Susan C. Schwab served as United States Trade Representative (USTR) 2006 - 2009.  As USTR, Ambassador Schwab was a member of President George W. Bush’s Cabinet and served as his principal advisor, negotiator, and spokesperson on international trade and related issues.  Prior to her appointment, she served as Deputy USTR. 
 
Ambassador Schwab is now a Professor at the School of Public Policy of the University of Maryland, where she served as Dean from 1995 through 2003.  Immediately before joining the Bush Administration, she held the position of President and CEO of the University System of Maryland (USM) Foundation and USM Vice Chancellor for Advancement.  Schwab came to the University from Motorola, Inc., in Schaumburg, Illinois, where she was Director of Corporate Business Development, and where she focused on strategic planning and joint venture negotiations in China and elsewhere in Asia.  During the administration of George H.W. Bush, she was Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Director General of the U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service, responsible for the promotion of U.S. exports through a global network of 200 domestic and international field offices.
 
Schwab spent most of the 1980s as an international trade, agriculture and foreign policy specialist and then legislative director for Senator John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), playing a major role in numerous U.S. trade policy initiatives, including landmark legislation enacted in 1984 and 1988.  Previously, Schwab served as a Trade Policy Officer in the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.  Her first job was as an agricultural trade negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
 
Ambassador Schwab serves on the boards of FedEx, Caterpillar, the U.S. Air Force Academy and the Signature Theater.  She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA).   She holds a B.A. in Political Economy from Williams College, a Masters in Development Policy from Stanford University (Food Research Institute), and a Ph.D. in Public Administration and International Business from The George Washington University.
 
Ambassador Schwab has published articles and a book on U.S. trade policy and legislation (“Trade-Offs: Negotiating the Omnibus Trade Act,” Harvard Business School Press, 1994), as well as articles on U.S.–Japan trade relations, trade politics, and public policy education.  She has been profiled in Fortune Magazine, the New York Times and other publications and has appeared regularly on Bloomberg, CNBC, BBC and C-SPAN.
 
In addition to the time she has spent working overseas, Ambassador Schwab grew up in Africa, Europe and Asia as part of a Foreign Service family.  She currently resides in Annapolis, Maryland.