Richard Boucher, diplomat turned educator, has taught diplomacy at Brown University and other institutions. Until 2013, he served as Deputy Secretary General of the OECD with a focus on large developing economies (especially China, India, South Africa, and Brazil), on anti-corruption and on investment transparency. Over his 32-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, he reached the highest rank --Career Ambassador -- serving as Ambassador to Cyprus, U.S. Consul General in Hong Kong, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia and as Spokesman for six Secretaries of State. As Spokesman he dealt with every major world event including the fall of the Berlin Wall to 9/11 and the Iraq war. Over his career and after, he served and traveled extensively in China from the start of economic reform to the modern day, including tours in Guangzhou, Shanghai and on the China Desk. He speaks Chinese, French and some German.
Carolyn Brehm is a corporate executive and lecturer with more than 40 years of experience in global government relations, public policy and international business. She worked at two Fortune 100 companies and several non-profits and business associations over the course of her career in Washington, DC and Asia. She is the Founder and CEO of consulting firm Brehm Global Ventures LLC and lectures on commercial diplomacy, global public affairs and political risk.
Brehm retired in 2017 from The Procter & Gamble Company as Vice President for Global Government Relations and Public Policy where she created and led P&G’s team of sixty government relations practitioners based in key markets across the globe. She was responsible for public policy and legislative advocacy to protect and grow P&G’s business, advising four company Chairmen and CEOs over her seventeen years there.
During a 13-year stint with General Motors Corporation, Brehm served as chief international lobbyist in Washington as well as in business expansion roles in Shanghai and Hong Kong. She led Asia operations in Hong Kong for ORBIS International, a global NGO working to eliminate avoidable blindness.
Brehm chairs the board of global health NGO Population Services International (PSI). She was appointed to the Board of Trustees at the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of Asian Art in September 2021. She also sits on the Board of Governors at the University of New Haven, the Board of Advisors of Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, and the Executive Council on Diplomacy.
Brehm is a 1977 graduate of Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service with a concentration in Asian Studies and holds an MBA in International Business from the University of New Haven’s program in Nicosia, Cyprus. She was an AFS International exchange student in Mumbai, India in 1972. Brehm speaks Mandarin and has studied French.