Why Asia Matters to Montana: A Public Forum

This will be a free flowing discussion with international experts on the importance of East Asia to the United States and Montana.

Friday, August 28, 2015 - 12:30-2:00 PM
Museum of the Rockies, Hager Auditorium - Free and open to the Public

Topics to be addressed are:
What are the important trends in the Asia Pacific region that will be critical to the US economy?
Why should Montanans pay attention to Asia?
How can Montana better engage and market itself to Asia?
How can companies be more successful in places like Korea, Japan and China?
How is global branding important to the Asia region?

Speakers include:

Ambassador (ret) Kathleen 'Kathy' Stephens
U.S. Ambassador to Republic of Korea (2008-2011)
U.S. Charge d'Affaires in New Delhi (2014) William J. Perry Distinguished Fellow, Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University

Ambassador Stephens recently completed thirty-five years as a career diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service. She was Acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in 2012, and U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea, 2008 to 2011.   She also served as the United States' chargé d'affaires to India from March to December 2014.
Ambassador Stephens has served in numerous posts in Washington, Asia, and Europe. From 2000 to 2007 she was Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs (EAP). She was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs (EUR) from 2003 to 2005, focused on post-conflict and stabilization issues in the Balkans.  She was also director of the State Department's Office of Ecology and Terrestrial Conservation, and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

Kathy was a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Korea in the 1970s, and an Outward Bound instructor in Hong Kong, also in the 1970s.

 Dr. Satu Limaye was named Director of the East-West Center in Washington in February 2007. He is also a Senior Advisor at the CNA Corporation, a non-profit research and analysis organization located in Alexandria, VA.
He is the creator and director of the Asia Matters for America initiative, an interactive resource for credible, non-partisan information, graphics, analysis and news on US-Asia Pacific relations and the national, state and local levels; Founding Editor of the Asia-Pacific Bulletin series, an editor of the journal Global Asia and on the international advisory council of the journal Contemporary Southeast Asia.

Dr. Limaye publishes and speaks on U.S.-Asia relations and is a reviewer for numerous publications, foundations and fellowship programs. From October 2005 to February 2007 he was a Research Staff Member of the Strategy and Resources Division at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) and from July 1998 to October 2005 Director of Research and Publications at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS), a direct reporting unit of U.S. Pacific Command. He has been an Abe Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy and a Henry Luce Scholar and Research Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) in Tokyo. He is a magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Georgetown University and received his doctorate from Oxford University (Magdalen College) where he was a George C. Marshall Scholar.

Brandstream is an independent brand development consultancy founded by Mr. Scott Bedbury, former marketing executive for Starbucks and Nike.

Scott is also author of A New Brand World; 8 Principles for Achieving Brand Leadership in the 21st Century.

Brandstream provides a range of services, from global brand development projects to corporate training and speaking engagements.

Mr. Michael Sacharski is the current chairman of the Hawaii Pacific Export Council (Honolulu) that supports and promotes exports from Hawaii companies to markets around the globe.  Appointment to the council is by the United States Secretary of Commerce.  He is also a sponsoring member of the Pacific Forum – CSIS, a Honolulu-based think tank that specializes is economic, political and security matters in the Asia-Pacific region.

Mr. Sacharski is an experienced China business executive whose China career includes business development and company management in manufacturing, telecommunications, high technology and investment – management.

From 1999 to 2014 Mr. Sacharski was President and CEO of Pacific Enterprise Capital, LLC, an investment – management company specializing in developing China-based service companies across a range of industries including education, business services, food processing and healthcare – medical.

Prior to founding Pacific Enterprise Capital, Mr. Sacharski was chief representative of GTE China where he directed the company’s business development strategy including the establishment of an $82 million Sino-GTE wireless joint venture company.  Other projects included the first-ever agreement between a foreign service provider and the China State Information Bureau to establish a worldwide information distribution network for news and information about China.

Moderator: Dr. Abraham 'Abe' Kim comes to the Mansfield Center with over 15 years of experience in policy leadership. Prior to joining us, he served as the Vice President and former Interim President of the Korea Economic Institute of America in Washington, D.C.

His background also includes the global political risk consulting firm Eurasia Group, where he served as the research manager of government services and as the principal Korea analyst; the Science Application International Corporation (SAIC) as a project manager developing collaborative methodologies for a variety of U.S. government agencies and corporations; and the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. as a policy analyst.

Dr. Kim has also published numerous articles on Northeast Asia, including works in the Asian Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times, Foreign Policy, Joongang Ilbo, and the Korea Times.

Dr. Kim holds a Ph.D in Political Science from Columbia University (2007), M.A. in Regional Studies: East Asia from Harvard University (1995) and a B.A. in International Relations from Boston University (1993).