Ambassador Susan Schwab is a Strategic Advisor to Mayer Brown and Professor Emerita at the University of Maryland. She served as U.S. Trade Representative (2006–09) and as deputy (2005–06). As USTR, she concluded free trade agreements with Peru, Colombia, South Korea, and others; and launched the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations. She pursued and/or settled trade disputes with China and Canada, and engaged in negotiations at the WTO and APEC.
In academia, she served as dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland; and as vice chancellor of the University System of Maryland (USM) and CEO of the USM Foundation.
In the private sector, Ambassador Schwab was director of corporate business development for Motorola, Inc., where she engaged in M&A and joint venture negotiations in Asia, including in China.
Earlier in government, she served as assistant secretary of commerce and director-general of the U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service, as a trade staffer and legislative director for Senator John Danforth, and as a foreign service officer at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. She began her career as an agricultural trade negotiator at USTR.
Ambassador Schwab serves on the boards of Caterpillar, FedEx, and Marriott, as well as chairing the board of the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC). She also serves on the boards of BCIU, the Conference Board, and Signature Theatre.
She holds a bachelor’s degree from Williams College; a master’s from Stanford University; and a Ph.D. from The George Washington University. She is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group.