Thelma J. Askey

Ms. Thelma J. Askey has been appointed Deputy Secretary-General. She will be in charge of Global Relations.

Ms. Askey, a U.S. national, is a diplomat and high-level international trade and economics specialist. She is currently the Director of the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), an independent agency that provides foreign assistance grants to developing countries throughout the world. Since her appointment as Director in 2001, she has expanded private sector participation in USTDA’s development and technical assistance projects and established greater reliance on public-private partnerships. Ms. Askey has raised performance standards at the agency, instituting changes with respect to personnel, performance evaluation, programme and administrative accountability, auditing, contracting and financial management.

From 1994 to 1998, Ms. Askey was Staff Director of the Trade Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means, where she was instrumental in developing the strategy for enactment and implementation of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Uruguay Round of the WTO, the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, and other trade agreements. Prior to becoming Staff Director, Ms. Askey worked for a number of years on the Committee as a senior staffer and counsel.

Ms. Askey has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Tennessee Technological University, with further graduate studies in history and international economics at the University of Tennessee and George Washington University.

Ms. Askey has one daughter.