Harry Broadman

Who Is Harry Broadman?

Harry Broadman’s career path is the epitome of interdisciplinary. While his work has been centered in the private sector—spanning a wide variety of roles—it has also been interspersed with stints in the public sector, academia, journalism and as an author of numerous books, professional articles and business columns.

Currently, he is a Partner and Chair of Emerging Markets at BRG LLC; an independent director on several corporate boards; and a faculty member at Johns Hopkins University. He began his career working on challenges in the natural resources sector in emerging markets at Resources for the Future, Inc., the independent preeminent think tank that gave birth to the fields of “environmental economics,” “ESG,” and “sustainability” decades before they became fashionable.

His private sector focus has evolved across global corporate finance, private equity investment, international banking and enterprise restructuring; founding a global management consulting practice at one of the Big Four on business growth strategy, sustainability and innovation; serving as a non-executive corporate board director; and providing litigation expert witness services for international disputes concerning investment and trade, antitrust, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, national security and corruption.

In the public sector, he has served as a senior White House economic official both at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and as a lead U.S. international trade negotiator for the establishment of the WTO, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), and NAFTA; a foreign investment national security regulator as a member of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS); the lead negotiator of U.S. international science and technology (S&T) agreements; serving on the board of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC); and as senior U.S. Senate committee professional staff member. In addition, he has been on the faculty of Harvard University; a monthly columnist for Forbes, Newsweek, Gulf News and the International Financial Law Review, as well as a frequent columnist for the Financial Times; and engaged worldwide as a keynote speaker focusing on operational approaches for businesses to capture ‘first mover advantage’ while mitigating competitive, corruption and policy risks.

Broadman’s sectoral expertise covers (i) financial services, investment banking, private equity, institutional investment houses, pensions, family offices, and Sovereign Wealth Funds; (ii) emerging and advanced technology industries; (iii) infrastructure businesses, such as telecoms/ICT, logistics, aviation, shipping, ports, rail, trucking, and engineering and construction; and (iv) energy, renewables, and minerals.

He has served as a strategic advisor to companies, banks and investment funds as diverse as IBM, Pepsico, ICANN, PPG, GE, Merck, McCormick, Heineken, Coca-Cola, Walmart, SunEdison, Tyco, Canon, Deere, ITW, Caterpillar, Exxon-Mobil, Mars, Westinghouse, Hilton, Valmet, Avon, Siemens, Dow, Johns Manville, Intel, Standard Chartered, Manitowoc, Corning, McCormick, Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway, Heineken, Aditya Birla, Weatherford, Mahindra, Nike, Pfizer, CEMEX, Jaguar Land Rover, American Airlines, Delta Airlines, United Airlines, British Airways, Gazprom, CEMEX, Dubai Ports World, Trinidad NO&GC, ERG (KZ), Nokia, RSM, OTPP, Emerging Capital Partners, Kuwait Investment Authority, Canadian Pension Investment Board, Australia Future Fund, Carlyle, Temasek, Apollo, Abraaj, ADIA,TPG, Diageo, Blackstone, among others

He has a deep understanding of the workings of the global marketplace and its complex spectrum of business, policy and consumer environments. He knows firsthand how firms’ successes and failures are shaped by the ability to anticipate competitors’, suppliers’, customers’ and policymakers’ movements; adapt to markets’ cyclicality and non-linearities; adopt changes in technology to foster operational agility; and manage capital allocation and balance sheets to engender financial flexibility.

At the same time, he is a venerable practitioner dealing with the senior most government officials of many countries, including some of the toughest markets in the world, as well as engaging effectively—indeed proactively—with a wide variety of other stakeholders to help ensure sustained investment outcomes.

He has been interviewed by/quoted in numerous press outlets, such as The New York Times; The Wall Street Journal; Harvard Business Review; The Financial Times; Science; The Washington Post; The BBC; NPR; Der Spiegel; Politico; The Asahi Shimbun; Kommersant; Bloomberg; Fortune; People’s Daily; Newsweek; Time; Forbes; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; The Guardian; Huffington Post; Euromoney; CNBC; The Times of India; The South China Morning Post; South Africa Broadcast Company; Australia’s SBS Television; National Journal; Hindustan Times; China Daily; Rossiyskaya Gazeta; Christian Science Monitor; The East African; El Arabiya; El Pais; L’Express; Izvestia; Daily Sun; and Radio Rwanda.

Broadman has an A.B., magna cum laude, in economics from Brown University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan. He is a lifetime Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and The Bretton Woods Committee.