Speakers

Maria Luisa Boyce serves as Vice President for International Policy for UPS Global Public Affairs, bringing over 20 years of experience and leadership in international trade, customs issues, and cross-border trade. In her current role, she advocates for UPS’s priorities on Capitol Hill, supports the company’s government affairs efforts in Latin America, is part of the UPS core team leading the UPS Women Exporter Program, and serves as a liaison for UPS to National Hispanic Organizations.

Michael Murungi is Google's Lead for Government Affairs and Public Policy in Eastern Africa.

He is a manager with expertise in public policy, government relations, ICT law and law reporting. In his current role, he contributes to better policy and law making for the ICT sector and helps shape Google's programs and policies to contribute to East Africa's growth and digital transformation.

Michael Poor manages Nextrade's development programs to enable trade through technology especially in Africa. He designs interventions and approaches with private sector partners, and leads project execution. With a background in working with leading financial services firms including AIG and its corporate clients, he also brings expertise in digital payments and digital finance solutions and policies.

Paul Fekete is the Senior International Trade Advisor at USAID. He primarily focuses on the development of trade-related technical assistance programs to support USAID Missions in building public and private sector trade capacity and promote developing countries’ participation in the international trade system. Prior to joining USAID in 2010, he worked for over 25 years as a consultant providing trade advisory services, technical assistance, training, and institutional strengthening and capacity building for various entities such as USAID, WTO, WCO, and the World Bank. 

Pierre Claude is an experienced intrapreneur and business architect with a 20-year track record in large companies and start-ups. He has 10 years of experience at the C-level, leading and promoting the transformation of organizations to succeed and grow in the digital environment.

Currently, Pierre is the Chief Executive Officer of the Asociación Mexicana de Venta Online (AMVO), a leading ecommerce trade association in Mexico, where he is responsible to lead the development of e-commerce by sharing the best practices for the member companies in Mexico and the world.

Pren-Tsilya Boa-Guehe is Google’s Head for Pan-African Institutions, Government Affairs & Public Policy, where she oversees policy engagement with the African Union Commission, UN Economic Commission for Africa, African Development Bank, among other regional organizations. For nearly two decades, Pren-Tsilya Boa-Guehe has helped to advance humanitarian, economic, health, environmental, and tech policies in Africa. This included through diplomatic roles as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of International Organizations, Bureau of African Affairs, and overseas assignments in Mali, Morocco, and Ethiopia. While serving as Economic Officer at the U.S. Mission to the African Union, Pren-Tsilya spearheaded U.S. commercial advocacy efforts on the African Continental Free Trade Area. Before joining the State Department, she led a non-profit organization that provided humanitarian assistance in Cote d’Ivoire.

Roger works across the entire Americas region to support the efficient movement of goods both domestically and across borders. He has served on several Federal advisory committees before the U.S. Department of Commerce, CBP, and TSA. He is a team oriented, global government relations executive with 26+ years of experience in legislative and regulatory affairs from both the public and private sectors. Recognized public policy expertise with broad network and a proven record of success across aviation, surface transportation, supply chain security, sustainability, and technology sectors.

Shannon Gaffney designs and manages Nextrade's development programs to accelerate SMEs' digital transformation through trade. Her experience ranges from advising Congress and the U.S. Trade Representative on matters of international trade and competitiveness to serving as Chief of Party for two USAID-funded projects focused on digital trade, ecommerce, trade facilitation, and trade logistics for the digital economy.

Steven is Group Head of Trade Facilitation, (GoTrade) at Deutsche Post DHL and has been with the Group for 10 years, originally joining in 2011 at DHL Express as Vice President, Customs & Regulatory Affairs for Europe and Head of Trade Compliance for Europe, the Middle East & Africa.

Before joining Deutsche Post DHL, Steven spent 26 years in the Public Sector, working for HM Customs, HM Treasury, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the IMF. He has worked in both the enforcement and policy areas on topics such as Customs, VAT and International Trade.

Experienced Project Management and Coordination expert in development managing cross-country projects in East Africa. Demonstrated experience in effective and efficient project delivery in youth employment, skill development and agriculture development related project interventions.

Victoria focuses on the legal consulting of complex legal matters related to new technologies. She provides sophisticated, high quality advice to domestic and international companies regarding the regulatory and legal aspects of their innovative businesses, including e-commerce, financial technologies y last-mile logistics.