Dr. Kati Suominen

Dr. Kati Suominen is founder & CEO of both Nextrade Group that helps leading governments and Fortune 500s optimized public policies and investment in driving trade and ecommerce worldwide; and of TradeUp Capital Fund, a growth capital platform that helps globalizing tech companies raise debt and equity from institutional investors. Adjunct Professor at UCLA Anderson School of Management; working on 10th book on international trade. She has 20 years in international trade & digitization; public finance in trade & competitiveness, incl. as front-office executive with the Inter-American Development Bank. Suominen is the idea woman behind such leading international initiatives as eTrade for All, launched with the United Nations in July to catalyze ecommerce in developing countries, and RTA Exchange, a global dialogue forum on regional trade agreement championed by the Inter-American and Asian Development Banks. She is also working to build a new non-profit organization “Business for eTrade Development” among global companies with a stake in cross-border ecommerce and digitization.

High-level speaking engagements and keynotes in trade, e.g. at Davos, World Trade Symposium, Global Trade Review conference, WTO. Senior Advisor to CEO of the World SME Forum, A new initiative to bolster SME development worldwide. Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

MBA, Wharton; PhD, UC San Diego.