communications and technology.
Ms. Paoletta has accrued considerable experience with telecommunications trade and policy in the public sector. From 1990 to 1995, she was senior advisor to the International Bureau Chief and Office Director at the Federal Communications Commission. In the mid 1990s, Ms. Paoletta served as Director of Telecommunications Trade Policy in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Executive Office of the President, where she worked on the WTO Information Technology Agreement (ITA) and the Basic Telecommunications Agreement. After USTR, Ms. Paoletta served as Majority Counsel to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. She then moved to Level 3 Communications, as Vice President, Government Relations.
Ms. Paoletta is on the Steering Committee of the Transatlantic Roundtable on Telecommunications and Information Technology of the European Institute. She is a member of the USTR Alumni Association, Washington International Trade Association, the Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA), and Women in Technology. Ms. Paoletta has served on the Board of Advisors for the Inter-American Dialogue's Latin America Telecom Advisor, Co-Chairman of the American Bar Association International Communications Committee, and as a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Technology Policy Committee.
Ms. Paoletta served as a delegate in 2012 to the ITU-R's Study Group 6 Working Party 6A Meeting and in 2009 and 2010 to the ITU-R's Study Group I Working Party IB Meetings; the 2009 meetings of CITEL (the Committee on International Telecommunications at the Organization of American States) PCC-II; the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Telecommunications Standards Assembly (2000); the ITU Internet Protocol Telephony Experts Group and the ITU World Telecommunications Policy Forum in 2001; as Chairman of the National Reliability and Interoperability Council (NRIC) Steering Committee (2000-2001); as Board Member for the Voice on the Net Coalition (2001); as Co-Chairman of the FCBA's Annual Seminar Committee (2009-2011); as a member of the FCBA's Ad Hoc Speakers Committee (2006-2007); as Co-Chairman for the FCBA International Practice Committee (2001-2002 and 2005-2006); and as a Co-Chairman of the FCBA Legislative Practice Committee (1999-2000).
Chief, International Bureau, Federal Communications Commission
Thomas Sullivan is Chief of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) International Bureau, which represents the FCC in international meetings and oversees the licensing and policy activities for international telecommunications services and satellite services.
From March 2010 to January 2017, Mr Sullivan served as the Chief of Staff for the International Bureau, where he coordinated International activities within the FCC and advanced the FCC’s international representation within the US Government and at international events.
He joined the FCC in 1991 after receiving his Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the University of Michigan.
Lieutenant Colonel (Retired), Venezuelan Army
José Gustavo Arocha is a retired lieutenant colonel from the Venezuelan army and a former political prisoner. Following his resignation from the army in 2009, Arocha founded a political consultancy company, GeoFenix, to provide advice and logistical services to high-profile Venezuelan dissidents and regime critics. In 2014, he was detained by government security services on treason charges and imprisoned for a period of eight months, during which time he was physically and mentally abused in an underground prison where he was kept in solitary confinement and tortured. A confession coerced from Arocha during this detainment was subsequently submitted as evidence against leading opposition figures. Since escaping captivity in March 2015, Arocha has resided in the US where he is an incoming Kennedy School Mason Fellow at Harvard University. His current research focuses on developing a systematic process for tracking the actions of individual judges, prosecutors, and security officials in authoritarian regimes who subvert local laws to persecute political enemies or dissidents.
President, Un Mundo Sin Mordaza (A World Without Censorship)
Rodrigo Diamanti founded international NGO Un Mundo Sin Mordaza (A World Without Censorship) with activists in 200 cities around the globe and presence in 52 countries. Rodrigo has created powerful and meaningful campaigns like #SOSVenezuela and #TuVozEstuPoder (Your Voice is Your Power). He received the recognition of the World Economic Forum as a Global Shaper in 2012 and by the City Council of Rome in 2013 with the "Medal of Rome" for his actions to improve human rights. Rodrigo graduated from Harvard Kennedy School’s MPA program in 2017. He also holds a master's degree in international diplomacy at Universidad Ortega y Gasset in Madrid and a bachelor's degree in economics from the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello in Venezuela.
Visiting Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Ambassador Roger F. Noriega has more than two decades of public policy experience focusing on U.S. interests in the Western Hemisphere. Twice appointed by President George W. Bush (and confirmed by the U.S. Senate) and with 10-year career on Capitol Hill, Ambassador Noriega's breadth of experience and contacts offer strategic vision and practical insight on U.S. foreign policy and aid programs. Noriega is the founder and managing director of VisiónAméricas LLC, which advises U.S. and foreign clients on international business issues, and also is a visiting fellow at the prestigious American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. He serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Congressional Award Foundation and as a member of the advisory boards of the Canadian American Border Trade Partnership and The Americano, an online forum reaching out to Latino voters.
As Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs (July 2003 to October 2005), Ambassador Noriega managed a 3,000-person team of professionals in Washington and 50 diplomatic posts to design and implement political and economic strategies in Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean. He was a leader in an inter-agency team that actively expanded trade and investment opportunities to spur economic growth and to create opportunities for U.S. companies and consumers. He also helped design and execute an annual plan for the effective use of $1.7 billion in U.S. economic assistance in two dozen countries.
As U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) (August 2001 to July 2003), Noriega coordinated complex and sensitive multilateral diplomacy in a 34-member international organization to bolster OAS efforts to promote trade, fight illicit drugs, and defend democracy.
On Capitol Hill, Noriega counseled powerful Congressional leaders on all aspects of U.S. interests in the Americas, drafted historic legislation, and oversaw U.S. aid programs, the Peace Corps, and international narcotics affairs. From July 1997 to August 2001, he was a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff of Chairman Jesse A. Helms (R-NC), and from July 1994 to July 1997, he served on the House International Relations Committee staff of Chairman Benjamin A. Gilman (R-NY).
Other experiences include: senior advisor, OAS (July 1993 to July 1994); senior policy advisor, U.S. Mission to the OAS (August 1990 to January 1993); various program management and public affairs positions, U.S. Agency for International Development and U.S. Department of State (November 1986 to July 1990); press secretary and foreign policy advisor, U.S. Representative Robert Whittaker (R-KS) (May 1983 to October 1986); and research assistant, Kansas Secretary of State (December 1981 to April 1983). He has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Washburn University of Topeka, Kansas. Ambassador Noriega has been decorated by Governments of Nicaragua and of Peru and has received numerous awards for public service from organizations committed to the promotion of democracy in the Americas. He serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Congressional Award Foundation and as a member of the advisory boards of the Hispanic Community for Policy, the Canadian American Border Trade Partnership, and the Hispanic American Civics Foundation.
Former General Counsel of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization, Former United States Ambassador to East Timor
Grover Joseph Rees is a Louisiana native whose family has lived in the Breaux Bridge/Lafayette area since the 1700s.
His first job after college was as an assistant to Congressman Dave Treen (R-LA3), who had just been elected as the first Republican Congressman from Louisiana since Reconstruction.
Rees graduated with honors from LSU Law School, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Louisiana Law Review. While in law school he worked on Ronald Reagan’s 1976 presidential campaign and was a Reagan delegate from Louisiana to the Republican National Convention. He also served as a member of the Lafayette Parish Republican Executive Committee and as a board member of Acadiana Right to Life.
In 1979, when Congressman Treen ran successfully for Governor, he asked Rees to write his authorized biography. The book, Dave Treen of Louisiana, was read and discussed widely during the campaign and after Treen’s election.
In 1985-86 Rees served as Special Counsel for Judicial Selection in President Reagan’s Justice Department, working closely with Attorney General Ed Meese to reorganize the judicial selection process to make it more philosophically oriented. These efforts resulted in the appointment of over 100 federal judges and were widely credited with transforming the federal judiciary.
From 1986 through 1991 Rees served as Chief Justice of the High Court of American Samoa, an Article I federal judicial position.
From 1991 through 1993 he was General Counsel of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.
In 1995 Rees went to work for the new Republican Congress as staff director and chief counsel of the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights. He worked with subcommittee chairman Chris Smith (R.-N.J.) to cut U.S. funding for the International Planned Parenthood Federation and other organizations that perform and promote abortions overseas. Rees also worked on the drafting and enactment of the International Religious Freedom Act, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and other legislation that has helped to bring U.S. foreign policy into closer alignment not only with our national interests but also with our values.
In 2001-2002 Rees worked for Congressman Henry Hyde (R.-Ill.), who was then serving as Chairman of the House International Relations Committee.
From 2002 until 2006 Rees served as the first United States Ambassador to newly independent East Timor.
From 2006 until 2009 Ambassador Rees was the United States Special Representative for Social Issues, responsible for representing the United States on issues relating to vulnerable persons and the family within the United Nations system.
Ambassador Rees retired from government service in January 2009 and returned to Lafayette. He is married to Lan Dai Nguyen Rees and is a member of St. Genevieve’s Catholic parish in Lafayette. He was recently elected to serve as a member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee.
Lawyer and Consultant on Issues Relating to International Postal Policy
James "Jim" Campbell is a lawyer and consultant in Washington, D.C. He is a long time adviser to Federal Express Corporation on U.S. postal reform and international postal policy. In addition, in recent years he has co-authored, with the German Wissenschaftliches Institute für Kommunikationsdienste, several major studies of European and international postal laws and practices for the European Commission and a review of the history and development of postal law and the postal monopoly in the United States for the Postal Regulatory Commission.
Mr. Campbell began his career as a staff attorney for the Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure of United States Senate working, in particular, on a review of regulation of the airline industry by the Civil Aeronautics Board that led to airline deregulation. In 1976 he joined DHL and led efforts to reform national and international postal, customs, and aviation regulations that impeded the development of the then fledgling international express industry.
Mr. Campbell was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He graduated from Princeton University and Georgetown University Law Center. He is the author of many articles on postal policy and a book on postal policy and the express industry.
Vice President for Labor, Legal and Regulatory Policy, National Association of Manufacturers
Patrick Hedren is Vice President for Labor, Legal and Regulatory Policy at the National Association of Manufacturers. Mr. Hedren leads the NAM’s advocacy before Congress and the executive branch on smarter regulations, common-sense legal reform, and labor and employment policies that fit the modern manufacturing workforce.
Prior to his work at the NAM, Mr. Hedren served as Senior Counsel for a Fortune 15 manufacturing company where he helped to grow and manage the company’s Regulatory Advocacy Practice, a multi-business and multi-disciplinary group that enabled business units to provide effective input into the regulatory process and adjust to new regulations. Prior to that role, he worked as a litigation attorney for a regulated financial services company, and for two Members of Congress in campaign and policy roles.
Mr. Hedren is a recognized expert on good regulatory practices and has advised foreign governments on how to improve their regulatory systems. He has also advised multiple U.S. presidential campaigns on regulatory policy topics. He speaks frequently on emerging issues in administrative law and regulatory reform.
A native of Minnesota, he received both his law degree, magna cum laude, and his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Minnesota. He is an alumnus and Advisory Board member of the Atlantic Council’s Emerging Leaders in Environmental & Energy Policy (ELEEP) program.
Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, Gates Corporation
Matthew R. A. Heiman joined the Company in May 2026 and has served as the Company’s Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary since June 2026. As Chief Legal Officer, Mr. Heiman is responsible for all legal functions for Gates, including securities and corporate governance, M&A, litigation, commercial, regulatory, compliance, patents and trademarks, real estate, employment and labor, sustainability and environmental matters. Prior to joining Gates, Mr. Heiman held senior legal leadership roles at Waystar, where he served as Chief Legal & Administrative Officer from 2023 to 2025 and as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary from 2020 to 2023. Prior to that, he was with Johnson Controls, where he served as Vice President, Corporate Secretary, and Associate General Counsel. Mr. Heiman has been a Senior Fellow for the National Security Institute at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia School of Law since 2018.
Vice President of Regulatory and Corporate Affairs, Cogeco Inc.
Paul Beaudry is Vice President, Regulatory and Corporate Affairs at Cogeco Inc. He leads Cogeco’s regulatory function in Canada and the United States, and represents the company in proceedings before the CRTC, the Federal Communications Commission and other government departments and regulatory agencies. He also oversees compliance with regulatory requirements imposed on the company at each level of government, in both countries. In addition, Paul leads Cogeco’s Sustainability team and the strategy for public disclosure of ESG matters. He joined Cogeco in November 2020 and has since held progressively larger leadership roles within the organization.
Prior to joining Cogeco, Paul served as Director of Regulatory Affairs at TELUS in Calgary. He also practiced competition and foreign investment law at Stikeman Elliott LLP and Ogilvy Renault LLP (now Norton Rose Fulbright) and served as a senior policy advisor to Canada’s Minister of Industry.
Paul is a graduate of the University of Montreal Faculty of Law and is a member of the Quebec Bar. He serve on the boards of the Institut national de santé publique du Québec, the Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC), La Fondation La Rue des Femmes and the Canadian chapter of the International Institute of Communications. He also sits on the Governors Council of Golf Canada.
Senior Vice President, Strand Consult
Roslyn Layton, PhD is a leading international expert on technology policy. She is Senior Vice President of Strand Consult, an independent consultancy serving the global mobile telecom industry. She is also a Visiting Researcher at Aalborg University Copenhagen where she earned a doctoral thesis on network neutrality by measuring the outcome of the policy across 53 countries over 5 years. She served on the Presidential Transition Team for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and her work was critical to the FCC’s defense for the Restoring Internet Freedom Order. She has testified to the United States Senate and House on multiple topics including spectrum, broadband, mobile mergers, competition, and privacy. She founded the think tank China Tech Threat to study the problems of technology produced by the People’s Republic of China. She serves as the Program Chair for the Telecom Policy Research Conference, the leading interdisciplinary academic gathering. Her recent paper on rural broadband describes the empirical case for policy reform to recover network infrastructure costs from streaming video entertainment providers. She is a Senior Contributor to Forbes.
Paul Garrett Professor of Public Policy and Business Responsibility, Columbia Business School
Eli Noam has been Professor of Economics and Finance at the Columbia Business School since 1976. In 1990, after having served for three years as Commissioner with the New York State Public Service Commission, he returned to Columbia. He is the Director of the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information. CITI is a university-based research center focusing on strategy, management, and policy issues in telecommunications, computing, and electronic mass media. In addition to leading CITI's research activities, Prof. Noam initiated the MBA concentration in the Management of Media, Communications, and Information at the Business School and the Virtual Institute of Information, an independent, web-based research facility. He has also taught at Columbia Law School and Princeton University's Economics Department and Woodrow Wilson School, and has been a virtual visiting professor at the University of St. Gallen, the MCM Institute.
Besides the over 400 articles in economics, legal, communications, and other journals that Professor Noam has written on subjects such as communications, information, public choice, public finance, and general regulation, he has also authored, edited, and co-edited more than 20 books.
Founding Partner, Boyden Gray & Associates
Ambassador C. Boyden Gray is the founding partner of Boyden Gray & Associates, a law and strategy firm in Washington, D.C., focused on constitutional and regulatory issues.
Mr. Gray worked in the White House for twelve years, first as counsel to the Vice President during the Reagan administration and then as White House Counsel to President George H.W. Bush. In the Reagan administration, he was Counsel to the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief, for which he wrote the original Executive Order 12291 requiring cost-benefit analysis and White House review of regulations (later renumbered as current EO 12866). In the George H.W. Bush Administration, Mr. Gray was in charge of judicial selection and was also instrumental in the enactment of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, the Energy Policy Act of 1992, and a cap-and-trade system for acid rain emissions. In 1993, he received the Presidential Citizens Medal. Under President George W. Bush, Mr. Gray was U.S. Ambassador to the European Union and U.S. Special Envoy to Europe for Eurasian Energy.
Mr. Gray practiced law for 25 years at the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering and was chairman of the Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Section of the American Bar Association from 2000 to 2002. Early in his career, Mr. Gray helped to develop the Business Roundtable and served as its first counsel. He is an adjunct professor at Antonin Scalia Law School and a former adjunct professor at NYU Law School (teaching energy and environmental law). Mr. Gray is on the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Council, the Federalist Society, Reason Foundation, and the Trust for the National Mall.
Mr. Gray earned his A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard, where he was an editor of the Crimson, and his J.D. with high honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was editor-in-chief of the Law Review. Mr. Gray served in the United States Marine Corps, and after law school, he clerked for Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
With a practice at the intersection of law, economics, domestic politics and international relations, John Herrmann represents clients before all U.S. trade agencies. He counsels U.S. producers of steel, metal, chemical and agricultural products in antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings, and represents clients in major litigation arising from such proceedings. Mr. Herrmann advises on customs-related matters such as classification, duty drawback and civil penalty issues. Mr. Herrmann also counsels clients regarding export control and sanctions-related issues, as well as the preparation and implementation of internal compliance policies and procedures.
Mr. Herrmann returned to Kelley Drye in 2009 following service in the administration of President George W. Bush, including work at the White House on the National Security Council staff. Mr. Herrmann worked as the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for International Trade, Energy and Environment. In that position, he was responsible for advising the President on international trade and investment issues and for the international aspects of energy and environmental policy.
At the White House, Mr. Herrmann’s work on key issues included the WTO Doha Round negotiations, efforts to conclude and secure Congressional approval of free trade agreements, overseeing activities of the President’s Interagency Working Group on Import Safety and representing the National Security Council at meetings of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Mr. Herrmann was also involved in export control and sanctions issues and preparing for meetings of the cabinet-level U.S.-E.U. Transatlantic Economic Council, the U.S.-India Economic Dialogue and CEO Forum, and the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue, including preparation for the November 2008 G-20 financial summit. Mr. Herrmann was one of only a handful of senior National Security Council staff asked to carryover with the administration of President Barack H. Obama to assist on transition activities.
In addition, Mr. Herrmann served as a senior advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Import Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where he advised the Assistant Secretary on issues raised in antidumping, countervailing duty and textile-related proceedings and policy matters before the agency. Mr. Herrmann also worked as a law clerk to former Chief Judge Gregory W. Carman at the United States Court of International Trade, as well as a legal intern to the Chairman of the U.S. International Trade Commission. He began his career at the White House as the Executive Assistant to the Assistant to the President for Economic and Domestic Policy.
Chair, International Trade & National Security Practice Group, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney
Mr. Pickard counsels U.S. and international clients on the laws and regulations governing international trade, with particular emphasis on import remedy, anti-bribery, national security, and export control issues. He represents and advises clients in matters related to trade remedy investigations (including antidumping, countervailing duty, and safeguard cases), U.S. economic sanctions, export controls, anti-boycott measures, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Mr. Pickard provides comprehensive international trade law compliance guidance, including assessing and resolving sensitive national security matters; developing corporate compliance programs; establishing compliance with the National Industrial Security Program (NISP) and mitigating Foreign Ownership, Control, or Influence (FOCI) issues; conducting internal investigations relating to potential violations; and appearing before the relevant agencies in connection with investigations, licensing, and enforcement actions. He also teams with the firm’s Election Law & Government Ethics Group to provide guidance pertaining to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
Mr. Pickard represents clients before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Department of State’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and International Trade Administration (ITA), the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Security Service (DSS), the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the U.S. Court of International Trade, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Alvaro Santos is Professor of Law and Director of the Center for the Advancement of the Rule of Law in the Americas (CAROLA) at Georgetown University. He teaches and writes in the areas of international trade, economic development, drug policy, transnational labor law and the future of NAFTA.
Professor Santos is co-editor of Law and the New Developmental State: The Brazilian Experience in Latin America (2013) and The New Law and Economic Development: A Critical Appraisal (2006). He is also the author of a number of articles and book chapters, including “Carving Out Policy Autonomy for Developing Countries in the World Trade Organization: The Experience of Brazil and Mexico” in the Virginia Journal of International Law (2012), and "Three Transnational Discourses of Labor Law in Domestic Reforms" in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law (2010). In 2016, he contributed to a research manifesto authored by working group at the Harvard Institute for Global Law and Policy, examining the role of law in global value chains. Professor Santos serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Comparative Law, the Journal of International Economic Law, the Law and Development Review, and the Latin American Journal of International Trade Law. He regularly teaches at Georgetown's WTO Academy and Harvard's Institute for Global Law and Policy (IGLP) and has also taught at the University of Texas, Tufts University, Melbourne Law School, and the University of Turin. Santos received a JD with high honors from Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México and an LLM and SJD from Harvard Law School.
Director, Americas Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Ryan C. Berg is director of the Americas Program and head of the Future of Venezuela Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is also an adjunct professor at the Catholic University of America and a course coordinator at the United States Foreign Service Institute. His research focuses on U.S.-Latin America relations, strategic competition and defense policy, authoritarian regimes, armed conflict and transnational organized crime, and trade and development issues. Previously, Dr. Berg was a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he helped lead its Latin America Studies Program, as well as visiting research fellow at the University of Oxford’s Changing Character of War Programme. Dr. Berg was a Fulbright scholar in Brazil and is a Council on Foreign Relations Term Member. He has been published in a variety of peer-reviewed academic and policy-oriented journals, including The Lancet, Migration and Development, the SAIS Review of International Affairs, and the Georgetown Security Studies Review. His articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, CNN.com, Los Angeles Times, and World Politics Review, among other outlets. He routinely testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Dr. Berg obtained a PhD and an MPhil in political science and an MSc in global governance and diplomacy from the University of Oxford, where he was a Senior Hulme Fellow. Earlier, he obtained a BA in government and theology from Georgetown University. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and is conversational in Slovenian.
Senior Attorney, Sensient Technologies Corporation
Editor-in-Chief, Americas Quarterly
Brian Winter is editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly and the vice president for policy at Americas Society/Council of the Americas. A best-selling author, analyst and speaker, Brian has been living and breathing Latin American politics for the past 20 years.
Brian spent a decade living in Latin America as a journalist for Reuters, based in São Paulo, Buenos Aires and Mexico City. Since 2015 he has been based in New York City, overseeing Americas Quarterly’s growth into a must-read for Latin America's most influential investors and opinion leaders, while more than tripling its readership online. Brian is also the author or co-author of four books including Why Soccer Matters, a New York Times bestseller he wrote with Brazilian soccer legend Pelé; The Accidental President of Brazil, co-authored with President Fernando Henrique Cardoso; No Lost Causes, with President Álvaro Uribe; and Long After Midnight, a memoir about his time in Argentina.
Brian is a regular presence in TV, radio and print media, from NPR and CNN en Español to Folha de S.Paulo and The Wall Street Journal. Proficient in Spanish and Portuguese, he speaks frequently about Latin America's past, present and future to investors and general-interest audiences.
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