LATCAM is honored to organize a webinar on U.S. Presidential Elections: What is at stake for Latin America? with our distinguished guest speaker Professor Joseph W. Westphal.

The United States plays an essential role for Latin America as one of the most important trading partners for most countries, the home of about 30 million migrants and by far the largest source of foreign currency remittances. US investments in Latin America are also very substantial.

Since the failure to finalise the negotiation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas in 2003, no major step has been be taken to strengthen significantly the relations between the United States and Latin America. President Trump’s Administration was no exception. Today, Latin America is facing the most acute economic and social crisis in recent history and would need great support from a powerful neighbour.

Joseph W. Westphal will look at where does the United States stand now on Latin America and what could change with a Biden administration. The discussion with the moderator will review the key recent developments in several Latin American countries, U.S. policies under President D. Trump’s Administration and their political and economic impact. The prospects under an administration of President Joe Biden will also be assessed.

Our Speaker

  Dr. Joseph W. Westphal

Ambassador Joseph W. Westphal is the Chang Sun Term Professor at the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies at The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Center for Leadership and Change Management at Wharton, a Fellow at the National Academy of Public Administration and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for International Studies at the Catholic University of Chile.

Ambassador Westphal has had a long and distinguished career in government and academia. Dr. Westphal was the U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from March 2014 to January 2017. Prior to this appointment, Ambassador Westphal was the Under Secretary of the Army and its Chief Management Officer from 2009 to 2014. He also held the positions of Assistant Secretary of the Army (Head of the Army Corps of Engineers) from 1998 to 2000 and Acting Secretary of the Army in 2001.

Dr. Westphal began his career in 1975 as a professor of political science at Oklahoma State University and later served as a Department Head. In 2002 he became the Chancellor of the University of Maine System and Professor of Political Science. He also served as Director of the Tishman Environmental Center and Provost at the New School University in New York and Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University in Washington D.C.

In government, he worked in both the House and Senate for more than twelve years.  He has held positions in the administrations of Presidents Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Bush, and Obama, working in the Department of the Interior, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Defense and the Department of State.

Ambassador Westphal received a B.A. from Adelphi University (1970), an M.A. from Oklahoma State University (1973), and his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia (1980).

Ambassador Westphal was born in Santiago, Chile and immigrated with his family to the United States in 1957. He is fluent in Spanish. He and his wife Linda have four children and eight grandchildren.

Our Moderator

   Dr. Philippe G. Nell

Philippe G. Nell is University Lecturer on trade, investment and integration policy as well as negotiating techniques, and Honorary Ambassador of LATCAM. Until October 2019, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Bilateral Economic Affairs and Head of the Americas Unit at the Swiss Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research. He held the diplomatic title of Minister. Previously, he dealt with WTO matters (1999-2004) in charge i.a. of investment and China’s accession to the WTO; Rules of origin, Customs matters and Government Procurement (1992-1999), and the European Area Agreement Negotiations (1988-1992).

Mr. Nell holds a Ph. D from the Graduate School of International Studies of the University of Denver and Masters from the Universities of Fribourg, Carleton (Ottawa) and Denver. He is Privat Docent at the University of Fribourg where he dispenses courses. He has published numerous articles on trade and integration policy as well as a book on Swiss-EU negotiations for the European Economic Area.

He has published numerous articles on trade and integration policy. In September, he released a book   “Strategy with China: Swiss Cooperation or U.S. Confrontation. The Swiss Successful Path with a Free Trade Agreement” available at the Foundation Jean Monnet for Europe in Lausanne.

Special welcome remarks

   Linda Walker

Linda Walker graduated in 1977 with a MBA at George Washington University, USA; in 1975 with a MA at the Sorbonne, Paris; in 1972 with a BA in French Literature at the University of Delaware, USA. Furthermore she did postgraduate studies at the universities of Munich and Saarbrücken, Germany. She worked twenty-one years with Citibank where she held positions in the USA, Peru, Venezuela, Greece and Switzerland in the areas of corporate, investment and private banking. In March 1998 she established Walker von Graffenried Asset Management Ltd. in Zurich. She is a Member of Comexi, Mexico, and Vice President of the board of the Latin American Swiss Chamber of Commerce.

In January 2016 she was appointed Honorary Consul of Mexico in Zürich and in the same year she founded the international Advisory Board of Takimundo, a school for children with hearing disabilities in Uruapan, Mexico. Linda Walker is fluent in French, German, Spanish, Greek, Italian in addition to her mother tongue of English.

To view the webinar recording, please click on the following LINK