Since 2009, Ms. Manuel has served as a founding partner and principal at RiceHadleyGates, LLC, with Condoleezza Rice, Stephen Hadley, and Robert Gates. The firm works with senior executives of major companies to evaluate strategic and political risk and expand in emerging markets.
She is also the author of the critically acclaimed This Brave New World: India, China and the United States, published by Simon and Schuster in 2016.
From 2005-2007, she served as an official at the U.S. Department of State, responsible for South Asia Policy. Earlier in her career, Ms. Manuel was an attorney working on international and Supreme Court cases, and an investment banker at Salomon Brothers in London.
A graduate of Harvard Law School and Stanford University, Manuel now also lectures at Stanford University.
She is a frequent commentator on foreign policy, and technology, for tv and radio (Charlie Rose, BBC, Fox Business, MSNBC, NPR, etc.) and writes for publications ranging from the New York Times, to Fortune, The Atlantic, and Reuters, among others.
She serves on several corporate and non-profit boards, including the boards of Overseas Shipping Group, Inc. (NYSE listed), Ripple Labs Inc., a leading blockchain payments company, and advisory boards of Flexport Inc., Synapse Inc., Center for a New American Security, the American Ditchley Foundation, and Governor Brown’s California Export Council. She is also a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Aspen Strategy Group for South Asia, and lives in San Francisco with her husband and two small children.
In this charged political environment, Anja Manuel is able to cut through the rhetoric to offer an informed analysis of how President Trump’s policies might affect the United States’ relationships with foreign allies and enemies alike. Drawing on years of experience working at the State Department and as an international business consultant with the esteemed firm of RiceHadleyGates, Manuel breaks down the sometimes inflammatory foreign policy and trade pronouncements into thoughtful and understandable realities. From the likely direction of U.S. trade policy, to relations China and India, to what the instability of the Middle East and Russia’s assertive policies might mean for the U.S. businesses in the near term, Manuel can draw on expertise in every region of the world to provide answers to today’s issues. Anja’s rational and measured approach to the issues has established her as an informed resource for audiences around the world.
In the next decade and a half, Asia will surpass the combined strength of North America and Europe in economic might, population size and military spending.
From her front-row view of this colossal shift, first at the State Department and now as an advisor to American CEOs, Anja Manuel escorts the audience on an intimate tour of the corridors of power of Asia’s predominant powers—China and India—to reveal what makes each country “tick” and what Americans doing business there should know. Through vibrant stories that have been described as “both heartbreaking and funny,” she reveals how each country is working to surmount enormous challenges—from the crushing poverty of Indian slum dwellers and Chinese factory workers, to outrageous corruption scandals, rotting rivers and unbreathable air, to managing their citizens’ discontent, and how some of these challenges create opportunities for joint work with American companies.
Based on her book This Brave New World, Manuel shows us an optimistic path—American politicians, businesses and ordinary citizens can bring China and India along as partners rather than alienating one or both, and thus extend our own leadership in the world.
Every day, American businesses must decide where in the world to sell, invest or source parts of their supply chain. How do you determine which emerging markets to enter first? And how do you do it both effectively and ethically? Based on her extensive experience in government and now leading businesses through these difficult decisions, Anja Manuel shares her insight and illuminating stories about how to engage local governments and business partners from Bogota to Bangalore.
As an investment banker, lawyer, government official and now business owner in Silicon Valley, Anja Manuel has experienced firsthand both the challenges and inspiring change afoot globally for women. Drawing on global examples as well as her own decisions and sometimes funny mistakes, she shares her perspectives on women in the seat of power, and adds common-sense solutions to empower women around the world to reach their full potential.
