Agricultural Trade Conference:
Speaker and Panel Member Biographies

David Abler

David Abler is a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at Pennsylvania State University. He received a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago. He serves as the PI on a project entitled, "By the Numbers-Data Analysis and Statistical Solutions." In addition, he serves as the co-PI on many projects ranging in topic from tertiary education, to land titling, from community and water resource interaction to international marketing of food and livestock products. Dr. Abler has conducted research focusing on Costa Rica, Mexico, the European Union, India, and Peru. Dr. Abler is a member of the BASIS External Evaluation Panel.

Martin Banse

Martin Banse is an assistant professor at the Institute of Agricultural Economics, University of Göttingen, Germany where he conducts research focusing on EU enlargement and the EU’s CAP reform. He has taught agricultural policies, agricultural supply and demand analysis, and microeconomic theory. He received his Ph.D. in agricultural economics from University of Göttingen.

Harry Baumes is the managing director of Agricultural Services for Global Insight. He has management responsibilities for the Agricultural Group, including domestic and international agriculture sector forecasting and consulting services. Baumes has more than 20 years of professional experience conducting and managing domestic and international agriculture sector studies. He has broad experience, knowledge of domestic and foreign agriculture sectors and policies, agriculture commodity markets (crops and livestock), and agri-input sectors. Baumes conducts research activities and advises corporations in the fertilizer industry, farm equipment sector, agricultural chemicals sector, and other agri-businesses. Baumes is a frequent speaker at the company's annual agricultural roundtables and general economic conferences. He has been on the programs of various professional meetings, trade association meetings, and client planning and marketing sessions to address international and domestic agricultural issues and outlooks. He contributes to several Global Insight publications.

Prior to Global Insight, Baumes was with the USDA's Economic Research Service (1988-1996), where he served in several branch chief (leadership) positions—the U.S. Agricultural Policy Branch, the Western Hemisphere Branch, and the Resource and Environmental Policy Branch. Baumes led work at the USDA that provided relevant input to determine trade and commodity effects of the Uruguay Round Agreement and NAFTA. Over 1989-1995, Baumes represented the United States at the OECD, where he defended U.S. agricultural and trade policies and positions, as well as argued for agricultural reform by other member countries, such as the European Union and Japan. For seven years he was in charge of the Chase Econometrics fertilizer forecasting service and related consulting activities. In addition, while on faculty at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Baumes was the principal investigator for the Agricultural Economics Department's multidisciplinary study to evaluate the costs and benefits of pesticide use on fruits and vegetables.

Baumes holds a B.S. degree from Cornell University (1974), a M.S. degree (1976), and a Ph.D. (1978) in agricultural economics from Purdue University. Baumes' graduate studies concentrated on quantitative methods.

David Blandford

David Blandford is the head of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology and Professor of Agricultural Economics at Pennsylvania State University. He received his Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the University of Manchester in 1967. From 1975-1990, he was a professor of agricultural economics at Cornell University. He moved to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 1990 to lead one of the divisions in the Directorate for Food, Agriculture, and Fisheries. Blandford has been at the Pennsylvania State University since July 1998. His professional work focuses on agricultural policy issues.

Mary Burfisher

Mary Burfisher is a senior economist at the Economic Research Service in the Asia and Western Hemisphere Branch of the Market and Trade Economics Division (MTED). Her research has focused on agricultural trade policy issues including multilateral reforms at the WTO, and regional integration including the FTAA and NAFTA. She has led research programs at ERS on trade policy issues, including the effects of decoupled payments on production and trade. Currently, she is involved in research projects on trade policy adjustments at the farm household level, and measuring producer support in developing countries.

Burfisher received a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Maryland, and a master's degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

Xinshen Diao

Xinshen Diao is a research fellow at International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Diao works in the area of policy-oriented dynamic general equilibrium modeling. At IFPRI, she conducts research on agricultural development, intersectoral linkages, international trade, regional trade integration, and WTO issues.

Before joining IFPRI in 2000, Dr. Diao was an assistant professor of applied economics at the Minnesota University and stationed at the Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. She was also a consultant in the agricultural and natural resource department of the World Bank, senior research fellow, assistant director-general, and division chief in the Economic Reform Institute of China, and research fellow in the Research Center for Rural Development of the Chinese State Council.

Dr. Diao published many refereed journal articles and co-authored several books, including book chapters. Dr. Diao received her Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from University of Minnesota, her M.A. and B.A. degrees in Economics from the Beijing Institute of Economics.

Paul Drazek

Prior to forming DTB Associates, Paul Drazek was the Special Assistant to the Secretary of Agriculture for International Affairs, involved in numerous bilateral and multilateral consultations and negotiations and agricultural trade issues. He represented the Department on behalf of the Secretary in high-level interagency meetings to formulate U.S. trade policy, and coordinated policy-level groups to develop strategies for resolving trade disputes with foreign countries. Mr. Drazek was the Department's principal strategist and spokesman on sanitary, phytosanitary and other regulatory barriers to U.S. farm and food exports, and was responsible for interagency groups he created on biotechnology and technical barriers to trade.

Before joining the Secretary's staff, Drazek served as Director of Governmental Relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation from 1985 to 1995. Drazek began his career with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service, serving fourteen years as a trade policy and marketing specialist. During that time, he represented the United States as a member of the U.S. delegation to the Tokyo Round of GATT multilateral trade negotiations in Geneva from 1975 to 1979 and as Agricultural Attaché at the U.S. embassy in Mexico City from 1979 to 1981.

Michael J. Ferrantino

Michael Ferrantino received his B.A. degree from Northwestern (1980) and Ph.D. from Yale (1987). After teaching at Drew, Southern Methodist, and Youngstown State Universities, he joined the U.S. International Trade Commission in 1994 where he engages in economic analysis of trade agreements for both the executive and legislative branches. He has published on a variety of topics related to international trade and investment, technological change, and economic development.

Greg Frazier

Greg Frazier is senior vice president for International and Regulatory Affairs for the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), representing the dairy industry before the federal agencies that oversee and regulate the operation of dairy plants and the production and marketing of dairy products. He also manages the industry's trade portfolio, including export and import policies, trade negotiations, and international food standards and matters. Before joining IDFA, he was a senior public policy advisor in the Washington office of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer, and Feld LLP counseling clients on international agricultural and food trade related issues as well as on matters involving domestic farm and food policy.

Frazier was chief agriculture negotiator in the Office of the United States Trade Representative when the United States presented its preliminary proposal for comprehensive agriculture trade reform to the World Trade Organization. Prior to that, he was chief of staff at the Department of Agriculture.

Before joining the Clinton Administration, Frazier spent eighteen years in several staff positions in the House of Representatives, including staff director for the largest subcommittee of the Committee on Agriculture and as a professional staff member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Born and raised in Kansas, Frazier lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and daughter.

Debra Henke

Debra Henke is currently the director of the Multilateral Trade Negotiations Division, International Trade Policy in the Foreign Agricultural Service, focusing on negotiations on trade in food, fibre, and other agricultural goods in the World Trade Organization and the OECD.

In July 1998, Henke returned to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C., after four years in Taiwan, where she was the chief of the Agricultural Affairs Section at the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), Taipei Office. At AIT, she represented the interests of U.S. farmers and agribusiness to the people of Taiwan, the fifth largest market for U.S. agricultural exports.

Henke grew up on a wheat farm in Central Kansas. She attended University of Kansas and Kansas State University, where she received a master's degree in Agricultural Economics. Henke’s first overseas assignment was as a guide and interpreter on the United States sponsored exhibit to the Soviet Union, called "Agriculture USA." Joining the Foreign Service in 1979, Henke has served in the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Taiwan, and Washington, D.C.

Professor Hertel was recently named a Distinguished Professor at Purdue University, where he teaches and conducts research on the economy-wide impacts of trade policies. He is the Founding Director of the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) which now encompasses 2,000 researchers in more than 100 countries around the world. His most recent research has focused on the impacts of developed country trade policies on poverty in developing countries.

Ambassador Allen F. Johnson

Ambassador Allen F. Johnson, an Eastern Iowa native, serves as Chief Agriculture Negotiator for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Prior to his current position, Johnson led the National Oilseed Processors Association and the Iowa Soybean Association, and he served as Senator Charles Grassley’s agriculture, environment and trade legislative assistant. He has been active in various agricultural trade activities, including as a member of the Agriculture Trade Advisory Committee (ATAC), co-chair of the Seattle Round Agriculture Committee, now known as Agricultural Trade, and member of the Agriculture Coalition for U.S.-China Trade.

In his current position, Ambassador Johnson’s responsibilities include developing U.S. food and agricultural trade policy, conducting trade negotiations on agricultural products, and enforcing trade agreements related to U.S. food and agricultural products.

Ambassador Johnson grew up in Iowa working on soybean, corn, cattle, hog, and chicken farms. He earned his M.B.A. from Stanford University and M.A. from Stanford’s Food Research Institute. He received his B.S. in Business Management from George Mason University.

Tim Josling is a senior fellow at the Institute for International Studies, Stanford University. He has held a number of positions at Stanford, the University of Reading, and the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the author of Agricultural Trade Policy: Completing the Reform (1998).

Michael Keenan

Michael Keenan is the director general in the Research & Analysis Directorate in the Strategic Policy Branch of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. He is responsible for managing the development of a stronger knowledge base on the key policy issues facing Canadian agriculture in the future.

Before joining Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in early 2001, Keenan worked at the Privy Council Office, providing strategic policy advice for the Prime Minister of Canada on government priorities and supporting the Prime Minister in chairing Cabinet meetings. Earlier, Keenan worked in the Department of Finance, in fiscal analysis, forecasting and research, and in the development of tax policy. He holds a master's degree in Economics from Queens University, Kingston,
Canada.

William A. Kerr

William A. Kerr is currently Van Vliet Professor at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada and senior associate of the Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade, Saskatoon, Canada. His research focuses on international trade and international commercial policy in agriculture, including trade negotiations and trade disputes. He has been a consultant for the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Canadian, British and EU governments as well as private industry. He has over 200 academic publications including 10 co-authored books. Recent titles include Economic Analysis for International Trade Negotiations, North American Economic Integration–Theory and Practice, Regional Trading Blocs in the Global Economy, and The Economics of Biotechnology. He has been an editor of the Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics and is currently editor of The Estey Centre Journal of International Law and Trade Policy. In 2002 he was made a fellow of the Canadian Agricultural Economics Society.

Jeffrey D. Lewis is an economic Advisor in the International Trade Department and the Prospects Group in the World Bank, where he works on global economic trends, the global trade agenda, and the Bank’s operational and policy work on macroeconomics and growth. He previously worked as Lead Economist for South Africa, including analysis of South African growth prospects, the macro impact of HIV/AIDS, trade reform, and SADC regional integration. He has also worked on issues of country risk and creditworthiness in the Bank's Financial Policy and Risk Management Department, and as a country economist on Indonesia, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea. Prior to joining the Bank in 1993, he was an Institute Associate at the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) for nine years, including five years as a resident advisor in the Indonesian Ministry of Finance. He has consulted in Colombia, Venezuela, Bangladesh, Turkey, Uganda, and Zambia, and has carried out extensive research in areas including economic modeling, exchange rates and trade policy, stabilization and structural adjustment policies in developing economies, and regional trade arrangements. He is a member of the UNAIDS Reference Group on the Economic Impact of AIDS. He has a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University.

Karl Meilke

Karl Meilke was born and reared on a dry land wheat and cattle ranch in eastern Washington State. He joined the University of Guelph faculty in 1973, after completing a Ph.D. in agricultural and applied economics at the University of Minnesota. His family farm in Washington is still owned by his mother and farmed by his two brothers-in-law. His current research interests include the evaluation of the effects of domestic and international policies on world commodity markets. He maintains an active interest in regional and multilateral trade negotiations and in contingent protection laws.

Dr. Meilke is a former Chair of the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium and currently serves on the Steering Committee for the Policy Disputes Information Consortium.

Wolfgang Munch

Since 2000, Wolfgang Munch has been with the European Commission in the Directorate General for Agriculture after spending a brief period in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in Germany. In DG Agriculture he works in the economic directorate on issues related to agricultural policies, markets, and trade. His main engagements have related to EU enlargement, the CAP reform as well as in the area of trade agreements.

Wolfgang’s academic background is policy analysis. He is a fellow in the Policy Research Group at the University of Leuven/Belgium. He received his Ph.D. and M.Sc. in agricultural economics at the University of Gottingen/Germany.

Greg Pompelli

Greg Pompelli is Chief of the Global Agricultural Markets Branch in the Economic Research Service (ERS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. His branch is responsible for conducting and supporting international and domestic agricultural market analysis, including the Department's annual Baseline analysis. His branch contributes to USDA's current and long-term assessments of macroeconomic, demand, production, foreign direct investment, and policy developments. Before joining ERS, Greg was an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at the University of Tennessee, an economic analyst with Sunkist Growers, Inc., and a loan officer with what was called the Sacramento Bank for Cooperatives. His has a bachelor's degree in Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology from Penn State University, and a master's degree and Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of California at Davis. He is a member of the Pennsylvania State University Food and Agribusiness Advisory Council.

Before joining International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in 1993, Sherman Robinson was a professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. Robinson has held visiting appointments at the Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; the U.S. Congressional Budget Office; and the President's Council of Economic Advisers (in the Clinton administration). In the U.S. government, he worked extensively on trade issues, including the Uruguay Round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He was also a division chief in the Research Department of the World Bank, an assistant professor of Economics at Princeton University, and a lecturer in Economics at the London School of Economics. His research interests include agricultural development, income distribution, poverty, intersectoral linkages, macroeconomic policy, and international trade.

Terry L. Roe

Terry Roe is a professor of Applied Economics at University of Minnesota. He is director for Center for Political Economy at University of Minnesota. Roe is also a co-director for the Economic Development Center, University of Minnesota. He is a former president for International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium; a former director of a six-week agricultural policy seminar for planners and policy makers from LDCs (USAID funded); a member of the adjunct faculty, Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, and Hassan II Institute, Morocco. Other assignments include associate editor of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics and guest editor of the North American Journal of Economics and Finance and the Journal of Food Policy.

Roe has 25 years of experience in conducting and directing research and providing policy guidance in many countries macroeconomics of trade, growth and development with emphasis on agriculture. Roe's work and research in areas include: (1) empirical policy based static and dynamic general equilibrium models, (2) political economy of structural adjustment and stabilization, and (3) environmental effects of macroeconomic policy and structural adjustment on amenities, health, and resource degradation.

Roe has been a thesis advisor to more 40 recipients of the Ph.D. Applied Economics. He has taught Ph.D. level courses in Economic Growth, Development Economics, Applied Mathematical Programming, Political Economy of Environmental Policy, Advanced Markets and Prices, and Macro Economics. In addition, Roe has published 70 refereed journal articles, co-authored five books (including two journals), and co-authored 55 book chapters.

Roe received his Ph.D. from Purdue University, his M.S. and B.S. degrees in Agricultural Economics from North Dakota State University.

James Rude is an assistant professor in the Department of Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics, University of Manitoba. He is a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan, and has a Ph.D. from the University of Guelph. Rude has worked as a trade policy analyst and senior economist for the federal government, and has been a visiting scholar at Iowa State University. During 1999-2001, Rude was associated with the Canadian Agricultural Trade Research Network to build research capacity in agricultural trade policy at Canadian universities, facilitate student interest in trade issues, and conduct research on issues related to the next round of WTO Agreement on Agriculture negotiations.

Agapi Somwaru is a senior agricultural economist at the Economic Research Service (ERS), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Somwaru works in the area of applied agricultural trade and policy analysis research. At ERS, her work focuses on international policy and trade, inter-sectoral linkages, regional trade integration, and WTO issues as well as risk and agricultural production related issues.

Somwaru received her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Agricultural Economics from the University of Connecticut and her B.S. in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Somwaru has published many refereed articles and co-authored several books.

Daniel Sumner is the Frank H. Buck Jr., professor for the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Davis and the director of Agricultural Issues Center, University of California. Before returning to academics in 1993, he spent several years in government service, including a year as Assistant Secretary for Economics at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Prior to that Sumner spent about 10 years on the faculty of North Carolina State University. He receives his bachelor's degree in agricultural management at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, his master's from Michigan State, and his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago.

Sarah Fogarty Thorn

Sarah Thorn is the Grocery Manufacturers of America’s (GMA) director for International Trade. In this capacity, she serves as a primary GMA liaison with members of Congress, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and other regulatory agencies regarding GMA's trade priorities. Thorn is also responsible for advancing GMA’s international trade interests in a variety of international fora such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Thorn previously worked as a consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers. She also worked as an international relations representative with AMP Incorporated, managed trade and market access policy toward Europe and Latin America. Ms. Thorn holds a M.A. in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a B.A. in Comparative Area Studies and Comparative Literature from Duke University.