Michael Delaney has over 35 years of international trade policy and commercial advocacy experience involving most major trade and investment markets on all continents. For 30 years he served as a State Department Foreign Service Economic/Commercial Officer, engaging in trade and commercial advocacy in Portugal, the European Commission, Brazil, the GATT/World Trade Organization (WTO), Korea, Finland, Australia, and Thailand. He is the only Foreign Service Officer who has twice won the Cobb Award for Commercial Diplomacy – the Department of State’s highest award for commercial advocacy.

Following an assignment as Political Adviser to NATO’s Regional Command – South in Kandahar, Afghanistan, he joined the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (Executive Office of the President) as Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for South and Central Asia and Iraq. In this position he was the senior U.S. official serving at the nexus of trade policy, business, and the political dynamics of international commerce in the South and Central Asia region. He also served as Special Trade Representative for Post-Conflict Countries (Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Afghanistan) and Chairman of the USTR-led Trade Policy Coordinating Committee.

Mike’s background gives him broad and deep international experience in government relations, market access, and crafting of profitable, sustainable business models for a broad range of international markets and conditions. He has years of extensive interaction with Congress on both trade policy and trade related investment policy. Fluent in several languages, Mike possesses a deep knowledge of foreign cultures and doing business internationally, especially in South and Central Asia, as well as close relationships developed over decades with foreign economic officials and leading members of the business community.