Executive Summary

Despite the widespread uncertainty wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, entrepreneurship, investment, and trade have still lifted millions from poverty and enabled countries and corporations to work together to create new opportunities and jobs and improved relations among nations. It is a critical time to discuss these drivers, while going deeper to learn about our 62 Country Members’ economies and opportunities, in an open-dialogue platform for post-COVID solutions that create lasting impacts.

To seek solutions, a new series of online events was developed in a Socratic case study format by Harvard Business School professors with IEA for senior leaders to learn and share ideas for post-COVID growth, investment, and jobs. IEA and NMAD then jointly organized the first of these online events, which was based on the HBS case “Australia: Commodities, Competitiveness, Climate and China” with the Commonwealth of Australia in December 2020. The success of this inaugural event demonstrated the power of giving business, finance, government, and academic leaders a platform to discuss opportunities and exchange perspectives on a Country Member’s economy. By hosting joint programs and events for the benefit of our 62 Country Members, IEA and NMAD aim to create new insights and economic opportunities for the U.S. and its trading partners for the generations to come.

Countries Examined

Case Study Leadership

Professor Richard Vietor

Harvard Business School / Program Leader

Richard Vietor is a renowned Professor at the Harvard Business School teaching courses on the international political economy. He has written numerous books including Globalization and Growth: Case Studies in National Economic Strategies (2004), “The Class Moves the World: How Business Elites Decipher the World Economy” and “How Countries Compete: Strategy, Structure and Government in the Global Economy.”

Van McCormick

Founding Director of the International Economic Alliance

Mr. McCormick is Founding Director of IEA. Before IEA, he was Director of Investment Symposia as well as the Harvard-Kommersant Program lecturer at Harvard’s Belfer Center. Prior to joining this role, he was Principal Lecturer for the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard (TECH).

Ambassador Thomas Pickering

Co-Chair of the International Economic Alliance

Ambassador Thomas Pickering served more than four decades as a U.S. diplomat. He last served as undersecretary of state for political affairs, the third highest post in the U.S. State Department. Pickering also served as Ambassador to the United Nations, the Russian Federation, India, Israel, and Jordan, and holds the personal rank of Career Ambassador. Following his retirement from the U.S. Government, Ambassador Pickering joined Boeing Aerospace as Senior Vice President of International Relations, spearheading a significant revamp in the Boeing's strategic global efforts.

Jane Carpenter-Rock

Director of the National Museum of American Diplomacy

Jane Carpenter-Rock is responsible for overseeing the National Museum of Diplomacy's departments for Education, Conservation, External Affairs and Digital Strategies and the Research and Scholars Center. She was formerly the director of the orientation division at the Foreign Service Institute, and deputy director of the National Museum of American Diplomacy, the Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Bureau of African Affairs and the public affairs officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Cape Town, South Africa. (as per AMericanart.si.edu)