Sustainable Trade Index 2020 launch event

Mia Mikic is Director, Trade, Investment and innovation Division in United Nations ESCAP. She also coordinates the Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade (ARTNeT), an open network of research and academic institutions and think-tanks in the Asia-Pacific region and covering all key means of implementation of the Sustainable development Goals.

Previously, she was Professor of International Economics at the University of Zagreb, and Senior Lecturer at the University of Auckland. She is the author of a number of reports, papers and has edited or co-edited several volumes, most recently with Bruno Jetin, ASEAN Economic Community – A model for Asia-wide regional integration? (2016). She oversees preparation of Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report, a flagship publication in area of trade and investment. Her current work focuses on the impacts of trade liberalization, services trade liberalization, non-tariff protection, frontier technologies use for inclusive future of work, and evidence-based policymaking in trade, investment and innovation. She has a Doctorate in Economics from the University of Zagreb.

Chris Clague is managing editor for The Economist Intelligence Unit's thought leadership division in Asia.

He is an expert in international trade and trade policy and has also advised clients throughout the Asian region on the strategic implications of megatrends and political risk. He was a consultant in The EIU’s Tokyo office and was the project leader and editor for the EIU/Nikkei BP publication The World to 2050 (available in Japanese only). Prior to joining The EIU, he was a senior consultant and Director of China Operations for a boutique consulting firm that worked with governments and MNCs on issues related to international trade, investment, and commodities.

Chris holds an MSc in Asian Politics from the London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and a certificate in International Trade Law and Economics from the World Trade Institute’s summer academy. He provides regular commentary on trade and the Japanese economy to international media.

Susan Stone heads the Emerging Policy Issues Division at the Trade and Agriculture Directorate of the OECD. Having joined the OECD as a Senior Trade Economist in 2009, she worked on a number of projects relating to trade, employment and non-tariff measures, in addition to leading the team that developed the OECD METRO model. In 2015, Ms Stone was seconded to UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) as Director, Trade, Investment and Innovation Division where she oversaw the implementation of the Commission’s work programme in the areas of trade, trade facilitation, regional trade agreements, foreign direct investment, SME development, technology and technology transfer, and innovation.

Ms Stone has worked extensively in the area of trade and environment policy and their interaction in the context of employment, global value chains, poverty reduction, investment, regulation and the digital economy. Her work has been published as national and multinational government reports, edited volumes, as well as in peer-reviewed journals.

Prior to joining the OECD, Ms Stone was a Senior Research Fellow at the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo, a Research Manager at the Australian Productivity Commission in Melbourne and a Senior Analyst at the US Environmental Protection Agency in Washington DC. She also has experience working as a Financial Valuation Analyst in the private sector.

A dual United-States Australian national, Ms Stone holds a PhD in International Economics and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration and Finance, both from Drexel University.

Sara Elder is the Senior Economist and Head of the Regional Economic and Social Analysis (RESA) Unit in ILO's Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok. RESA oversees multi-country, multi-disciplinary and inter-sectoral research and policy analysis related to key issues and themes of relevance to the Decent Work Agenda and its implementation in Asia and the Pacific. Sara spent five years as Chief Technical Advisor on the ILO Work4Youth Project and more than ten years working in the area of labor market information and analysis in the Employment Trends Unit. She has written extensively on issues of labor market transitions of young people, labor market and employment trends.

Dr. Menon joined the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute in 2020 to continue his work on trade and development in the Asian region, following his early retirement from the ADB. His last post at the ADB was Lead Economist in the Office of the Chief Economist.

He began work life as an academic in Australia, spending almost a decade at the Centre of Policy Studies at Monash University, one of the leading centres for computable general equilibrium modelling. He has worked at several other academic institutions including the University of Melbourne, Victoria University, the American University in Washington, DC and the ADB Institute in Tokyo. He has served as a Board Director of CDRI, Cambodia, and on the Advisory Board of the University of Nottingham, Malaysia. He holds adjunct appointments with the Australian National University, University of Nottingham, UK and IDEAS, Malaysia. He has authored/edited 15 books, 40 chapters in books and 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals.

From 2014 to January 2024, Mr. Olson was a Senior Research Fellow of the Hinrich Foundation.

Mr. Olson began his career in Washington DC as an international trade negotiator and served on the US negotiating team for the NAFTA negotiations.

He subsequently became president of the Hong Kong-based Pacific Basin Economic Council, and vice-chairman of Cairo-based ARTOC Group for investment and development. He is also a visiting scholar at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He has a master’s degree in international relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a B.A. from the State University of New York.