Team Members
Senior Advisor for International Commercial and Investment Affairs
Washington
For more information on the services TSG can provide, please contact us.
Within a period of weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the world’s economy. It has accelerated change across industries with special impact on the health and health care, retail, travel, commercial real estate, education and entertainment industries and well beyond. Governments, responding to intense public pressure, have reacted in often-uncoordinated ways to critical goods shortages and vulnerabilities, putting unprecedented pressure on manufacturers to proliferate and adjust their supply chains and reconsider just-in-time inventory operations. More uncharted territory lies ahead when safe and effective treatments and vaccines become available and governments consider forcing patent holders to license manufacturing to state-controlled firms or potential competitors, impose price controls and take other pre-emptive action.
International organizations, national governments and health policy experts have for decades warned about the likelihood of potential disruptions caused by pandemics. But given today’s economic interdependencies, interlocking agreements and institutional arrangements, there has never been a greater need for information, intelligence and expert advice to assist the private sector and governments worldwide with the complex decisions presented by COVID-19 and future pandemics. How can we obtain vital early warning of the next pandemic, assess implications for our business or government agency, limit risk, gain competitive advantage? – these are among the many questions businesses and governments now face.
Transnational Strategy Group offers an expert team able to provide advice, counsel and strategic direction enabling private sector and international government clients to navigate these threats, and to identify available competitive opportunities. The practice is led by Ambassador (ret.) Jimmy Kolker who until 2017 was Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs in the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department’s chief health diplomat, leading the response to Ebola, Zika and representing the United States at the World Health Organization. He also served in senior-level positions at the Department of State, where he led implementation of the highly successful President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and at UNICEF’s New York headquarters focusing on the response to AIDS. He worked extensively with U.S. and international businesses in these capacities. He previously served as American ambassador to Uganda and Burkina Faso.
Other members of this practice offer high-level industry and government background related to international trade and investment policy, commercial promotion, business transaction regulation, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) process, commercial and investment banking, among other specializations. TSG’s worldwide network of personnel based in key global business centers are available to ensure seamless client service outside the U.S. This structure permits us to assist clients on a broad range of questions and issues including: