Advisory Board

The Honourable Dr. Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi is the 8th Minister of International Affairs and Cooperation of the Republic of Botswana. She took office on the 31st October 2014. Born on the 13th May 1951 in Botswana, she is married with two children. Her areas of specialty lie in Public Service Management and Administrative Systems Analysis and design. She has a Diploma in Local Government from the Institute of Public Service in Connecticut, USA. She holds a Master of Science in Administration from Central Michigan University, USA. She was awarded an honorary doctorate in Social Development based on a review of her work and writing on government and governance. She has more than 40 years of public and private sector experience with work done in Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Gambia, Mozambique, and other African countries. As a long-time member of the Botswana Democratic Party, she served in various capacities within the party before she was elected as Specially Elected Member of Parliament in 1999. Her political career has seen her win subsequent elections and continually holding various Cabinet portfolios in Works, Transport and Communications, Trade and Industry, Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Science and Technology as well as Education and Skills Development

Henry Gao is Professor of Law at Singapore Management University and Senior Fellow at CIGI. With law degrees from three continents, he started his career as the first Chinese lawyer at the WTO Secretariat. He has been an advisor on trade issues for many national governments as well as the WTO, UN, World Bank, ADB, APEC, ASEAN and the World Economic Forum. Widely published on China and WTO and digital trade issues, he sits on the Advisory Board of the WTO Chairs Program, as well as the editorial boards of the Journal of International Economic Law and Journal of Financial Regulation. His new book “Between Market Economy and State Capitalism: China’s State-Owned Enterprises and the World Trading System” was published by Cambridge University Press in November 2022.

Joshua Setipa graduated from the Universities of Bradford (MBA), Australian National University and the National University of Lesotho.
His core competencies are economic development issues, regional and global trade and economic issues, and investment mobilization. He has over 20 years of experience gained at the national, regional and international levels working on economic and development issues. He has substantive field experience working on regional economic development issues in Eastern, Southern and Western Africa, with focus
on economic sector reform and regional economic integration issues and extensive experience working on multilateral trade issues and their impact on regional integration and economic development.

He is currently the Senior Director, Strategy, Portfolio, Partnerships and Digital Division at the Commonwealth Secretariat. He was appointed by the UN Secretary-General as the first Managing Director of the UN Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries in November 2018.

From 2017 to 2018, he served as a senior consultant at the World Bank in Washington DC working on a multi donor regional Trade Facilitation Project for the ECOWAS region.

From 2015 to 2017, he served as the Minister for Trade and Industry in Lesotho.

From 2012 to 2014 he served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Lesotho National Development Cooperation, an institution charged with mobilization of foreign direct investment to Lesotho.

From 2005 to 2011, he served as Senior Adviser to the WTO Director General.

From 1992 to 2003, served in various capacities within the Lesotho Foreign Service, with a key focus on economic and trade matters.

Dr. Trudi Hartzenberg is the Executive Director of tralac (Trade Law Centre) based in Cape Town, South Africa. Her research is in the areas of international trade, competition policy, industrial development and Africa’s integration agenda. She is a member of the Committee for Development Policy of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and serves on the World Trade Organisation Chairs Advisory Committee.

Jodie Keane is a Senior Research Fellow at ODI leading on the trade-climate nexus. She is a trade and development economist and rejoined ODI in March 2020, having served as Economic Adviser to the International Trade Policy Unit of the Commonwealth Secretariat 2015-2020, with a focus on emerging trade issues including climate change. She has taught research seminars on the Political Economy of Trade, Department of International Relations, LSE, and on Comparative Growth in Africa and Asia, SOAS, University of London. She has published journal articles on the governance and global value chains, the subject of her PhD (SOAS).

An astute leader with exceptional knowledge of legal matters and their application to
organizations and society.
A well-organized and results oriented individual with solid leadership and management skills.
Possesses a deep understanding of critical legal and business drivers in multiple sectors and markets; has been successful in building relationships, strong at resolving complex issues, great in motivating employees to peak performance and exceptional at delivering on client
commitments.
Maintains good working rela0onships with the Judiciary, A9orney General’s Chambers, key government departments and clients.

Dr. Kristen Hopewell is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Policy in the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia. She is the Director of the Liu Institute for Global Issues and a former Wilson China Fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC. Professor Hopewell is a specialist in international trade, global governance, and development, with a focus on emerging powers. She is the author of Clash of Powers: US-China Rivalry in Global Trade Governance (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and Breaking the WTO (Stanford University Press, 2016).

Ambassador Nelson NDIRANGU is the current Chair at the Trade Hub East Africa where he leads a team of experts on International Trade Policy and Regional Integration focusing on Africa. He also served as the chairman of the Competition Authority of Kenya from May 2019 to February 2023. Prior to that Amb. Ndirangu served as a board member at Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA), and Kenya Trade Network Agency (KENTRADE)

Since retiring in December 2017, he has been an Independent International Consultant on Trade Policy issues. He has provided technical assistance both at technical and strategic levels to the Government of Kenya to negotiate free trade agreements that safeguards the market access preferences to the United States and the Unted Kingdom. The support was extended to negotiations within EAC, AfCFTA, and other regional arrangements with the aim of maintaining consistency with Kenya’s commitments at multilateral, continental and bilateral levels. In 2019 he was commissioned by the AUC to “compare the approaches to regional integration under the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and highlight the lessons that can be learned”. From May to July 2018, he was contracted by the Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industry to “review the AfCFTA and how its implementation can be popularized borrowing from the experience of TFTA”.

He was Director General, Economic and Commercial Diplomacy Directory at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade from December 2012 to December 2017 during which time he was instrumental in guiding Kenya on international trade issues and was Chief Negotiator for Kenya on TFTA and AfCFTA up to December 2017. He took time off from 2009 to 2012 to manage an ACP Programme that provided technical assistance to enhance the capacities of the ACP countries to Negotiate and implement World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements. Prior to that, he was the Director, Asia Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from August 2007 to December 2008. From 1999 to 2007 Amb. Ndirangu was based in Geneva where he was the Chief Negotiator for Kenya in the WTO.

Amb. Ndirangu has a Master of Arts (M.A.) and a post Graduate Diploma in International Economic Relations from the University of East Anglia in UK, a Post Graduate Diploma in International Trade Policy from the WTO, Switzerland and a Bachelor of Commerce Degree (B.COM Hons.) from the University of Nairobi, Kenya. He holds several awards, including the Order of Golden Warrior of Kenya (OGW) in recognition of his contribution to trade policy formulation, development and implementation.

He was appointed Ambassador / High Commissioner mid-December 2012 and resumed his duties in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where he was made responsible for formulation, implementation, coordination, and review of international and regional trade and economic policies, including trade negotiations.

He has keen interest on the legal and economic analysis of the Multilateral, regional and bilateral trade relations with focus on Africa.

Ambassador Ndirangu has worked as a consultant in various institutions, international and national organizations such as WTO, WHO, FAO, UNCTAD, ACP, COMESA, IGAD, and EAC.

Saweria Mwangi is a Kenyan Advocate with six years of experience in International Trade. She is currently a Consultant at VVGB, where she represents WTO Members in WTO litigation. Previously, Saweria spent four years at the World Trade Organisation as a Dispute Settlement Lawyer. Saweria has a strong WTO dispute settlement and trade remedies disciplines. She has also been researching on the nexus between two emerging areas and international trade law – climate change law and technology law. She holds an LLM in International Economic Law and Policy from the University of Barcelona.

George Ridell has over a decade of experience in International Trade. He is primarily responsible for advising multinational corporations on their trade strategy. Prior to joining EY, George spent over six years representing the United Kingdom at the World Trade Organisation and United Nations. George has strong expertise in helping to promote and support the development of trade strategies for companies looking to navigate increasingly challenging geopolitical tensions and regulatory regimes. He holds an MA in International Relations from Durham University. George is a passionate advocate for environmental sustainability and oceans management. He is always looking for ways to bring this into his professional work when dealing with supply chains and building a long-term sustainable trade strategy.

Leila A Ali is an auditor currently serving as the Deputy Chair of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) where she is tasked with leading policy development and oversight of the Commission’s mandate. She has over ten years senior-level management and leadership experience in finance and accounting in diverse public and private sector organizations. She has served in various Boards including the Wangari Mathai Foundation and the Competition Authority of Kenya. Leila has a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting BA (Hons) from the University of London South Bank and is currently undertaking a Master of Science in Management and Organisational Development at the United States International University, She is a Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and Member of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (CPA-K).

Alan Wm. Wolff is a distinguished visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Until joining PIIE, he was Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO). His book, Revitalizing the World Trading System was recently published by Cambridge University Press, and is a primary source for information about the WTO. Prior to serving as a WTO DDG, Ambassador Wolff had a long career as one of the world’s leading international trade lawyers. He previously served as United States Deputy Special Representative for Trade Negotiations and represented the United States in the drafting of the Articles of Agreement of the African Development Fund.

Simon J. Evenett is Professor of International Trade & Economic Development at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. He is also Founder of the St. Gallen Endowment for Prosperity Through Trade, the institutional home of two leading independent commercial policy monitoring initiatives, the Global Trade Alert and the Digital Policy Alert. Professor Evenett was educated at Cambridge and Yale Universities and has taught at the University of Oxford. During 2023-24 he will be Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council on the Future of Trade.

Alejandro Jara P. is a Chilean lawyer of the University of Chile, with graduate studies at the Law School, University of California at Berkeley.

He joined the Chilean Diplomatic Service of Chile (1976-2005) specializing in international economic relations. Between 1993 and 2000 he was Senior Official to APEC, negotiated Free Trade Agreements with Central America, Canada, South Korea and Mexico, and served as Director General for Interna¬tional Economic Relations. Ambassador of Chile to the World Trade Organization in Ge¬neva (2000-05). Deputy Director General of the WTO (2005-13).

2013-16: Senior Counsel with the law firm King & Spalding LLP (Geneva).

Since 2017 teaches international trade law in various institutions including: Institute of International Studies of Universidad de Chile; UIBE (Beijing); CUFE (Beijing); Colegio de Mexico; LLM of International Law, Investment, Trade and Arbitration of the Universities of Chile and Heidelberg; Diplomatic Academy of Chile. Since 2020 arbitrator in the Multi-Party Interim Arrangement (MPIA) of a group of WTO members.

• Of Counsel at the law firm Vasquez Urra Abogados (Chile) https://vua.cl/en .
• Friends of Multilateralism Group (FMG) Geneva. https://fmg-geneva.org
• Punta del Este Group http://grupopuntadeleste.com/en/ .
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandro-jara-697894b/

Dr. Clemens Boonekamp is a consultant on trade policy and related matters.
Formerly he was Director of the Agriculture Division of the WTO from 2009 to 2012 and Director of the Trade Policies Review Division from 1998 to 2009. Previously, he was Counsellor, in Trade Policies Review and the the External Relations Divisions in the WTO. Before joining the WTO, he was at the International Monetary Fund and prior to that he was a teacher and researcher at University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, from 1976 to 1980. He holds a Ph.D from Brown University.

Victor do Prado teaches Economic Diplomacy at the Paris School of International Affairs – SciencesPo and is a Senior Fellow at the Brazilian Center for International Relations. He was previously Deputy Chief of Staff at the WTO and Director of Council and Trade Negotiations Committee.

Do Prado is a former Brazilian diplomat and participated in several international trade negotiations. He holds a degree in Law from the University of São Paulo and a Master’s degree in International Relations from the Brazilian Diplomatic Academy. He is a faculty and board member of the World Trade Institute – WTI (Bern University).

Evan Rogerson held senior positions in the World Trade Organization until his retirement in 2017. Born in New Zealand in 1952, he joined his country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1976. After postings in Brussels and London, he joined the GATT Secretariat, now WTO, in 1986. From 1995 to 1999 he served as Chief of Staff to Director-General Renato Ruggiero. He subsequently headed the Council and TNC Division and the Agriculture and Commodities Division as Director. Mr Rogerson is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and was the convener of the Singapore Trade Policy Forum in 2018 and 2019. He has written on trade themes in various publications. He is a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit and the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun.

Prior to retirement from the WTO in September 2017, Hamid Mamdouh was the Director of the Trade in Services and Investment Division, a post he held from 2001. Upon joining the GATT in 1990, he was a Senior Counsellor in the Trade in Services Division. In the context of the ongoing Uruguay Round Multilateral Trade Negotiations (1986-93), Mamdouh was responsible for legal matters relating to the negotiation, design and drafting of the General Agreement on Trade in Services GATS). Upon establishment of the WTO in 1995, he was appointed Secretary of the WTO Council for Trade in Services. During that time, was also responsible for legal affairs relating to Trade in Services and the implementation of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Prior to joining the GATT secretariat in 1990, he represented Egypt in the GATT and the Uruguay Round Negotiations.

Patrick Low is a Senior Fellow at the Asia Global Institute, the University of Hong Kong. He was also a Visiting Professor at the University (2016-18). From 2013-16 he was Vice-President of Research and Senior Fellow at the Fung Global Institute in Hong Kong (2013 – 16). Previously, he was Chief Economist at the World Trade Organization (1997 to 2013). Concurrently (2005-2013) he was an Adjunct Professor of International Economics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. He worked at the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (1980-87), taught at El Colegio de Mexico, Mexico City (1987-90), and served at the World Bank (1990-94), prior to joining the WTO in 1995. He has consulted widely for governments and international institutions. Patrick Low holds a PhD in economics from the University of Sussex.

Recent selected publications

(with Julia Tijaja) “Increasing value from global value chain participation: What role for industrial policy?” in Baldwin R., M. Kawai, and G. Wignaraja, The Future of the World Trading System: Asian Perspectives, Vox eBook, 2013

The Role of Services in Global Value Chains, Working Paper, Fung Global Institute, 2013

Preferentialism in Trade Relations: Challenges for the World Trade Organization, Working Paper No. 478, Asian Development Bank Institute, 2014

(with Gloria Pasadilla, Eds.): Services in Global Value Chains: Manufacturing-Related Services, World Scientific, 2016

(with Arian Hassani and Deborah K. Elms, Eds.): The Intangible Economy: How Services Shape Global Production and Consumption, Cambridge University Press, 2017

“Balancing Rights and Obligations in the WTO: A Shared Responsibility”, Study for the Government of Sweden. https://www.swedenabroad.se/…/fn…/balancing-rights-and-obligations-in-the-wto.pdf, 2019.

Digital services taxes, trade and development Working Paper No. 2020-0. Institute of International Trade, University of Adelaide. 2020

“Special and differential treatment and developing countries: Can the two be separated? Chapter 4 in Bernard Hoekman, Xinquan Tu, and Wang Dong. Rebooting Multilateral Trade Cooperation: Perspectives from China and Europe. CEPR Press. London. 2021.

“What Can Be Done to Blunt Potential Conflict between Climate Change and Trade Policies?” in Bernard Hoekman and Ernesto Zedillo (eds.) Trade in the Twenty-First Century: Back to the Past? Brookings Institution Press. 2021

(with Americo B. Zampetti and Petros C. Mavroidis): “Consensus Decision-Making and Legislative Inertia at the WTO: Can International Law Help?” Journal of World Trade 56, no/ 1 (2022) 1-26

“The WTO in Crisis: Closing the Gap between Conversation and Action or Shutting Down the Conversation?” World Trade Review, 21 (2022), 274-90