About ICCRF

The ICC Research Foundation (ICCRF) was established to commission independent research that contributes to public knowledge, education and debate on the benefits of global trade and investment.

Research projects are funded by the ICCRF and conducted by leading international researchers and organisations and contribute to the following aims:

• Demonstrate how employment and growth flow from an expansion of international trade and investment
• Establish that a multilateral approach is particularly beneficial to that end
• Document how protectionism works against the public interest by eroding employment, sustainable growth and the market economy
• Promote a deeper understanding by policymakers, the media and the public at large of the benefits of global trade and investment

Governance

The governance of the Foundation is entrusted to a Board of Trustees, chaired by Victor K. Fung. The research program is approved by the Trustees, in consultation with an International Advisory Council comprised of international policy experts.

Chairman of the Board of Trustees

Victor K. Fung

Victor K. Fung is Chairman of the Li & Fung Group of companies, with major subsidiaries in trading, distribution and retailing, including publicly-listed Li & Fung Limited, Integrated Distribution Services Group Limited, and Convenience Retail Asia. He is also Chairman of the Greater Pearl River Delta Business Council, the Hong Kong University Council, and the Hong Kong-Japan Business Co-operation Committee.

Mr Fung is Honorary Chairman of ICC, after having served as Chairman since 1 July 2008. He holds a number of civic and professional appointments. He is a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the Hong Kong Government Commission on Strategic Development, and head of a focus group for the Economic Summit on China’s 11th Five-Year Plan and the Development of Hong Kong, organized by the Hong Kong government.

Mr Fung has written and spoken widely on international trade matters and is a strong advocate of the multilateral trading system. He has served as Chairman of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, as the Hong Kong representative on the APEC Business Advisory Council, and on the Informal Business Advisory Body to the World Trade Organization. He has also served as Chairman of the Hong Kong Airport Authority.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Mr Fung holds bachelor and master degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a doctorate in business economics from Harvard University. He was a professor at the Harvard Business School for four years before returning to Hong Kong in 1976.

Members of the Board of Trustees

A. Michael Spence

A. Michael Spence is the Chairman of the Commission on Growth and Development, Professor Emeritus of Management in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford and a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford.
Mr Spence received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001 and the John Bates Clark Medal in 1982.

He served as Dean of the Stanford Business School from 1990 to 1999. From 1984 to 1990, he served as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, overseeing Harvard College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the Division of Continuing Education. He is a fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Mr Spence is a fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He serves on the boards of Genpact, Mercadolibre, the Stanford Management Company (which manages investment of the assets of the University), and a number of private companies.

Marcus Wallenberg

Marcus Wallenberg is the Chairman of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB), Saab, and Electrolux AB. He is also the Vice-Chairman of L M Ericsson and serves on the boards of AstraZeneca, Thisbe AB, Stora Enso Oyj, Temasek Holdings, and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.

Mr Wallenberg became Honorary Chairman of ICC in July 2008, after having served as Chairman since March 2006 and as Vice-Chairman since 2004.

From 1999 to 2005, Mr Wallenberg was President and CEO of Investor, after having served as Executive Vice-President of the company for six years. Prior to this he was Director of Stora Feldmühle in Düsseldorf.

Mr Wallenberg earned a BSc of Foreign Service from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and began his career at Citibank in New York. He then spent a decade gaining international banking experience working for Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt and Hamburg; S.G. Warburg in London; Citicorp in Hong Kong; and SEB in Stockholm and London. Mr Wallenberg speaks four languages: Swedish, English, French and German.

The Wallenberg family has helped lead ICC in many important ways over the years. Marcus Wallenberg's grandfather, Marcus, and uncle, Peter, each served as ICC Chairman from 1965 to 1967 and from 1989 to 1990, respectively. Peter Wallenberg continues as the only permanent Honorary Chairman of ICC.

International Advisory Council

Peter Sutherland - Chairman of the International Advisory Council

Peter D. Sutherland is the Chairman of Goldman Sachs International, and the London School of Economics. He is also the UN Special Representative for Migration and Development. He was Chairman of BP plc from1997 to 2009.
Mr Sutherland currently serves on the Board of Directors of Koc Holdings A.S. and BW Group Limited and is a member of the Advisory Board of Eli Lilly.

He holds a number of additional positions including Chairman, Trilateral Commission (Europe); Foundation Board Member, World Economic Forum; President, The Federal Trust; President, European Policy Centre Advisory Council; Vice-Chairman, European Round Table of Industrialists; and Goodwill Ambassador to the UN Industrial Development Organization.

Mr Sutherland previously served as Director General of The World Trade Organization, Attorney General of Ireland, Chairman of Allied Irish Banks and EC Commissioner responsible for Competition Policy.
Mr Sutherland has received 15 honorary doctorates from universities in Europe and America. He was awarded an honorary fellowship of the London Business School and the Oxford University Institute of Economics. He has been decorated by the United Kingdom (Honorary Knighthood), the Holy See (Knighthood), France, Spain, Belgium, New Zealand, Brazil and Morocco.

Of Irish nationality, he was educated at Gonzaga College, University College Dublin and the King’s Inns, graduating with a degree in civil law and a barrister-at-law of the Irish Bar, the English Bar. He is an attorney-at-law admitted to practice at the New York Bar and before the Supreme Court of the United States.

Members of the International Advisory Council

Carolyn Deere-Birkbeck

Carolyn Deere-Birkbeck is a Senior Researcher at the Global Economic Governance Programme (GEG) at the University of Oxford, where she directs GEG's Global Trade Governance Project. She is also a Resident Scholar at the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) in Geneva, Switzerland. Ms Deere is the founder and Chair of the Board of Directors of Intellectual Property Watch - the leading news service on international intellectual property policymaking - and Chair of the Advisory Board of 3D -> Trade - Human Rights - Equitable Economy.

She previously served as Assistant Director of the Global Inclusion Programme at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York, and has also worked for the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the Overseas Development Council (ODC) in Washington, D.C. Ms Deere has published widely on issues related to intellectual property, trade, sustainable development and global governance, most recently as author of The Implementation Game: The TRIPS Agreement and the Global Politics of Intellectual Property Reform in Developing Countries (Oxford University Press, 2008) and as co-author of Strengthening Multilateralism: A Mapping of Proposals on WTO Reform and Global Trade Governance.

She holds a DPhil (University College, Oxford) and MA in International Relations (Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies). She holds Australian and British citizenship.

John H. Jackson

John H. Jackson is a Professor at Georgetown University, Washington D.C. and Director of its Institute of International Economic Law. He is recognized as a leading expert in international economic law. He has served as General Counsel for the Office of the President's Special Representative for Trade in the U.S. Executive Office of the President in Washington, D.C. (1973-1974). He has also advised the US and various foreign governments, and international organizations.

He served as chairperson of a WTO panel for a trade dispute settlement procedure and in 2005 was a member of an eminent panel of experts charged by the WTO to advise on reforms to the organization.

Mario Monti

Mario Monti is President of the Bocconi University of Milan. He was a member of the European Commission for a decade - from 1995 to 1999 in charge of the Internal Market, Financial Services and Taxation and, from 1999 to 2005, in charge of Competition Policy. Mr Monti holds a degree in economics and management from Bocconi University. He completed graduate studies at Yale University. He is the author of numerous publications on monetary and financial economics, fiscal policy, European integration and competition.

ICC Research Foundation Secretariat

Martin Wassell - General Director

Martin Wassell was First Director of the International Chamber of Commerce from 1997 to 2010. He previously served 12 years as Economic Director.

Before joining ICC in 1985, Mr Wassell held London-based posts as: Coordinator of Policy to the President of the Confederation of British Industry; Editorial Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs, an independent economic research trust; and General Director of the Centre for Policy Studies, an economic and social research institute founded by Lady Margaret Thatcher.

Mr Wassell, a British national, holds degrees in Economics, International Relations, and Law from University College London. He has written and lectured widely on economic matters.

Jean-Guy Carrier - Director of Programmes

Jean-Guy Carrier became Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce in January 2011. He has initiated and led research-based publishing and public information programmes for various international and national organizations, most recently for the World Trade Organization (WTO), from 1996 to 2008. As publisher and chief editor he developed the WTO’s extensive publishing and Internet-based public information programmes, focused on research and information about the multilateral trading system. He initiated the WTO Reference Centre programme, a network of computerized WTO information and research centres established in the trade ministries of over 100 developing countries.

Mr Carrier is the author of six books and has held senior positions with the International Institute for Systems Analysis in Vienna, Austria, the Economic Council of Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and with global communications consulting firms. He has contributed numerous articles for print and electronic media. Mr Carrier is a Canadian citizen and has lived and worked in many regions of the world in the course of his international career.