Curtis S. Chin

Curtis S. Chin is a senior executive and public affairs/public diplomacy and policy specialist with extensive experience overseeing operations as well as advising corporations, multi-lateral bodies and other organizations on a wide range of issues. With a particular focus on Asia-Pacific trade/economic issues, consumer perceptions and the challenges facing international businesses in an increasingly global media and financial environment, Mr. Chin draws on a mix of public and private sector experiences. He has worked in the Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Washington, D.C., and New York offices of Burson-Marsteller – a leading international communications firm – as well as in the Administration of President George H.W. Bush, where he served as a special assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. During the Administration of President George W. Bush, Mr. Chin was named by U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to the department’s Advisory Committee on Cultural Diplomacy.

From 1995-2001, Mr. Chin was based in East Asia with Burson-Marsteller, assisting aviation, technology and consumer product companies, as well as non-governmental organizations, in countries ranging from India and Bangladesh to Japan, and from China and Korea to Indonesia. He also served as the firm's Market Leader in Beijing and Hong Kong, overseeing day-to-day operations of two of the firm’s largest offices in Asia. In late-2001, Mr. Chin transferred back to the firm's New York's headquarters as a managing director in the firm's U.S. public affairs practice and now leads a dedicated team focused on advising clients on corporate social responsibility. Mr. Chin also serves as the corporation's first U.S.-based ambassador and liaison to select U.S. clients and team members throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Prior to his last posting to Asia, Mr. Chin served in Burson-Marsteller's worldwide headquarters in New York as vice president. There, Mr. Chin worked as a special assistant to Harold Burson, founding chairman of Burson-Marsteller. Earlier, in Tokyo, Mr. Chin had provided communications support to U.S. companies in Japan while at the firm's Japanese joint venture, and in Washington, he had focused on issue management assignments.

At the U.S. Department of Commerce during the latter half of the Administration of President George H.W. Bush, Mr. Chin provided support to Secretary Barbara Hackman Franklin on a range of issues confronting businesses, small and large, including the impact of trade restrictions and limited access to credit. He also assisted the Secretary with communications surrounding the monthly release of U.S. trade data and the revitalization of the Joint U.S.-China Commission on Commerce & Trade. During the Administration of President Ronald Reagan, Mr. Chin served as a domestic policy intern to Vice President Bush. He also has interned with the White House Office of Management & Budget; U.S. State Department, Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs, Office of Public Diplomacy; and the U.S. House of Representatives, Select Committee on Aging. He has served as a GOP member of an American Council of Young Political Leaders delegation to Poland and Hungary in 1991; was named a fellow of the Japan Society in 1989; and served as a teaching newspaper reporter with the Huntington Herald-Dispatch in West Virginia in 1985.

Mr. Chin is a graduate of the Yale School of Management and the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, and the author of a best-selling book in Japan on U.S. management schools. As the son of a career U.S. military officer assigned to posts around the world, Mr. Chin spent his youth in Arizona, Maryland and Virginia, as well as in Taiwan, Thailand and Korea.