Economic Diplomacy: How Economic Ties Can Strengthen National Security

• published: 15 Jan 2015
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For more than 20 years, Ambassador Rivkin helped craft the media landscape for a generation of viewers as President and CEO of The Jim Henson Company, Wildbrain, and other industry pioneers. The strategic force behind the 2000 sale of The Jim Henson Company for nearly $1 billion, Ambassador Rivkin’s work resulted in his recognition as one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. Ambassador Rivkin’s work at the State Department brings together business leaders to promote economic security and prosperity at home and abroad. Ambassador Rivkin’s comprehensive understanding of what it means to be successful in business and how to get there coupled with his acute sense of international affairs make him uniquely influential and pivotal on economic diplomacy. Returning from recent trips to meet with private sector leaders in Bangladesh, China, and India on innovation, entrepreneurship, and investment, Ambassador Rivkin will discuss all these issues and more at the American Security Project. ASP President Nelson Cunningham will introduce Amb Rivkin. BIOGRAPHIES Charles H. Rivkin Charles RivkinCharles H. Rivkin began serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs on February 13, 2014, and was sworn in publicly by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on April 15, 2014. Prior to his appointment, Rivkin served for more than four years as the United States Ambassador to France and Monaco where he led America’s first and one of its largest diplomatic missions, which has six constituent posts throughout France and represents over 50 U.S. government agencies and sections. Rivkin is the first non-career bilateral ambassador to lead the EB bureau, and he was brought in with a team of business leaders to help fulfill Secretary Kerry’s mandate that economic policy is foreign policy. Prior to his government service, Ambassador Rivkin worked in the media sector for over 20 years where he served as President and CEO of award-winning entertainment companies such as The Jim Henson Company and Wildbrain. Rivkin helped engineer the sale of The Jim Henson Company in 2000 for nearly $1 billion. His contribution to the television landscape has influenced generations of viewers, and Rivkin was named one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. Ambassador Rivkin spent his early childhood in Luxembourg, Senegal, and The Gambia where his father, William R. Rivkin, was the United States Ambassador under Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. In honor of his father, Ambassador Rivkin and his family have proudly presented the U.S. State Department’s annual Rivkin Award, since 1968, encouraging “intellectual courage and constructive dissent” among officers in the U.S. Foreign Service. The award was created in part with the help of Charles Rivkin’s godfather, Hubert H. Humphrey. Ambassador Rivkin received his bachelor’s degree from Yale University in 1984, graduating with distinction in political science and international relations. He received his M.B.A. from Harvard University in 1988. In 2013, Ambassador Rivkin was personally awarded the Légion d’honneur with the rank of Commander by French President François Hollande. Nelson Cunningham Nelson CunninghamNelson Cunningham is President of McLarty Associates, the international strategic advisory firm headed by former White House Chief of Staff and Special Envoy for the Americas Thomas F. “Mack” McLarty III. Mr. Cunningham was also Special Advisor to President Clinton for Western Hemisphere Affairs and previously served as a counsel at the White House and as General Counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee under Senator Joseph Biden. Prior to that, he was a federal prosecutor in New York under then-U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani and also served as a foreign policy and trade advisor to the 2004 Kerry campaign. Mr. Cunningham is a member of the Secretary of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board, the State Department Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy (ACIEP), and past chairman of the Export-Import Bank’s Advisory Committee.