The U.S.-Korea Economic Partnership: Technology and Innovation for the Future

Join the World Affairs Council and the National Bureau of Asian Research for discussion on the evolving economic partnership between the United States and South Korea, with a focus on enhancing supply chain resilience and fostering innovation across critical sectors. Panelists will offer and assess strategies for strengthening bilateral cooperation in technology, aligning industrial policies, and addressing vulnerabilities in essential supply chains. This event will explore the unique challenges and opportunities in securing critical resources, advancing technological innovation, and coordinating policies to create a more resilient, sustainable economic framework for both countries.

About Our Speakers

Keynote: Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell

Mayor Bruce Harrell was elected the 57th mayor of Seattle in 2021 after serving as an interim mayor in 2017. Mayor Harrell lived in Seattle's redlined Central District, where he graduated from Garfield High School in 1976 as valedictorian. He went on to attend the University of Washington on a football scholarship and earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science.

Mayor Harrell then earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Washington School of Law and spent his early career in the technology and telecommunications sector as an in-house attorney. He later joined a downtown firm representing employees, youth, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations. He frequently served as a mentor and coach for students and young people across South Seattle.

Mayor Harrell was elected to the Seattle City Council in 2007 citywide, and re-elected twice, later serving his home district of South Seattle after City Council positions became districted. He was twice elected City Council President by his peers, one of just a few to ever serve multiple terms in that role. And, in 2017, Bruce served as interim mayor. On the Council, Mayor Harrell was a leader on issues of racial equity, public safety reform, and economic and educational opportunity for all. He sponsored the law to "Ban the Box," led efforts to pass Seattle's first bias-free police law, and was the first to advocate for the use of body cameras by SPD officers. He championed Seattle's Race and Social Justice legislation, requiring all Seattle policies to be reviewed through an equity lens.

In 2021, Mayor Harrell was elected mayor of Seattle on a commitment to address the homelessness crisis with urgency and compassion, to ensure public safety for all communities, and to restore trust, hope, and unity in local government and civic life. He is a member of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and chair of their Standing Committee on Technology and Innovation.

Welcome Remarks: Seo, Eun-ji 

Consul General SEO, Eunji is the 17th Consul General of the Republic of Korea Consulate General in Seattle. Her jurisdiction includes five Northwest Central states in the United States: Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska, where more than 180,000 overseas Koreans are actively engaged in various fields. CG Seo joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in 1995. Since she served as Director-General of the Bureau of Public Diplomacy and Cultural Affairs, MOFA and Director-General of the 2021 SEOUL UN Peacekeeping Ministerial Preparatory Secretariat, which was held in Asia for the first time, she was appointed as Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Seattle in March 2022. Her past assignments abroad include San Francisco, Hanoi, Vietnam, and Geneva, Switzerland. She has extensive careers and experiences in the fields of public diplomacy, development cooperation, and disarmament. Ms. SEO Eunji is married, with two daughters.

Panelists

Sam Cho currently serves as the Director of Strategic Initiatives in Mayor Harrell's Office. Elected to the Port of Seattle Commission in 2019 and currently serving as Commission President, Cho brings a decade of experience in public policy and economic development to Mayor Harrell’s administration. Cho is the son of immigrants from South Korea, who came to the United States through the Port of Seattle.

Cho previously served as the Founder and CEO of Seven Seas Export, an international trading company that exported American poultry products to Asia. Earlier in his career, Cho held positions at the US Department of State as an analyst, in Congress as an aide, and was a political appointee under President Barack Obama.

Cho also serves on the Advisory Council for the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS), and the Asia Society Seattle, and sits on the Board of Directors for the Seattle Symphony, Verity Credit Union, and Greater Seattle Partners. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from American University and a Master’s of Science from The London School of Economics.

Clara Gillispie is an Advisor to the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR). She also serves as the official U.S. delegate to the Energy Research Institute Network, an East Asia Summit-linked network whose inputs are designed to inform the formal East Asia Summit process.

Ms. Gillispie’s subject-matter expertise covers topics ranging from technology policymaking to energy security to technology policymaking to geopolitical trends in the Asia-Pacific. She is the author of numerous policy essays and reports, including “South Korea’s 5G Ambitions” (2020), “U.S.-Australia Energy Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific” (2020), and “How Asia’s Auto Boom Shapes Its Energy Security Strategies” (co-authored with Laura Schwartz, 2019). Ms. Gillispie is regularly called on to directly brief her research and analysis to U.S. and Asian government officials, senior industry representatives, and the media, including the New York Times, Washington Post, and NPR’s Marketplace. Her current research at the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy focuses on the country’s efforts to combat online misinformation about public health.

Previously, Ms. Gillispie served as a Senior Director for Trade, Economic, and Energy Affairs at NBR. She was also a 2021 Visiting International Fellow at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, a 2020 International Visiting Fellow at the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, a 2019-20 Council on Foreign Relations’ International Affairs Fellow at Carnegie India, and a 2017–18 SAFE Energy Security Fellow.

Earlier, Ms. Gillispie worked for the U.S. House Committee on Science, Technology, and Space; Detica Federal Inc. (now a part of BAE Systems); and the American Chamber of Commerce in China. Ms. Gillispie graduated from the London School of Economics and Peking University with a dual MSc in International Affairs. Prior to her graduate studies, she received a BS from Georgetown University and attended Sophia University in Tokyo for language training.

Mark Tokola retired earlier this year after serving ten years as the Vice President of the Korea Economic Institute of America in Washington, DC. He retired as a U.S. Senior Foreign Service Officer with the rank of Minister-Counselor in September 2014. His last posting was as Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at US Embassy London. Previously he had served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the American Embassies in Seoul, Republic of Korea; Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; and, Reykjavik, Iceland. Among his other postings were two tours at the US Mission to the European Union in Brussels, Minister-Counselor for Economic Affairs at Embassy London, and Economic Counselor at US Embassy The Hague. He also served as Director of the Iraq Transition Assistance Office (ITAO) in Baghdad from 2007-2008. Mr Tokola received the State Department’s Superior Honor Award for his work on implementing the Dayton Peace Accords while serving as Political Counselor in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1997-1999. He holds a BA in International Relations from Pomona College in Claremont, California, and an LL.M. in European Community Law from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Mr. Tokola served on the Board of Governors of DACOR: An Organization of Foreign Affairs Professionals, and on the Board of Trustees of the Bacon House Foundation.

About our Moderators

Michael Wills has served as President at NBR since July 2024.

Prior to his current position, he was executive vice president (from 2018 to 2024), vice president of strategy and finance (from 2016 to 2017), vice president of research and operations (from 2008 to 2015), and director of the Strategic Asia and Southeast Asia Studies Programs (from 2000 to 2007).

His research expertise includes geopolitics, international security, and the international relations of Asia. He is co-editor with Ashley J. Tellis and most recently Alison Szalwinksi of eleven Strategic Asia volumes—including Reshaping Economic Interdependence in the Indo-Pacific (2023), Navigating Tumultuous Times in the Indo-Pacific (2021–22), U.S.-China Competition for Global Influence (2020), China’s Expanding Strategic Ambitions (2019), Power, Ideas, and Military Strategy in the Asia-Pacific (2017), Understanding Strategic Cultures in the Asia-Pacific (2016), and Foundations of National Power in the Asia-Pacific (2015)—and with Robert M. Hathaway of New Security Challenges in Asia (2013). He is a contributing editor to three other Strategic Asia books and several other edited volumes on Asian security.

Before joining NBR, Mr. Wills worked at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute and the Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh, and prior to that with Control Risks Group, an international political and security risk management firm, in London.

He holds a BA (Honors) in Chinese Studies from the University of Oxford.

Jacqueline Miller has led the World Affairs Council of Seattle since May 2014. She held senior positions in policy organizations and non-profits on the east coast before moving to the Pacific Northwest. In Seattle, she also serves on the Mayor’s International Affairs Advisory Board; is a member of the Civic Council for UW’s Master of Arts in Applied International Studies (MAAIS) program; and serves on the Washington State Advisory Committee for the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. She is chair of the board of Global Ties U.S and is a member of the Board of Advisors of the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations. She is also a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Prior to joining the World Affairs Council, Jacqueline served as Director of External Relations at Independent Diplomat in New York, working with marginalized democratic political actors to help them navigate the United Nations, the EU, and other international diplomatic fora. Previously, she was a Senior Associate at the EastWest Institute (EWI) in New York, where she created and led the U.S. program. At EWI, she focused on national security policy, the U.S.-Russia and U.S.-China relationships, as well as nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation issues. She was deputy director of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Washington (DC) programs, where she oversaw CFR’s robust DC meetings program as well as outreach on Capitol Hill and the DC diplomatic community. She got her start in think tanks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where she was deputy director of the Russia and Eurasia program. She has also taught at The George Washington University, where she undertook graduate work after earning undergraduate and graduate degrees from Cornell University.

She has been a commentator for various news sources (print, web, and broadcast), including the New York Times, the BBC, CBC, and Voice of America. Her honors include being named a Truman Security Fellow as well as receiving a Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS) for Russia. She was also an International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) Visiting Scholar in Kyrgyzstan.

Amazon is an underwriting sponsor of all World Affairs Council Community Programs.