Our Team
Peter Algeier
President, Nauset Global LLC
Peter Allgeier joined the Coalition of Service Industries (CSI) as its president in September 2012 following a long and distinguished career in international trade. He served nearly three decades at the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), where he was a negotiator on nearly every major US trade initiative since the Carter Administration. From 2009 to 2012, Dr. Allgeier was President of C&M International, a trade consultancy based in Washington, DC Prior to C&M International, Allgeier served as Deputy US Trade Representative and United States Ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland. Allgeier previously served in a series of senior positions: Assistant USTR for Asia and the Pacific; Assistant USTR for Europe and the Mediterranean; and Associate US Trade Representative for the Western Hemisphere. He is the recipient of a number of honors and awards, including the Presidential Distinguished Rank Award, which is the highest performance honor bestowed on career federal officials.
Karol Boudreaux
Senior Land & Resource Governance Advisor, USAID
Karol Boudreaux is a lawyer and land tenure and resource rights specialist with two decades of experience in the field and as a researcher. Most recently she was director of investments at the Omidyar Network, where she worked with the property rights portfolio. Prior to joining Omidyar, Ms. Boudreaux was the Africa land tenure specialist in the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Land Tenure and Property Rights Division. Ms. Boudreaux has worked as an academic and a development practitioner, and throughout her career she has supported improvements to the land tenure and resource rights of people around the world, with a strong focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Her research concentrates on property and land tenure systems, natural resource management, and varieties of entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa.
Ed Gresser
Director, ProgressiveEconomy
Edward Gresser is one of the country’s best-known and most influential trade policy scholars, having conducted path-breaking research on Internet trade and cross-border data flows, the American tariff system and its effects on low-income American families and developing countries, trade relations with the Muslim world, Asian economic integration and other topics. Before joining the GlobalWorks Foundation in 2011, Mr. Gresser served as Director of the Trade and Global Markets program and as interim President of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), and as Trade and Global Markets Director for the Progressive Policy Institute. Previously, Mr. Gresser served as senior Senate staffer for Senator Max Baucus and Policy Advisor to US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, where he was twice awarded USTR’s Special Achievement Award for contribution to passage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act and to China’s accession to the WTO.
Alycia Kellman
General Counsel & CCO, Grounded Capital
Alycia Kellman focuses on raising and structuring the debt funds for SunFunder's solar loans. Prior to SunFunder, Ms. Kellman was the Vice President of Legal & Compliance at the Grassroots Business Fund. Ms. Kellman also previously consulted for FINCA International in Amman, Jordan and worked as a project finance attorney at Dewy & LeBoeuf LLP. She holds a law degree from Georgetown University, a master's degree in human rights and democratization from the University of Witwatersrand, and a bachelor's degree in political science from Yale University. Ms. Kellman serves on the board of Women LEAD Nepal and the advisory boards of the International Development Society.
Gabriel Laizer
Congressional and Civil Society Outreach Partnership Officer, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Gabriel Laizer is an accomplished international development professional with over 10 years of experience in identifying, building and strengthening partnerships among diverse stakeholders including public and private sector organizations. Gabriel provides information on food, Agricultural and rural development issues and on FAO objectives, policies and programs to North American governments and the public, including non-governmental organizations, private sector and academic institutions. Before joining the FAO in 2009, Gabriel served as Manager of Membership Services at the Alliance to End Hunger. He advised Alliance member organizations one-on-one, on how to create and strengthen partnerships based on individual priorities and available opportunities. Additionally, he promoted cooperation between Alliance members and U.S. government agencies such as USAID, USDA, MCC and multi-lateral organization such as IFAD, WFP and FAO. Gabriel has master's degree in International Development from The American University in Washington, DC, and a bachelor's degree in Political Science from California Lutheran University.
Rachel Lovejoy
Senior Counsel, Space Exploration Technologies
Rachel Lovejoy has almost 20 years of business-focused legal experience as a global transactional lawyer. Her experience includes advising both large and small businesses on numerous complex issues, including international trade, export compliance, dispute resolution, finance, technology transactions and intellectual property. She has advised clients in the US and the Middle East, and most recently spent several years in Sao Paulo, Brazil, as IBM’s Lead Services Counsel for Latin America. Ms. Lovejoy also served as an officer in the US Army Reserve, focusing on transportation and logistics issues, including running ocean port operations. Her interest in international trade issues dates to early internships with the Woodrow Wilson Center and USTR. She is currently Senior Counsel at Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk to revolutionize space technology. She received a BA from the University of Notre Dame, and a JD from Harvard Law School.
Johannes Linn
Nonresident Senior Fellow, Global Economy and Development Program, Brookings Institution
Johannes Linn is a Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution. He has been engaged in research and advisory work on global governance, on transition issues in Central and South-East Europe, the CIS and Turkey, on transatlantic relations, and on cultural heritage preservation. He was Director of the Wolfensohn Center for Development at the Brookings Institution from 2005 – 2010. During 2004-5 Mr. Linn also served as Project Leader and Lead Author for the UNDP Central Asia Human Development Report (December 2005). From September 2003 to June 2006, Mr. Linn was a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Previously, Mr. Linn held a number of senior positions with the World Bank, including Vice President for Europe and Central Asia and Vice President for Financial Policy and Resource Mobilization. Mr. Linn studied law at the Free University, Berlin, Germany. He received his training as an economist at Oxford University, England (BA, 1968), and at Cornell University, USA (PhD, 1972). He is a German National.
Patrick Macrory
Partner, Appleton Luff
Patrick Macrory has practiced trade law in Washington, DC, for more than thirty years, specializing in anti-dumping, countervailing duties, and safeguards cases, as well as GATT and WTO matters. Mr. Macrory practiced commercial law at the English Bar for three years before moving to the United States. He was a senior partner at two major Washington law firms, Arnold & Porter, and Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld. He is now Director of the International Trade Law Center at the International Law Institute in Washington, DC, as well as Trade Consultant to the International Senior Lawyers Project. Mr. Macrory has written and spoken extensively on international trade law subjects. He was Co-Chairman of the International Trade Committee of the American Bar Association from 1983 to 1984. He has taught international trade law at universities in Tokyo, London, and Washington, as well as at the World Trade Institute in Berne, and he has lectured on trade law in many parts of the world.
Swithin Munyantwali
Executive Director and Co-Founder, International Law Institute African Centre for Legal Excellence (ILI-ACLE)
Swithin Munyantwali has spearheaded the Centre’s operations since its establishment in 1997, which serves a broad constituency of government, public sector and non-governmental organizations through technical assistance and training. Under Mr. Munyantwali’s leadership the ILI-ACLE has successfully implemented significant rule of law assignments of major bilateral and multilateral donors and regional governments such as in court restructuring and upgrading, law drafting, parliamentary strengthening, and various capacity building activities. The Centre’s interventions have benefitted over 10,000 members of the bar and bench and other related professionals in over 35 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, to mention but a few. The Centre, which has an office in Lesotho, is currently implementing rule of law projects in 22 African countries, including in Liberia towards strengthening the judiciary through the training of over 3,000 court officers and judicial staff. He obtained his Juris Doctor at Case Western Reserve Law School (1992); and his Masters in International Law (LLM) at Georgetown University Law Centre, Washington, D.C. (1993).
Amb. John Simon
Managing Partner, Total Impact Capital
Prior to starting Total Impact Advisors, Ambassador Simon was a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development, where he co-authored More than Money, a report on impact investing as a development tool. Previously, he held a variety of posts in the US federal government, including serving most recently as the United States Ambassador to the African Union and the Executive Vice President of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). Ambassador Simon also served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Relief, Stabilization, and Development for the National Security Council (NSC) at the White House, the first to hold this post. During his tenure at the NSC, Ambassador Simon oversaw the implementation of groundbreaking development initiatives, including the Millennium Challenge Account, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative, and the President's Malaria Initiative.
Kati Suominen
Founder and CEO, Nextrade Group and TradeUp Capital Fund
Kati Suominen is founder and CEO of TradeUp LLC, a new financing platform for globalizing SMEs, founder and CEO of Nextrade Group LLC, a consulting firm on leading-edge issues in world trade, adjunct professor at UCLA and adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a leading think tank. Suominen has deep expertise in international trade, economics and finance. In 2010-12, she was awarded a fellowship in the Economics Program of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. In 2004-2010, she served as International Trade Economist at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington. She has recently worked with such leading institutions as the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Brookings Institution, Carana Corp., USAID and AusAID. Suominen has deep expertise in international trade, economics, and finance, and she has authored some 70 articles and published 9 books on trade and economics.
Eugene Terry
Senior Technical Advisor, TransFarm Africa, Chair, CGIAR
Dr. Eugene Terry in an agronomist with 40 years of experience working on agricultural development in Africa. Eugene was the first Director General of the West Africa Rice Development Association, Land and Crops Advisor at the World Bank, and Founding Director of The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) in Kenya.
Eugene is currently a Trustee on the boards of several organizations and institutions, including the World Vegetable Centre and the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Development (SFSA), and he chairs the Advisory Board of the West African Centre for Crop Improvement. Eugene was awarded the 2010 Presidential (Republic of Mali President) Award for Outstanding Contributions to Rice Research and Development in Africa, and the Medal Officier de L’Ordre, Du Merit, Ivoirien, Cote d’ Ivoire, 1993.