Maki Kobayashi

Work Experience

September 2021- Ambassador, Assistant Minister,
Director-General, Latin America and Caribbean Affairs Bureau
Ministry of Foreign Affairs

August 2017-September 2021 Executive Director Communications & Engagement
Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games

June 2015- August 2017 Director, European Policy Division
European Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Director General, Latin America and Caribbean Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan

Marisa Lago

Marisa Lago is the Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade. She was appointed by President Joseph R. Biden and sworn in on Dec. 28, 2021, to lead the federal government’s efforts to assist American businesses entering or expanding into international markets, enforce fair trade policies, promote travel and tourism to the United States and U.S. products and services overseas, provide in-depth trade analyses, develop strategies that will shape the future of international trade, and engage in commercial diplomacy across the globe.

Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade

Manuel Felipe Gutiérrez Torres

Manuel Felipe Gutiérrez Torres is the President of the Colombian National Infrastructure Agency, and is a lawyer and economist from Universidad de Los Andes, where he also completed his master's degree in law; He has extensive experience in the public and private sectors, and expert in infrastructure and public-private partnership contracts.

He has performed as a professor of public law at Los Andes, Javeriana and La Sabana Universities, and director of the Public Procurement Research Group at Universidad de Los Andes.

President, Colombian National Infrastructure Agency

Julián Ventura Valero

Julián Ventura Valero is a Mexican diplomat, who served as Deputy Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico from December 2018 to January 2020, G-20 Sherpa, and Chair of the Matías Romero Institute (Diplomatic Academy).

He joined the Mexican Foreign Service in 1990 and was appointed to the rank of Career Ambassador in 2006.

former Deputy Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico

Douglas Farah

Douglas Farah is the president of IBI Consultants and a Senior Visiting Fellow at National Defense University's Center for Complex Operations. He is a national security consultant and analyst. In 2004 he worked for nine months with the Consortium for the Study of Intelligence, studying armed groups and intelligence reform. For the two decades before that, he was a foreign correspondent and investigative reporter for the Washington Post and other publications covering Latin America and West Africa.

President, IBI Consultants, and Senior Visiting Fellow at the National Defense University

David J. Kramer

David J. Kramer serves as Managing Director for Global Policy at the George W. Bush Institute. Prior to joining the Institute, he taught at Florida International University's Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs, where he also was Senior Fellow in the Václav Havel Program for Human Rights and Diplomacy and Director for European and Eurasian Affairs.

Managing Director, Global Policy, George W. Bush Institute and Senior Fellow, Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center, Florida International University

Chase Harrison

Chase Harrison is an Editorial Associate at the Americas Society/Council of the Americas Online. In this role, he produces digital content on Latin American politics and economics, including articles and infographics. He also is one of the rotating hosts of AS/COA Online’s Latin America in Focus podcast.

Editorial Associate, AS/COA Online

David Yermack

David L. Yermack is the Albert Fingerhut Professor of Finance and Business Transformation at New York University Stern School of Business. He serves as Chairman of the Finance Department and Director of the NYU Pollack Center for Law and Business. Professor Yermack teaches joint MBA-Law School courses in Restructuring Firms & Industries and Bitcoin & Cryptocurrencies, as well as PhD research courses in corporate governance, executive compensation, and distress and restructuring.

Albert Fingerhut Professor of Finance and Business Transformation & Chair, Finance Department, NYU Stern School of Business