Critical Updates on Tariffs and Trade: A Look at Vietnam

Steven Okun

Founder and CEO, APAC Advisors

Steven Okun, the Founder and CEO of APAC Advisors, is a leader on geopolitics, corporate public affairs sustainability and stakeholder engagement. His clients include private equity firms and the sustainable business network BSR. He serves as a Senior Advisor for the Global Private Capital Association and is the Head of External Affairs for the American Association of the Indo-Pacific.

He spent the first twelve years of his career in Washington, DC, including serving for five years in the Administration of President Bill Clinton. He is a veteran of numerous US presidential campaigns. An in-demand speaker for businesses and conferences, Steve frequently appears as an expert analyst on CNBC and Channel NewsAsia and other global media, provides the weekly International News Review for MONEY FM (Singapore) and contributes commentary to Nikkei Asia, The Straits Times, The Business Times, Eco-Business, and Asia Times.

Living in Singapore since 2003, he created and led public affairs in Asia-Pacific for UPS and KKR. He served five terms as Chair of the AmChams of Asia Pacific and three terms as Chair of AmCham Singapore.

He received his B.A. from the University of Virginia and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Dr. Deborah Elms

Head of Trade Policy, Hinrich Foundation, Singapore

Dr. Deborah Elms is Head of Trade Policy at the Hinrich Foundation in Singapore. Prior to joining the Foundation, she was the Executive Director and Founder of the Asian Trade Centre (ATC). She was also President of the Asia Business Trade Association (ABTA) and the Board Director of the Asian Trade Centre Foundation (ATCF).

Dr. Elms serves on the board of the Trade and Investment Negotiation Adviser (TINA) at the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific (UNESCAP). She was on the International Advisory Council for APCO (2021-2023) and was a member of the International Technical Advisory Committee of the Global Trade Professionals Alliance and Chair of the Working Group on Trade Policy and Law. She was also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Trade and Investment Council for 2018-2020.

Prior to founding ATC/ATCF and the ABTA, she was head of the Temasek Foundation Centre for Trade & Negotiations (TFCTN) and Senior fellow of International Political Economy at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Dr. Elms received a PhD in political science from the University of Washington, a MA in International Relations from the University of Southern California, and bachelor’s degrees from Boston University.

She is the author of numerous articles, editor of several books, and regularly published the Talking Trade Blog. Dr. Elms also routinely appears on television and in major newspapers and magazines around the world to comment on trade and economic issues. Dr. Elms also makes frequent appearances at a range of global trade and economic workshops, conferences, capacity building sessions and negotiations.