Event Calendar

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Career Transitions: Thinking Through What’s Next

Start Date: 2/21/2024 12:00 PM EST
End Date: 2/21/2024 1:15 PM EST

Venue Name: In Person - APCO Worldwide


Organization Name: WIIT

Contact:
WIIT
Email: info@wiit.org
Phone: (202) 869-3775

In our career journeys we face what can sometimes feel like monumental decisions. This panel discussion brings together three women in trade, with different experiences and at different points in their career- all three of them made a significant shift in their career in the past couple years, and we will talk together about what that decision process was like. We will cover moving from the private sector to government, from government to the private sector, and what it’s like to start one’s own firm. Please join us for a panel conversation, lunch, and networking with other WIIT members.

Speakers:
  • Anne Clawson, Principal and Head, Government Affairs and Public Policy, Cascade Advisory
  • Jing Jing Zhang, Director of China and Taiwan Affairs, USTR
  • Brenda Smith, Global Director, Government Outreach, Expeditors 
Moderator:
  • Rosalind Reischer, Senior Associate Director, Geo-commerce, APCO Worldwide

Location:
APCO Worldwide
1299 Pennsylvania Ave 
Washington, DC 20004
(entrance on 12th and E streets) 
Lobby Conference Area

Bios:

Anne Clawson (she/her) leads the policy practice at Cascade Advisory. Anne co-founded Cascade in 2023 to focus on issues at the nexus of climate change, natural resources, and government. With nearly two decades of experience, Anne has developed and executed comprehensive advocacy strategies to address a variety of manufacturing, climate, and natural resources policy issues. 

Prior to founding Cascade, Anne was vice president of policy and government affairs at the National Alliance of Forest Owners. Before that, she was director of strategy for Alcoa's government affairs and sustainability team. Earlier, she was an engagement manager at Avascent (now Oliver Wyman). In these roles, she helped organizations achieve exemptions from tariffs and visa bans and secured millions in federal funding. Anne holds a BA from the University of Chicago and an MA from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

Jing Jing Zhang serves as Director of China and Taiwan Affairs at USTR, and her portfolio includes issue areas such as labor, environment, technical barriers to trade, as well as regional coverage for Hong Kong and Macau.
 
Prior to joining USTR in 2018, Jing Jing worked as a consultant with C&M International, a boutique consultancy based in Washington, DC specializing in government affairs work and APEC public-private-partnership initiatives. She received her Masters in Asian Studies from George Washington University and her Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College. 

Brenda Smith is responsible for supporting Expeditors’ partnerships with government agencies and international organizations focused on supply chain regulation and facilitation. She has extensive experience in international trade and compliance and currently serves as the Global Director of Government Outreach.
 
Brenda completed a 34-year career with the U.S. government in 2021, which included five years working as a professional staff member in the U.S. Congress, and experience at the Department of Treasury and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). At CBP, she served as the Executive Assistant Commissioner of Trade from 2014 until 2021.
 
In this role, she led CBP’s Trade mission, overseeing trade enforcement, security, and facilitation matters to enable legitimate trade, contribute to economic prosperity, and protect against risks to public health and safety. She oversaw national compliance audits, management of trade data and CBP’s regulatory process for administering trade and border operations. She partnered with CBP’s IT experts to modernize trade automation and apply analytics technologies in the trade environment.
 
Brenda serves as part of Expeditor’s delegation to the World Customs Organization Private Sector Consultative Group and on the Advisory Board of FloraTrace Inc. She is also a member of the International Trade Advisory Committee (ITAC) on Customs Matters and Trade Facilitation.

Rosalind Reischer is a senior associate director at APCO’s Washington, D.C.-based Public Affairs practice. She has a background in China policy, and her portfolio at APCO overs consumer goods, retail, trade and supply chains, and climate policy.
 
Prior to joining APCO, Ms. Reischer worked in government relations and business advisory consulting with the Asia practice at McLarty Associates. She has advised companies in a variety of sectors including tech, agriculture, pharmaceuticals and consumer electronics. She has advised clients on navigating the U.S.-China trade war and business implications of geopolitical shifts including the trajectory of U.S.-China relations. In Washington, Ms. Reischer has also worked with the Project 2049 Institute, a research organization promoting American security interests in Asia.
In China, Ms. Reicher worked at the Nicobar Group in Shanghai, a consultancy focusing on engagement between the United States and China in the civil nuclear industry.
 
Ms. Reischer is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies Center in Nanjing, China, where she concentrated in energy, resources and the environment. She received her Bachelor of Arts in East Asian Studies from the University of Virginia, and she is proficient in Mandarin Chinese. Ms. Reischer serves as co-VP for professional development with Women In International Trade.

 

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Closed: 2/20/2024 12:00 PM

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