Director, Asia & Latin American Program, Inter-American Dialogue
Margaret Myers is director of the Asia & Latin America Program at the Inter-American Dialogue, adjunct researcher with the Núcleo Milenio sobre los Impactos de China en América Latina (ICLAC), and a senior advisor to the United States Institute of Peace. She established the Dialogue’s China and Latin America Working Group in 2011 to examine China’s growing presence in Latin America and the Caribbean. Myers also developed the China-Latin America Finance Database, the first publicly available source of empirical data on Chinese state lending in Latin America, in cooperation with Global China Initiative at Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center.
In addition to maintaining the Dialogue’s China and Latin America and 美洲对话 blogs, Myers has published numerous articles on Chinese leadership dynamics, international capital flows, Chinese agricultural policy, and Asia-Latin America relations, among other topics. The Political Economy of China-Latin America Relations and The Changing Currents of Trans-Pacific Integration: China, the TPP, and Beyond, her co-edited volumes with Dr. Carol Wise and Dr. Adrian Hearn, respectively, were published in 2016. Myers has testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Senate Finance and Foreign Relations Committees, and the US-China Security and Economic Commission on the China-Latin America relationship. She is also regularly featured in major domestic and international media, including the Economist, Financial Times, New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, El Comercio, El País, Folha de São Paulo, CNN en Español, and BBC. In 2018, she was identified by Global Americans as part of the “new generation of public intellectuals.”
Before arriving at the Dialogue, Myers worked as a Latin America analyst and China analyst for the US Department of Defense, during which time she was deployed with the US Navy in support of Partnership of the Americas. Myers has also worked as a senior China analyst for Science Applications International Corporation; a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank; a faculty member at Georgetown University, the George Washington University, and Johns Hopkins SAIS; a mentor for the Indian Foreign Policy Research Institute’s School of Foreign Policy; and for Fauquier County Schools, where she developed the county’s first Mandarin language program. Myers received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and conducted her graduate work at The George Washington University, Zhejiang University of Technology, and the Johns Hopkins University/Nanjing University Center for Chinese-American Studies. Myers was a Council on Foreign Relations term member. She was also the recipient of a Freeman fellowship for China studies, a Fulbright Specialist grant to research China-Colombia relations in Bogotá, and a Woodrow Wilson Center fellowship to write a forthcoming book on China-Latin America relations.
Judicial Law Clerk, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida
Nitin is a recent graduate of Cornell Law School. Before his time in Ithaca, he majored in International Studies and Political Science at Johns Hopkins University and focused on power competition in South Asia during his graduate studies at the University of Oxford.
Senior Fellow, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
Mihaela Papa is a Senior Fellow at the Fletcher School, where she has co-founded and led the Rising Power Alliances project and served as faculty in sustainable development and global governance.
Papa is an expert in negotiation strategy and coalition building, with a focus on BRICS and the transition to sustainability. She started her BRICS research as postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Law School and a visiting scholar at Fudan University's Center for BRICS Studies. Her recent publications analyze BRICS convergence and BRICS-US relations (EJIR, 2023), whether BRICS can de-dollarize global finance (CUP 2022 and ISA-West award), and BRICS resilience (Global Policy 2021). Her publications on environmental foreign policy, climate diplomacy, and global governance appeared in Global Environmental Politics, Global Environmental Change, Climate Policy, and other journals. Her commentary was featured in Foreign Affairs and The Conversation, as well as on CNN, Bloomberg, BBC, AP, News24, the South China Morning Post, and other media outlets.
Papa is also an active practitioner with a proven track record advising institutions on global strategies and leading international collaborations and programs, including at MIT and the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She served as a consultant for the U.S. government, the European Commission, and the International Institute for Sustainable Development. Originally a trade economist with a BA from Croatia, she completed her MA in Law and Diplomacy and PhD in International Relations at The Fletcher School, Tufts University.
Senior Advisor for International Policy, Google
Will Hudson is Senior Advisor for International Policy at Google, where his work focuses on Internet governance, Google’s relationship with international organizations like the United Nations, and other international policy issues. Before joining Google, Mr. Hudson was Director for International Cyber Policy at the National Security Council. There, he was responsible for coordinating the government’s implementation of a range of technology policies, including those relating to Internet governance, Internet freedom, human rights issues associated with data privacy and online surveillance, and cyber capacity building.
Prior to his time in the White House, Mr. Hudson served in a variety of positions in the federal government, advising clients on the legal and policy issues associated with cybersecurity, norms of state and non-state behavior online, and emerging technologies. He is a board member of the U.S. Telecommunications Training Institute and the Journal of Law & Cyber Warfare, and is a Corporate Leader at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Mr. Hudson is a graduate of Stanford University and Georgetown University Law Center.
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).
Senior Vice President & General Counsel, CTIA
Umair Javed serves as Senior Vice President and General Counsel. He joined CTIA in 2023 as Senior Vice President, Spectrum, where he was responsible for advancing the wireless industry’s spectrum priorities both domestically and internationally.
Prior to joining CTIA, Umair influenced global and domestic law and policy as Chief Counsel to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. He served as the FCC designee on President Biden’s Competition Council, led the FCC’s National Security Policy Council, and represented the agency at international treaty-writing conferences. During his time at the FCC, Umair also crafted the FCC’s Spectrum Coordination Initiative, oversaw the third-highest grossing spectrum auction in FCC history, coordinated the deployment of 5G services in the C-band, and partnered with Congress on passage and FCC implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act, and Secure Equipment Act.
From October 2017 to January 2019, Umair served as Legal Advisor, Wireless and International in the Office of FCC Commissioner Rosenworcel. He joined the FCC from Wiley Rein LLP, where he was an attorney in the firm’s Telecom, Media, and Technology Group.
Umair was named to the inaugural Lawyers of Color Hot List. He is also a 2021 HTTP “Tech Innovadores” recipient and the 2023 Public Safety Communications Leadership in Regulatory Service award recipient for his service at the FCC.
Umair has a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law and a bachelor of arts in Political Philosophy, Policy, and Law from the University of Virginia. He is a member of the bar in the District of Columbia and Virginia. Umair also is a volunteer firefighter in Loudoun County, Virginia.
Partner, Baker Hostetler LLP
David Rivkin is a member of the firm's litigation, international and environmental teams and is co-leader of the firm's national appellate practice. He has extensive experience in constitutional, administrative and international law litigation and has been involved in numerous high-profile cases. With his prior experience in the government sector, David draws on a wealth of knowledge when providing compliance advice to companies and handling enforcement proceedings before government agencies on issues arising out of multilateral and unilateral sanctions, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), anti-boycott issues, bankruptcy and financial fraud matters, and environmental and energy issues.
David has developed and implemented legislative, regulatory and litigation initiatives for two presidential administrations. Over the years, he has published hundreds of articles, op-eds, book reviews and book chapters on a variety of international, legal, constitutional, defense, arms control, foreign policy, environmental and energy issues for various newspapers and magazines, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today and The Los Angeles Times, and has been a frequent commentator and guest on TV and radio shows including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News, NPR and PBS.
S. Walter Richey Professor of Corporate Law, University of Minnesota Law School
Professor Richard W. Painter received his B.A., summa cum laude, in history from Harvard University and his J.D. from Yale University, where he was an editor of the Yale Journal on Regulation. Following law school, he clerked for Judge John T. Noonan Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and later practiced at Sullivan & Cromwell in New York City and Finn Dixon & Herling in Stamford, Connecticut.
He has served as a tenured member of the law faculty at the University of Oregon School of Law and the University of Illinois College of Law, where he was the Guy Raymond and Mildred Van Voorhis Jones Professor of Law from 2002 to 2005.
From February 2005 to July 2007, he was Associate Counsel to the President in the White House Counsel's office, serving as the chief ethics lawyer for the President, White House employees and senior nominees to Senate-confirmed positions in the Executive Branch. He is a member of the American Law Institute and is an advisor for the new ALI Principles of Government Ethics. He has also been active in the Professional Responsibility Section of the American Bar Association.
Professor Painter has also been active in law reform efforts aimed at deterring securities fraud and improving ethics of corporate managers and lawyers. A key provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requiring the SEC to issue rules of professional responsibility for securities lawyers was based on earlier proposals Professor Painter made in law review articles and to the ABA and the SEC. He has given dozens of lectures on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to law schools, bar associations, and learned societies, such as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Professor Painter has on four separate occasions provided invited testimony before committees of the U.S. House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate on securities litigation and/or the role of attorneys in corporate governance.
His book, Getting the Government America Deserves: How Ethics Reform Can Make a Difference, was published by Oxford University Press in January 2009. He has written op-eds on government ethics for various publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, and he has been interviewed several times on government ethics and corporate ethics by national news organizations, including appearances on Lawrence O'Donnell (MSNBC), Anderson Cooper 360 (CNN), CNN News, Fox News, National Public Radio All Things Considered, and Minnesota Public Radio News. In 2011, he testified before the U.S. House Government Oversight Committee on partisan political activity by government officials and reform of the Hatch Act. Professor Painter has also given expert testimony in cases involving securities transactions and the professional responsibility of lawyers. He testified as a defense witness in SEC. v. The Reserve Money Market Fund (SDNY, November 2012), a jury trial of an SEC enforcement action against the founders of the world's oldest money market fund that ended with a defense verdict on all of the fraud counts.
Professor Painter is the author of two casebooks: Securities Litigation and Enforcement (with Margaret Sachs and Donna Nagy; West 2003; Second Edition, 2007; Third Edition 2011) and Professional and Personal Responsibilities of the Lawyer (with Judge John T. Noonan Jr.; Foundation 1997; Second Edition, 2001; Third Edition 2011). He has written dozens of articles, book reviews, and essays, including a series of papers and a forthcoming book with Minnesota colleague Claire Hill on the personal responsibility of investment bankers.
Senior Fellow, Center for Energy and Environment, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Christopher C. Horner serves as a Senior Fellow at CEI. As an attorney in Washington, DC Horner has represented CEI as well as scientists and Members of the U.S. House and Senate on matters of environmental policy in the federal courts including the Supreme Court. He has written on numerous topics in publications ranging from law reviews to legal and industrial trade journals to print and online opinion pages, and is the author of two best-selling books: Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud and Deception to Keep You Misinformed (Regnery, 2008) and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism (Regnery, 2007), which spent half of 2007 on the New York Times bestseller list.
Horner has testified before the United States Senate Committees on Foreign Relations and Environment and Public Works, and works on a legal and policy level with numerous think tanks and policy organizations throughout the world. He has given numerous addresses to audiences in the European Parliament in Strasbourg and Brussels, and before policymakers in European capitals including London, Rome, Prague, Copenhagen, Madrid and Warsaw, on topics ranging from rail deregulation and unfunded pension liability to all manner of energy and environment issues. Horner serves on the international law practice group’s executive committee for an internationally respected assembly of lawyers, and has provided counsel and work product on other matters including intellectual property, WTO proceedings and treaty law and policy.
Greenpeace has repeatedly targeted Mr. Horner, by stealing his garbage on a weekly basis, issuing press releases announcing with whom he dines and including him in various other hysterical publications including most recently "A Field Guide to Climate Criminals" distributed at the UN climate meeting in Montreal in December 2005.
Mr. Horner has provided legal, policy and political commentary several hundred times each on both television and radio, in the United States, Europe, Canada, and Australia, including scores of visits each on the Fox News Channel, Court TV, MSNBC with repeat visits on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, BBC, CNN, CNN International, ITN, CBC, Bloomberg and Reuters Television. Mr. Horner has also been a guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He has guest hosted television commentary programs and makes weekly appearances on and regularly guest hosts nationally and regionally syndicated radio shows in America.
He has been a frequent contributor in the Washington Times, National Review Online and TechCentralStation.com opinion pages, is a guest columnist for United Press International and OpinionEditorials.com, and has regularly contributed to the Brussels legislative news magazine EU Reporter .
Horner also regularly writes for Energy Tribune and Spain's Actualidad Economica.
He received his Juris Doctorate from Washington University in St. Louis where he received the Judge Samuel Breckenridge Award for Advocacy.
BRICS Expansion and Corresponding Implications
Margaret Myers, Nitin R. Nainani, Mihaela Papa
Before the 2010s, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa were flagged as future growth...
Global Politics of Internet Regulation: Actors and Trajectory - Podcast
Will Hudson, Patricia J. Paoletta, Sally Wentworth, Umair Javed
In recent years, the United Nations’ International Telecommunication Union has become an arena where governments...
Presidential Conflicts? - Podcast
David B. Rivkin, Richard W. Painter
“Suggestions that President-elect Donald Trump put his business holdings in a 'blind trust,' which would...
An Assessment of the June 2012 Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development
Christopher C. Horner
By its Resolution A/RES/64/236 of December 24, 2009,1 the United Nations General Assembly blessed preparations...