Charlene Barshefsky

Former US Trade Representative; Senior International Partner, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP Scholars

Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky is Senior International Partner at WilmerHale in Washington, DC, where she chairs the firm’s International Trade, Investment and Market Access Practice Group.  She represents multinational companies and private equity firms on their global market access, investment and acquisition strategies, including negotiations with foreign governments and private parties.  Prior to this, Ambassador Barshefsky was the United States Trade Representative from 1997-2001, and Acting and Deputy USTR from 1993-1996.  As a member of President Bill Clinton’s Cabinet, she was responsible for the formulation of US trade policy and the negotiation of hundreds of complex trade, market access and investment agreements across the globe, including China’s historic WTO agreement, and global agreements in financial services, telecommunications, high-tech products and cyberspace.  She has been a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the recipient of numerous academic, industry and professional honors.  She is ranked as one of the most influential lawyers in the United States.  She is on the Boards of the American Express Company, the Estée Lauder Companies, and a former board member of Intel Corporation and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.  She is also a Trustee of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a non-resident Senior Fellow at Yale’s Paul Tsai China Center.