UNITED STATES - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Economic and Commercial Officer / U.S. Embassy Tirana
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant, Contractor, Rural Export Center
Job Titles:
- Principal Deputy Assistant for Industry and Analysis
- Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Industry and Analysis / Industry & Analysis
Anne Driscoll is the Principal Deputy Assistant for Industry and Analysis. In this position, she oversees a broad portfolio of programs aimed at increasing the global competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers and service providers. She manages more than 200 professionals who provide unique sectoral and analytical expertise that underpins U.S. government objectives on competitiveness, trade policy, and trade promotion.
Driscoll joined the U.S. Department of Commerce in 1988, where she has held a number of roles, including positions focused on improving U.S. trade relations with Latin America. As the former director of the Latin America and Caribbean branches, she managed a team of country specialists on matters pertaining to trade policy, market access and trade compliance issues, and implementation of regional free trade agreements. She also directed the Commerce Department's participation in the U.S.-Brazil CEO Forum and both the U.S-Argentina and U.S.-Brazil Commercial Dialogues.
Other assignments across the Commerce Department include serving as Policy Advisor to the Under Secretary for International Trade, Chief Operating Officer of SelectUSA, and a Management Analyst at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. She was awarded the Department of Commerce's Gold Medal Award for her work in support of the North America Free Trade Agreement negotiations. She has also been twice awarded the ITA's Bronze Medal Award. Prior to joining the Department of Commerce, Driscoll held various positions in banking and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zaire, Africa.
Driscoll graduated from Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire with a Bachelor of Arts in economics and received a master's degree in international affairs from Columbia University in New York City.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets, and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service
Arun Venkataraman is the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service. He was appointed by President Joseph R. Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 7, 2022, to lead the federal government's efforts to promote exports abroad and attract inward investment. He was officially sworn in on April 25, 2022.
Venkataraman has over 20 years of experience advising companies, international organizations and the U.S. government on international trade issues. Most recently, he served as Counselor to the Secretary of Commerce, advising the Department of Commerce on trade and other international economic matters. Before joining the Biden-Harris Administration, Arun was a Senior Director at Visa, leading global government engagement strategy on a range of international policy issues including digital economy, trade, tax and sanctions. He also served as Trade & Investment Policy Advisor at Steptoe & Johnson LLP, where he counseled multinational firms and other organizations on e-commerce, intellectual property rights and U.S. and foreign trade policies.
During the Obama Administration, Venkataraman served as ITA's first-ever Director of Policy, where he helped shape the U.S. government's responses to critical challenges faced by firms in the U.S. and in markets around the world, including China and India. He also served in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) where he led the development and implementation of U.S.-India trade policy, for which he received the agency's Kelly Award for outstanding performance and extraordinary leadership. He also served as USTR's Associate General Counsel, representing the United States in litigation before the World Trade Organization and in negotiations on international trade agreements. Prior to USTR, Arun was a Legal Officer at the World Trade Organization, and served as Law Clerk for Judge Jane A. Restani at the U.S. Court of International Trade.
Born in Coimbatore, India, and raised in Houston, Venkataraman holds a juris doctorate from Columbia Law School, a Master of Arts in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and a Bachelor of Arts from Tufts University.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Executive Director
Job Titles:
- Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Middle East and Africa ( MEA )
As Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Middle East and Africa (MEA), Camille Richardson directs the International Trade Administration's efforts to increase U.S. market access and commercial partnerships in a region undergoing historic transformation and economic growth. She leads a headquarters team of desk officers in Washington and a network of 18 commercial posts staffed by Foreign Service Officers and local staffs across North Africa and the Levant, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Gulf. Under her leadership, this team helps American companies succeed in some of the fastest growing and most challenging economies in the world to do business. MEA is home to about 1.4 billion people with a disproportionally high number of the population under the age of 35, making it a key region of focus for the President's Global Infrastructure Initiative with a significant potential for growth, innovation, and partnership.
Richardson began her career in government with ITA in 1993. She became an accredited diplomat with the U.S. Commercial Service in 1998 and served six successive tours of duty in Miami, FL; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Nairobi, Kenya; Mumbai, India, and Sao Paulo, Brazil facilitating commercial partnerships, trade missions and negotiations between U.S. and local companies that led to billions of dollars in export deals. A tenured Senior Foreign Service officer since 2017, Richardson recently earned the title of Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs - the third woman of color in the history of the U.S. Commercial Service to do so, and the first to become a Deputy Assistant Secretary. She is also a certified professional and award-winning coach for ITA, recently earning a silver medal from the agency.
A longtime advocate for women's economic empowerment, Richardson in 2021 launched the Women Empowered Leave Legacies through Trade and Investment (WELLTI) initiative - a flagship program for the Department of Commerce which in its inaugural year connected over 800 businesswomen and entrepreneurs from the United States with those in MEA. Through this program, participants have increased access to market information, new tools to strengthen capacity building, and expanded networks needed to recover faster from the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing Russia/Ukraine war.
A native of Washington, D.C., Richardson earned a Bachelor of Arts in international relations from Brown University in 1989, and a Master of Arts in international relations from Johns Hopkins/SAIS in 1993. She speaks Portuguese, Spanish and Portunhol (a mixture of the first two languages) along with a bit of Hindi, Swahili and French.
Job Titles:
- Trade and Investment Policy Lead
Job Titles:
- Chief of Staff
- Chief of Staff for the International Trade Administration
Cristina Killingsworth is the Chief of Staff for the International Trade Administration. In this role, she provides operational management for the bureau, oversees the development of policies and programs that serve the objectives of the Secretary of Commerce and the Biden-Harris Administration, and offers strategic support to the Under Secretary for International Trade.
Before joining ITA, Cristina was Vice President at WestExec Advisors, a geopolitical strategic advisory firm in Washington, D.C. In her prior government service, she was Senior Advisor to the CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, advising on strategies to deliver smarter foreign assistance. Cristina also served as Director for Strategic Planning at the White House National Security Council where she developed a policy process to optimize resource allocation across the national security portfolio. She was also Director for African Affairs at the NSC and managed President Obama's historic trip to Kenya and Ethiopia. Previously, she was an Examiner in the International Affairs Division of the White House Office of Management and Budget where she ensured the President's policy priorities were appropriately resourced in areas related to trade, global health, the war in Afghanistan, and global poverty reduction.
Cristina holds a Master of Arts in international affairs from Yale University and a Bachelor of Arts in humanities and Middle Eastern studies from the University of Texas at Austin.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director for the Advocacy Center
Cynthia Aragón serves as the Executive Director for the Advocacy Center. In this role, she oversees U.S. government advocacy coordination to advance the interest and global competitiveness of U.S. firms seeking to enter new markets and win public contracts in foreign markets around the world. Additionally, Aragón oversees the Multilateral Development Bank Liaison program focused on connecting U.S. companies with opportunities arising from Bank funded projects.
She joined Biden Harris Administration on January 2021 as the White House Liaison for the Department of Commerce. In that role she built and recruited a highly qualified, diverse team of appointees to lead Commerce to foster equitable domestic and international economic growth.
As a former Chief of Staff for the Arizona House of Representatives Democratic Caucus, Cynthia guided and organized the Democratic caucus towards establishment of goals and defined an inclusive legislative agenda. She managed a team of policy advisors, analysts, and administrative specialists to create policy proposals that benefited Arizonans. Aragón uses her leadership skills to foster bipartisan relationships and build coalitions.
Originally from Chihuahua, Mexico, Aragón was raised by a single mother in Phoenix, Arizona, who encouraged her to pursue her dreams and always be a leader, even in spaces where people like her had been historically excluded. As a first-generation graduate, Cynthia earned her bachelor's degree from Arizona State University and her MBA from the University of Arizona. She is also a graduate of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government Executive Leadership Program, the National Hispanic Leadership Institute, the Center for Progressive Leadership, and the Flinn-Brown Leadership Academy.
Job Titles:
- Research Analyst, Contractor, Rural Export Center
Job Titles:
- Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe and Eurasia
As the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe and Eurasia, David De Falco directs the U.S. Department of Commerce's efforts to formulate trade policy and resolve market access issues facing U.S. exporters seeking to sustain and expand their businesses in Europe. He oversees a network of 32 U.S. Commercial Service field offices at U.S. embassies and consulates across the region, and a staff of approximately 250 employees. His responsibilities include developing and recommending policies, strategies, and programs to advance U.S. economic and commercial interests throughout Europe and Eurasia, and with the European Union.
De Falco is a career civil servant with 20 years of service in the Department of Commerce. Before his current assignment, he was Acting Executive Director for Europe and Eurasia, where he was responsible for managing the Department's assets in the region and assisting the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe and Eurasia to develop and implement trade policy and trade promotion activities. Prior positions include Director for the Office of the European Union, where he developed and executed strategies to increase and maintain market access for U.S. companies in Europe and where he served as the Department lead for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations. Early in his career, he held several positions in the Office of the European Union and Regional Affairs where he advised senior Department officials on trade policy and commercial issues with the European Union and its Member States. A member of the Virginia State Bar and the District of Columbia Bar, DeFalco previously served as an editor on the Journal of International Legal Studies.
De Falco received a law degree with a specialization in international business transactions from the George Mason University School of Law. He graduated with honors from Washington and Lee University with a bachelor's degree in economics and finance. He is a native Italian speaker and proficient in French and Spanish.
David and his wife, Cheryl, are volunteer puppy raisers for Guiding Eyes for the Blind.
Job Titles:
- Albania Partner Post Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Research Analyst, Contractor, Rural Export Center
Job Titles:
- Director, Investment Research Team
Job Titles:
- Team Lead, Banking, Trade and Project Finance
Job Titles:
- Deputy Director, Program and Events Team
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Executive Director of SelectUSA
Jasjit Singh is the Executive Director of SelectUSA, a U.S. government-wide program that works to attract foreign direct investment to the United States. In this role, he leads the strategy and implementation of SelectUSA's mission to create jobs, spur economic growth, and promote American competitiveness. He also oversees the SelectUSA Investment Summit, an annual event where U.S. officials make the case to global companies that the United States remains the top destination to do business.
Prior to joining SelectUSA, Jasjit was a Senior Director at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's U.S.-India Business Council. There, he was the Head of the Manufacturing and Supply Chain Logistics Committees as well as States Engagement and Capitol Hill outreach. Jasjit was also a Senior Policy Advisor in the Obama Administration, former Executive Director of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), and a Senior Consultant with Deloitte.
In his personal time, Jasjit is an avid tennis player, travel enthusiast, and mocktail aficionado.
Job Titles:
- Global Aerospace & Defense Team Leader
Job Titles:
- International Trade Specialist ( Data Requests, Unmanned Systems, Air Traffic Management )
Job Titles:
- Program Manager, Contractor, Rural Export Center
Job Titles:
- Research Analyst, Contractor, Rural Export Center
Job Titles:
- Team Leader ( Also Middle East, Space )
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant, Contractor, Rural Export Center
Job Titles:
- International Trade Specialist ( Asia, Brazil, Defense, Space )
Job Titles:
- Albania Partner Post Coordinator
Job Titles:
- International Trade Specialist ( Defense, Africa, Western Hemisphere, India, Helicopters, Space )
Job Titles:
- Deputy Director, Communications and Outreach Team
Job Titles:
- Senior International Trade Specialist ( Defense, China, Advisory Committee )
Job Titles:
- Research Analyst, Contractor, Rural Export Center
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant, Contractor, Rural Export Center
Job Titles:
- Deputy Director, Investment Services Team
Job Titles:
- Trade Finance Guide Trade Finance Education and Outreach SME Finance Banking