Helping Business to Navigate a Complex World 

Anja Manuel
Executive Director, Aspen Security Forum, Co-Founder, Rice, Hadley, Gates, & Manuel LLC

Former diplomat, author, and advisor on foreign policy, Anja Manuel is co-founder and partner along with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, in Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC, a strategic consulting firm that helps U.S. companies navigate international markets. Manuel is the author of the critically acclaimed “This Brave New World: India, China and the United States,” published by Simon and Schuster in 2016, and numerous articles and papers. She is the director of the Aspen Strategy Group and Aspen Security Forum—a premier bi-partisan forum on foreign policy in the United States. From 2005 to 2007, she served as an official at the U.S. Department of State, as Special Assistant to the Undersecretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, responsible for Asia policy. Earlier in her career, Manuel was an attorney at WilmerHale working on Supreme Court and international cases, and represented clients before the U.S. Congress, Supreme Court, Department of Justice, Department of Defense and the SEC. She began her career as an investment banker at Salomon Brothers in London. 

A cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and Stanford University, Manuel also lectured and was a research affiliate at Stanford University from 2009 to 2019, teaching courses on U.S. foreign policy in Asia and technology policy. Manuel is a frequent speaker on foreign policy and technology policy, is a commentator for TV and radio (NBC/MSNBC, Bloomberg News, Fox Business, BBC, NPR, etc.) and writes for publications ranging from the Washington Post, New York Times, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic, Fortune and Newsweek, among others.

Manuel currently serves on two corporate boards: Ripple Labs Inc., a leading blockchain payments company, and Overseas Shipping Group, Inc., a NYSE-listed transportation company. Manuel also has served on the advisory boards of Care.com, Center for a New American Security, Flexport Inc., Synapse Inc., and the boards of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, American Ditchley Foundation and formerly Governor Jerry Brown’s California Export Council and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Manuel also serves as a member of the Defense Policy Board for the U.S. Department of Defense. 

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