Innovation Summit - Meridian International Center

Speaker Biographies
Eric G. Postel is the Assistant Administrator for the Bureau of Economic
Growth, Agriculture, and Trade and Bureau of Economic Growth, Education,
and Environment, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Mr. Postel also serves as USAID’s coordinator for the government-wide
Partnership for Growth program. Mr. Postel is working to implement
President Obama’s call to “elevate broad-based economic growth as a top
priority” of U.S. overseas development efforts. Mr. Postel is the founder of
Pangaea Partners, an investment banking and consulting firm focused on
emerging markets. Throughout 2006-2007, Mr. Postel served as a Senateappointed
Commissioner of the U.S. Helping to Enhance the Livelihood of
People around the Globe (HELP) Commission. Previously, Mr. Postel worked as a Vice President at
Citibank Tokyo. Mr. Postel also has five years of experience working in biotechnology and providing
capital to clean energy start-ups and energy efficient projects in Wisconsin.
Steve Radelet is the Chief Economist for the U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID). During 2010, he was Senior Advisor for Development
for the Secretary of State, and previously 2002-2010 he was a Senior Fellow
at the Center for Global Development, where his work focused on economic
growth, poverty reduction, foreign aid, debt, and trade. He served as an
economic advisor to the President of Liberia from 2005-2009, and was
founding co-chair of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network. From
2000-2002 he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Africa,
the Middle East, and Asia. From 1990-2000, he was a Fellow at the Harvard
Institute for International Development (HIID), Director of the Institute’s
macroeconomics program, and a lecturer on economics and public policy at Harvard University.
He served as resident advisor to the Ministry of Finance in Indonesia (1991-95) and The Gambia
(1986-88), and was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Western Samoa. Among many other publications,
he is the author of Emerging Africa: How 17 Countries are Leading the Way (2010) and Challenging
Foreign Aid: A Policymaker’s Guide to the Millennium Challenge Account (2003), and co-author of
Economics of Development (6th edition, 2006), a leading undergraduate textbook.
Andrew Roos is the Account Executive for Elections and Issue Advocacy
team at Google, where he works with campaigns and political organizations
around the country to maximize the impact of their advertising dollars. Prior
to joining Google, Roos accumulated over a decade of experience working
on political campaigns around the country ranging from local candidates to
a presidential race. With a strong background in grassroots organizing he
has been the campaign manager on six campaigns, ranging from very small
to multi-million dollar budgets. He has worked on six gubernatorial races,
managing four of them, and been involved in a number of tough primary
battles. Notably, he was the Campaign Manager for former Democratic
Governors Association Chair Jack Markell’s upset win in Delaware in 2008.
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