Rufus H. Yerxa (born 1951) is currently Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO). He has served in this position since 2002. He was the former Chief International Counsel for Monsanto Company.

As an American public servant (under both Republican and Democratic administrations), he was US Ambassador to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in Geneva; he played a key role in the Uruguay Round Negotiations. Yerxa served as a Deputy U.S. Trade Representative and U.S. Envoy to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, in Geneva. Prior to 1989, he served as the Assistant Chief Counsel of the House Ways and Means Committee and Staff Director of its Subcommittee on Trade.

From 1977 to 1981, he was the Legal Advisor to the Chairman of the International Trade Commission. An attorney and a member of the Washington State and District of Columbia Bars, Yerxa is a graduate of the University of Washington and the University of Puget Sound, and holds an LL.B. in international law from Cambridge University (UK). Prior to being named as Monsanto's international counsel, Yerxa was Monsanto's European general counsel.

Clifford D. "Cliff" Schecter (born 1971) is an American political writer, commentator, and operative. Schecter is considered to be a political progressive and wrote a book highly critical of 2008 Republican Presidential nominee John S. McCain; he has a reputation as a pugnacious proponent of progressive politics and policies. Schecter is married and lives with his wife and family in Columbus, Ohio.

Schecter was born and raised in New York City. He attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he became politically active as a progressive and worked on his first political campaigns. He graduated in 1994 with distinction with a Bachelor of Arts in American History.

Schecter then worked in the financial industry before returning to the political world as a polling analyst at the political consulting firm Penn, Schoen & Berland. He spent the 1996 campaign cycle assigned to their biggest client, Democratic President Bill Clinton.

Schecter left Penn & Schoen after Clinton's re-election, obtaining a master's degree in 1999 from Columbia University's School of International Affairs with a concentration in international journalism and public relations. In 2004, Schecter was admitted as a Graduate Fellow to the Ph.D. program in American History at American University.

Luis Alfredo Palacio González (born January 22, 1939) served as President of Ecuador from April 2005 to January 2007. From January 15, 2003 to April 20, 2005, he served as vice president, after which he was appointed to the presidency when the Ecuadorian Congress removed President Lucio Gutiérrez from power following a week of growing unrest with his government.

Born in Guayaquil, Palacio is a physician by profession, specializing in cardiology. He studied in his home town and, later, at Cleveland, Ohio, doing residency at Case Western Reserve University, followed by a two-year cardiology fellowship at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States. He later lectured in cardiology and public health at Guayaquil University's faculty of medicine.

Palacio was chosen as Lucio Gutiérrez's running mate in the 2002 election. It was a common sight during the campaign to see Gutiérrez, dressed in his army fatigues, accompanied by Palacio, wearing surgical scrubs. Palacio had previously served as the minister for health during the administration of Sixto Durán Ballén. Many of the ministers he chose were from the Democratic Left (Ecuador).

Surin Pitsuwan (Thai: สุรินทร์ พิศสุวรรณ; Malay: Surin Abdul Halim bin Ismail Pitsuwan; Yawi: سورين عبدالحاليم بن اسماعيل ڤيتسووان; born 28 October 1949) is a longtime Thai politician. He was born in Nakhon Si Thammarat, into an assimilated Thai family of Malay descent.

Pitsuwan studied at Thammasat University, Thailand. He graduated cum laude from Claremont McKenna College, California, in political science in 1972. From 1977 until 1980, he was a researcher for the Human Rights Studies Program, Thai Studies Institute and the Ford Foundation, Thammasat University, and from 1974 until 1978, he was a fellow of The Rockefeller Fellowship Program, The Rockefeller Foundation, Harvard University and American University, Cairo. Surin Pitsuwan earned a Master of Arts from Harvard University and did research at the American University in Cairo as a scholar of the Institute of Higher Council for Islamic Affairs of Egypt from 1975 until 1977 before returning to Harvard, where he received a Ph.D. in 1982.