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Former diplomat, author, and advisor on foreign policy, Anja Manuel is Co-Founder and Principal along with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, in Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC, a strategic consulting firm that helps US companies navigate international markets.
Manuel is the author of the critically acclaimed "This Brave New World: India, China, and the United States," published by Simon and Schuster in 2016, and numerous articles and papers.
She is the Executive Director of the Aspen Strategy Group and Aspen Security Forum, a premier bipartisan forum on foreign policy in the United States.
From 2005 to 2007, she served as an official at the U.S. Department of State, as Special Assistant to the Undersecretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, responsible for Asia policy.
Earlier in her career, Manuel was an attorney at WilmerHale, working on Supreme Court and international cases and representing clients before the US Congress, Supreme Court, Department of Justice, Department of Defense, and the SEC. She began her career as an investment banker at Salomon Brothers in London.
A cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and Stanford University, Manuel also lectured and was a research affiliate at Stanford University from 2009 to 2019, teaching courses on US Foreign Policy in Asia and Technology Policy.
Manuel is a frequent speaker on foreign policy and technology policy, is a commentator for TV and radio (NBC/MSNBC, Bloomberg News, Fox Business, BBC, NPR, etc.), and writes for publications ranging from the Washington Post, New York Times, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic, Fortune, and Newsweek, among others.
Manuel currently serves on the corporate boards of Ripple Labs Inc. and Hims & Hers Health, Inc., is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a Member of the Defense Policy Board for the U.S. Department of Defense.
She has also served on advisory boards of CARE.org, Center for a New American Security, Flexport Inc., Synapse Inc., and the boards of the Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc., National Committee on US-China Relations, American Ditchley Foundation, and formerly Governor Brown’s California Export Council.
Manuel lives in San Francisco with her husband and two children.
Videos
Speech Topics
Doing Business in Emerging Markets
Every day, American businesses must decide where in the world to sell, invest or source parts of their supply chain. How do you determine which emerging markets to enter first? And how do you do it both effectively and ethically? Based on her extensive experience in government and now leading businesses through these difficult decisions, Anja Manuel shares her insight and illuminating stories about how to engage local governments and business partners from Bogota to Bangalore.
Female Leadership
As an investment banker, lawyer, government official and now business owner in Silicon Valley, Anja Manuel has experienced firsthand both the challenges and inspiring change afoot globally for women. Drawing on global examples as well as her own decisions and sometimes funny mistakes, she shares her perspectives on women in the seat of power, and adds common-sense solutions to empower women around the world to reach their full potential.
President Trump: The Future of U.S. Foreign Policy and America's Role in the World
In this charged political environment, Anja Manuel is able to cut through the rhetoric to offer an informed analysis of how President Trump’s policies might affect the United States’ relationships with foreign allies and enemies alike. Drawing on years of experience working at the State Department and as an international business consultant with the esteemed firm of RiceHadleyGates, Manuel breaks down the sometimes inflammatory foreign policy and trade pronouncements into thoughtful and understandable realities. From the likely direction of U.S. trade policy, to relations China and India, to what the instability of the Middle East and Russia’s assertive policies might mean for the U.S. businesses in the near term, Manuel can draw on expertise in every region of the world to provide answers to today's issues. Anja’s rational and measured approach to the issues has established her as an informed resource for audiences around the world.
What the Rise of Asia Means for Us
In the next decade and a half, Asia will surpass the combined strength of North America and Europe in economic might, population size and military spending. From her front-row view of this colossal shift, first at the State Department and now as an advisor to American CEOs, Anja Manuel escorts the audience on an intimate tour of the corridors of power of Asia’s predominant powers—China and India—to reveal what makes each country “tick” and what Americans doing business there should know. Through vibrant stories that have been described as “both heartbreaking and funny,” she reveals how each country is working to surmount enormous challenges—from the crushing poverty of Indian slum dwellers and Chinese factory workers, to outrageous corruption scandals, rotting rivers and unbreathable air, to managing their citizens’ discontent, and how some of these challenges create opportunities for joint work with American companies.
Based on her book This Brave New World, Manuel shows us an optimistic path—American politicians, businesses and ordinary citizens can bring China and India along as partners rather than alienating one or both, and thus extend our own leadership in the world.
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