Board of Directors
James Elles is a former British Conservative Member of the European Parliament for the South East region of the UK from 1984 to 2014. Since stepping down, he has remained active in a number of fields. Apart from continuing to chair the Transatlantic Policy Network (TPN), which he founded in 1992, he is a Member of the Steering Committee of the European Internet Forum (EIF), which he co-founded in 2000. He is also the Honorary President of the European Strategy and Policy Analysis (ESPAS), which he started in 2010, examining long trends to focus on priority challenges facing the EU in the years ahead.
Everett Eissenstat is a partner in the Public Policy Practice Group. Everett is one of the nation’s foremost global trade experts having served in senior positions in Congress, the Office of the US Trade Representative, the White
House and a Fortune 50 company. He helps clients manage and mitigate
geopolitical risk, influence international economic policymaking, and
develop and execute successful international trade and investment
strategies.
During a distinguished government career spanning over two decades, Everett served as deputy assistant to the president for international economic affairs and deputy director of the National Economic Council. Reporting to the president, the national security advisor, and the director of the National Economic Council, he coordinated interagency policy development and implementation on international economic policy matters. He served as the
president’s personal representative and principal negotiator to the G7, G20, and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economic summits and led interagency preparations for all international summits.
Previously, Everett held key roles in the US House, Senate, and the Office of the US Trade Representative. As the chief international trade counsel to the chairman of the US Senate Finance Committee (2011-2017 (under Sen.
Orrin Hatch) and 2001-2006 (under Sen. Chuck Grassley)), Everett built and led professional international trade policy teams for two chairmen. He advised the chairmen on all international trade matters before the committee and coordinated the international trade work of the Finance Committee Republicans. His legislative responsibilities included Trade Promotion Authority, US Customs authorization, implementation of free trade
agreements, preferential trade arrangements, and sanctions policy. He was also responsible for the oversight of US government international trade agencies and international trade negotiations.
During his tenure as chief international trade counsel, Everett negotiated and helped gain congressional approval of the Trade Act of 2002 and the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015. He also gained approval of legislation implementing bilateral trade agreements with Australia, Chile, Colombia, Jordan, Morocco, Korea, Panama, and Singapore, as well as the Dominican Republic-Central America-US-Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA).
As assistant US trade representative for the Americas (2006-2011), Everett led negotiations of comprehensive bilateral free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and Peru, as well as the entry into force of DR-CAFTA, a plurilateral trade agreement with Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras. and Nicaragua. In addition, he led negotiation of the US-Brazil Framework Agreement, the US-Canada Government Procurement Agreement. and the US-Uruguay Trade and Investment Framework Agreement.
Everett also served as legislative director for Rep. Jim Kolbe, where he advised the congressman on international trade matters, appropriations, and foreign affairs. He also served as special assistant in the Office of the Western
Hemisphere at the Office of the USTR. Everett also served as a member of the 2000 Presidential Transition Team for the Office of the US Trade Representative, the US Department of Commerce Office of Import Administration, and the International Trade Commission.
Everett most recently served as chair of North America and global trade lead at a boutique global public relations consultancy firm. He was senior vice president at a multinational automotive manufacturer (2018-2021), reporting to the CEO and managing over 100 public policy professionals worldwide. He helped navigate a range of challenges, including labor relations, supply chain disruptions, and the regulatory and compliance implications of transitioning from internal combustible engines to electric vehicles.
Since 1979, Thierry de l’Escaille has been running a family farming enterprise active in Belgium and the Netherlands, in particular in vegetables, sugar beet, potatoes, cereals, and flowers. In 1985, he founded Agriland. Since 1994, he has been Secretary General of the European Landowners’ Organization (ELO), and Chairman of various funds, and a member of different committees. He is currently a Member of the Board of several agro-industrial companies in Europe and America and is involved in Africa. He is a founder of the Forum for the Future of Agriculture and the Wildlife Estate Label and is deeply committed to private conservation, such as reasonable agriculture. He is a member of the Board of Directors of a major protected area in Latin America. He has also been an active participant in a number of working groups regarding CAP reform, Natura 2000, forestry, food safety, and soil use, among others.
Vivien Haig is a Board Member of the Transatlantic Policy Network (TPN). Vivien is also honored to be a Non-Resident Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council.
Vivien has been with TPN since its founding in 1992. She previously served as Director-General and was the organization’s primary liaison between political, business, and academic participants, as well as the European Commission and several U.S. administrations. She was responsible for running TPN’s secretariat and for all administrative, budgetary, and programming functions as well as coordination between TPN and all its external players. Vivien’s expertise is based on trust and mutual understanding, as well as humor and humility.
Awarded the European American Business Council Transatlantic Business Leader of the Year 2008, Vivien has also been recognized in the 114th Congressional Record of the United States House of Representatives – an enormous privilege, especially for a European.
Edit Herczog is the Founder and Managing Director of the company Vision & Values, situated in Brussels. She is a Senior EU Liaison Adviser for GÉANT. She is Chair of the Administrative Board of the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) and is a Member of the Board at the Transatlantic Policy Network (TPN). She is a visiting lecturer of International Management at HEC Liege.
She has been a member of the Research Data Alliance Global Foundation Council since April 2017, where she Chairs the Financial Subcommittee. She is co-chair of the RDA FAIR Data Maturity Model Working Group.
Prior to establishing her company, she served two consecutive terms in the European Parliament as MEP (2004-2014). She was a member of the ITRE, IMCO, BUDG, and CONT committees, a number of delegations, and held roles in a number of parliamentary forums such as the European Energy Forum, the European Internet Foundation, the Kangaroo Group, Knowledge 4 Innovation and the Forum for the Future of Nuclear Energy. Prior to her election to the European Parliament, she was a member of the Hungarian Parliament, in which role she was a delegate to the Council of Europe. Before her political engagement, she worked for the private sector as regional sales and technical manager for specialty chemicals company National Starch & Chemical (belonging to Unilever and later to ICI).
She has an MSc in food conservation engineering. She was a research fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and a professor’s assistant at the University of Horticulture. Edit holds a Certificate of Company Direction for strategic marketing, financial management, and company law from the Institute of Directors.
Peter Linton’s career as an advisor on European affairs spans some 50 years, all based in Brussels. During an initial 10 years with Business International, responsible for western Europe, Linton became one of the pioneers of the European Affairs industry, founding Robinson Linton Associates, which later merged with Burson-Marsteller. He is a co-founder of both the Transatlantic Policy Network and the European Internet Forum (EIF), and principal author of a number of seminal reports for both organisations.
Linton is a dual national, born and raised in the United States and now also a citizen of Belgium. He holds a BA from Dartmouth College, an MA from Stanford University, and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Bruce Stokes is a visiting senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Previously he was the executive director of GMF’s Transatlantic Task Force: Together or Alone? Choices and Strategies for Transatlantic Relations for 2021 and Beyond. From 2012-2019 he was the director of Global Economic Attitudes at the Pew Research Center in Washington, DC, and is a former international economics reporter for the National Journal, a Washington-based public policy magazine. He is also a former senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
From 2010-2012, Stokes was a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund. He was the author of the 2009 Transatlantic Trends survey and two task force reports: The Case for Renewing Transatlantic Capitalism and A New Era for Transatlantic Trade Leadership.
In 1987 and again in 1989, Stokes was a Japan Society Fellow, living in and reporting from Japan. In 1997, he was a member of President Clinton’s Commission on United States-Pacific Trade and Investment Policy, and he wrote its final report, “Building American Prosperity in the 21st Century.”
He is co-author of the book America Against the World: How We Are Different and Why We Are Disliked (Times Books, 2006) and co-author of numerous Pew Global Attitudes Surveys.
In 2006, Stokes was honored by the Coalition of Service Industries for his reporting on services issues. In 2004, he was chosen by International Economy magazine as one of the most influential China watchers in the U.S. press. In 1995, he was picked by Washingtonian Magazine as one of the “Best on Business” reporters in Washington. In 1989, Stokes won the coveted John Hancock award for excellence in business and economics reporting for his series on the impact of the rising yen on the Japanese economy.
Stokes is a graduate of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, the School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and attended the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.