The National Center for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) announced that at its meeting on January 8, the Center’s Board of Governors elected Ambassador Karan K. Bhatia, Vice President and Senior Counsel for International Law and Policy, General Electric Company as the National Center’s Chairman. Mr. Bhatia brings a wealth of experience to the National Center, having previously served in senior policy and legal positions in government and in private practice and as Deputy U.S. Trade Representative in the Office of the United States Trade Representative before joining GE.
Mr. Bhatia takes over the position from outgoing Chair Ambassador Sandra Kristoff of New York Life Insurance Co., under whose leadership the National Center continued to develop its close working relationship with both the private sector and the U.S. government, and began laying the foundations for coordinating the overall private sector effort in support of the upcoming U.S. hosting of the APEC Summit in 2011. As the National Center’s organization and role will both expand considerably in the coming years, the Center’s Board expressed its thanks to Ms. Kristoff for laying the foundations of this growth, and its enthusiasm and confidence for Bhatia’s promise to continue to build on this success.
Scott Miller, Director of Global Trade Policy for Procter & Gamble and the National Center’s Vice-Chairman for Policy, noted that “The National Center is deeply grateful for Sandy Kristoff’s strong, effective leadership. We are excited to welcome Karan Bhatia, whose exceptional record of accomplishment speaks for itself.”
National Center President Monica Whaley echoed this sentiment. “We are so privileged at the National Center to have had tremendous leadership from Sandy Kristoff for the past two years, and we could not think of a better successor for her at this time of transition in the U.S. government and as the United States looks ahead to hosting APEC in 2011 than Ambassador Bhatia, who has real enthusiasm for APEC and the work of the National Center,” Mrs. Whaley said.
The National Center for APEC is an organization supported by U.S. companies that generates and supports U.S. private and public sector engagement in the APEC process. From its offices in Seattle, the National Center serves as the secretariat for the three U.S. ABAC representatives, works with U.S. companies to identify opportunities to advance U.S. priority issues within the APEC process and advocates for U.S. interests with business counterparts in the Asia-Pacific region.
Contacts:
National Center for APEC
Robert Modarelli, Executive Vice
President, 206-441-9022
rmodarelli@ncapec.org