Obie Whichard

Obie Whichard is Chief of the International Investment Division of the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), U.S. Department of Commerce.  Over many years, he has been involved in BEA's program to improve and expand its data collection and analytical capacities in the areas of foreign direct investment and international trade in services.  He has authored or co-authored numerous papers and articles on these topics, covering such subjects as long-term trends in U.S. direct investment abroad, ownership-based supplements to balance of payments accounts, measurement issues for trade in services, and data needs for services trade negotiations.  He has been consulted by the Task Force on Statistics of International Trade in Services in connection with the Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services, with particular regard to the guidelines for statistics on services delivered to international markets through foreign affiliates.  He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of North Carolina and prior to joining BEA was on the economics faculty of the University of Georgia.