Curriculum Vitae: Professional Experience

Senior International Adviser to the International Trade Centre (a joint entity of the WTO and UNCTAD) and, for two years, also the German Development Institute. Advise and assist on a project on Investment Facilitation for Development, aimed at strengthening the capacity of developing countries to participate in, and benefit from, the negotiations of the WTO Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement.

I had launched, in 2015, in the framework of the E15 Task Force on Investment Policy, a proposal for a specialized “international support programme for sustainable investment facilitation”, to help developing countries attract more and better FDI. After having presented the proposal to WTO staff on 9 February 2016, it was taken forward in the WTO by Abdel-Hamid Mamdouh. In 2018, structured discussions on a multilateral Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement began in the WTO. These were upgraded to negotiations in 2020. The text negotiations of the Agreement were concluded in November 2023. The Agreement awaits integration into the WTO rulebook. Separately, the European Union had concluded, by November 2025, a Sustainable Investment Facilitation Agreement with Angola and was negotiating similar agreements with other governments.

Founder and Executive Director, thanks to Jeffrey D. Sachs, of the Columbia Program on International Investment (CPII), established in January 2006, which became, in May 2008, the Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment (VCC) and, in May 2014, the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI), all joint undertakings of Columbia Law School and the Earth Institute at Columbia University. CCSI became, in 2025, a center of the Climate School at Columbia University. Responsible for the establishment, development, leadership, and “putting on the map” of the newly established CPII and VCC, to become a leading educational and policy-oriented research center on foreign direct investment (FDI) and multinational enterprises. CPII and VCC sought to accomplish this vision by:

• Promoting learning about sustainable FDI by creating an interdisciplinary menu of courses on FDI and providing students with a challenging learning environment. For example, I was teaching, between 2006-2023, a seminar, once a year, on “FDI and Public Policy” at Columbia Law School, open for cross-registration, and initiated and oversaw the development of a syllabus on international investment law and policy.
• Undertaking and encouraging the analysis of important issues related to FDI and multinational enterprises, considering appropriate public polices and disseminating the findings to the FDI community. For example, I prepared a number of publications, including volumes generated from the Columbia International Investment Conference series since 2006, launched the annual Yearbook on International Investment Law and Policy (of which I was the Founding Editor, published by Oxford University Press since 2009), initiated the Emerging Markets Global Players Project, began the Columbia FDI Perspectives, and originated the Columbia FDI Profiles.
• Providing a neutral forum for dialogue among stakeholders. For example, I launched the annual Columbia International Investment Conference on topical issues in international investment law and policy and organized each year a Speaker Series at Columbia Law School focusing on international investment law and policy.
• Developing and applying practical approaches and solutions to increase the contribution of FDI and multinational enterprises to sustainable development. For example, I was the Co-Director of the Millennium Cities Initiative until September 2011; advocated for an Advisory Center on International Investment Law; and advocated for the establishment of a facility that helps developing countries negotiate beneficial large-scale investment contracts with international investors.

Director, Division on Investment, Technology and Enterprise Development, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), with some 100 researchers and staff. Responsible for the overall direction and management of UNCTAD’s Programme on Investment, Technology and Enterprise Development. (The “Activities Report 2004” illustrates the type of work done by the Division in one particular year.) Specifically, responsibilities included:

Strategic management

As Director, I led the UNCTAD Programme on Investment, Technology and Enterprise Development. The Programme was transferred in 1993 from the UN in New York to UNCTAD in Geneva and, therefore, needed re-building. It was—and continues to be—the recognized focal point, within the UN system and beyond, for matters related to multinational enterprises (MNEs) and foreign direct investment (FDI). It was—and continues to be—a major interface between the private sector and the UN system. Some 100 staff supported the implementation of the Programme, in three types of activities: research and policy analysis; technical cooperation; and intergovernmental deliberations and consensus building among governments. My role included: identifying strategic issues, opportunities and risks; generating and communicating a compelling vision (including organizational direction); conceptualizing policies; strategizing and supervising the implementation of a regular budget and extra-budgetary work programme (in the order of about, annually, US$12 million); determining the nature of the relationship with the WTO in the areas of investment and technology; raising extra-budgetary resources; and maintaining contact with clientele and stakeholders, especially member states.

As a member of the senior management of UNCTAD, I participated in the overall formulation of the Organization’s policies, strategies and programme of work. I coordinated a UN-system-wide effort (including the World Bank, IMF, WTO, OECD) to prepare a part of the Secretary-General’s report for the Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development.

Intellectual leadership in the field of investment

I was in charge, between 1988 and 2005, of the UN’s research programme on MNEs and FDI. As part of that responsibility, I created the World Investment Report (WIR) and was its Team Leader and lead author from when it was first published in 1991 until 2004. The WIR became one of the flagship publications of the UN, defining the mainstream of policy-oriented research in the area of investment and development. This was reflected, for example, in the fact that there were some 1.7 million web-downloads of the 2003 WIR or parts thereof between September 2003 (when it was launched) and September 2004. In 2020, the Academy of International Business presented UNCTAD the AIB Presidential Recognition Award for the WIR. I took the lead role in re-establishing the programme on international investment agreements (which had largely been abandoned with the discontinuation of the negotiations of the United Nations Code of Conduct on Transnational Corporations) which, among other things, made an input into the WTO FDI discussions, and supervised the preparation of a series of over 25 monographs on policy issues central to international investment agreements, subsequently published in three volumes. Other activities for which I took the lead role included conceptualizing, editing and publishing (by Routledge, and together with John H. Dunning) a 20-volume Library on Transnational Corporations; and launching the journal Transnational Corporations and serving as its editor from its inception in 1992 until 2005.

Technical assistance

My experience with technical assistance (TA) was largely grounded in policy analysis and direct responsibilities for conceptualizing, managing and monitoring (at times innovative) TA activities. For example, during the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, I launched – in cooperation with UNDP and the World Bank – a work programme on trade in services. In the late 1990s, I developed and managed a multi-donor, multi-country, multi-year technical assistant programme to support developing countries in matters related to international investment agreements; a good part of this programme was carried out jointly with the WTO. A similar programme was centred on Investment Policy Reviews, which I had conceptualized and whose implementation I supervised. The Policy Reviews were complemented by Investment Guides for LDCs, prepared jointly with the International Chamber of Commerce. At the Third UN Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDCs), I launched, with the Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce, the Investment Advisory Council for LDCs; the Secretary-General of the United Nations chaired two of the Council’s sessions. The Council brought together senior government and corporate leaders to discuss concrete ways to improve the investment climate in LDCs.

Promoting international consensus-building

I took the lead, within UNCTAD, in the conceptualization, policy planning and substantive servicing of a number of intergovernmental bodies dealing with issues related to investment, technology and enterprise development: UNCTAD Conferences (and preparatory events), the Trade and Development Board and its Commissions, the WTO Doha Round as regards investment and technology issues, and ECOSOC and its Committees. In particular, I was in charge of the substantive servicing of the Commission on Investment, Technology and Related Financial Issues, the Commission on Science and Technology for Development and the Commission on Enterprise and Business Facilitation for Development, and their respective subsidiary bodies; helped to prepare UNCTAD IX, UNCTAD X and UNCTAD XI; and conceptualized and implemented the high-level segment of the 43rd session of the Trade and Development Board on “Foreign direct investment and development in a globalising world economy”.

Through professionally grounded credibility and good relationships with delegates, I was able to maintain the confidence of member states and steer UNCTAD’s programme on investment, technology and enterprise development into a consensus direction.

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All these activities required not only conceptualization and management, but also the mobilization of extra-budgetary resources (an average of US$2-3 million per year) and the leveraging of such resources with others (e.g., WTO, Roland Berger, CUTS). A number of these activities were made possible because other organizations could be persuaded to cooperate. Some activities benefited from the direct participation of the private sector.