Speaker Biographies

John E. Calfee is a resident scholar at AEI. From 1980 to 1986, he served in the Bureau of Economics at the Federal Trade Commission. Mr. Calfee has taught marketing and consumer behavior in the business schools of the University of Maryland–College Park and Boston University, and was a visiting senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Mr. Calfee's research has focused on FDA regulation, health care, advertising and information, tort liability, and other related areas. He is the author of Prices, Markets, and the Pharmaceutical Revolution (AEI Press, 2000) and Fear of Persuasion: A New Perspective on Advertising and Regulation (AEI Press, 1997).

Tarun Das has spent his entire working career in industry associations, starting with the predecessor body of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in November 1963. He was the chief executive of CII from April 1974 until June 2004, when CII was formed through a merger of two associations. He is currently the chief mentor of CII. He was awarded an honorary degree of Doctorate in Science by the University of Warwick (UK) and has been conferred an honorary CBE by Her Majesty the Queen for his contribution to Indo-British relations. He is also the recipient of the Blackwill Award by the US India Business Council for his contribution to Indo-U.S. economic cooperation. Mr. Das has been conferred with the 2004 Singapore National Award, a public service medal, by the Singapore government for his contribution to strengthening economic ties between India and Singapore. He is the non-executive chairman of the Associated Cement Companies Ltd. and Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd., and non-executive director on the boards of John Keells Holdings Ltd., the GIVE Foundation, New Delhi Television Ltd., NDTV Media Ltd., and Bajaj Auto Ltd. He is also a member of the board of trustees of the Aspen Institute and the East West Center, and is a member of the international advisory board of the Coca Cola Company Ltd. and the Asian Strategic Leadership Institute. He is the co-chairman of the management board of the Non-Aligned Movement Business Council. Mr. Das is the managing trustee of Indian Business Trust for HIV/AIDS and of the India Development Foundation.

Victoria A. Espinel serves as the acting assistant United States trade representative for intellectual property at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). In this capacity, she is responsible for coordinating United States trade policy on intellectual property matters. Among her responsibilities, Ms. Espinel is the principal U.S. trade negotiator on intellectual property, including the World Trade Organization Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (WTO TRIPS) Council and the U.S. free trade agreements, and oversees bilateral discussions with numerous trading partners on a wide variety of intellectual property issues. Ms. Espinel has been extensively involved in the WTO TRIPS Council negotiations on patents and public health, on new rules for geographical indications, and on protection for genetic resources and traditional knowledge. In addition, Ms. Espinel=s office chairs the interagency committee that conducts the annual “Special 301" review of international protection of intellectual property rights. Prior to assuming her current position, Ms Espinel served as an associate general counsel at USTR. In this capacity, she was the lead USTR attorney for matters concerning intellectual property, including the WTO TRIPS Council negotiations, WTO disputes concerning intellectual property matters, and several bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements, including the free trade agreements that the United States has concluded with Singapore, Australia, Morocco, and Bahrain. Before joining USTR, Ms. Espinel was with the law firms of Covington & Burling in London and Washington, D.C. and Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood in New York. Ms. Espinel is the author of several published articles on international copyright issues.

James K. Glassman is a resident fellow at AEI, where he specializes in issues involving economics and financial markets. In addition, he is host and cofounder of TechCentralStation.com, a website that concentrates on matters of technology and public policy. In September 2004, Mr. Glassman launched a new organization, Investors Action, for which he serves as chairman. Investors Action aims to educate America’s 90 million investors and represent their interests in the public-policy arena. Mr. Glassman also writes a weekly op-ed column on economic and political topics for the Scripps Howard News Service and a monthly column on investing for Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. His most recent book, The Secret Code of the Superior Investor (Crown, 2002) was named one of the top ten investing books of 2002 by Barron’s. Between July 1993 and July 2004, Mr. Glassman wrote an internationally syndicated weekly column on investing for the Washington Post. From 1987 to 1993, he was editor and part-owner of Roll Call, the twice-weekly newspaper that covers Congress. Prior to that, he had a long career in magazine publishing—as president of the Atlantic Monthly, executive vice president of U.S. News & World Report, and publisher of The New Republic. In 1972, he started Figaro, a New Orleans weekly newspaper, which he sold in 1979. He served as executive editor of Washingtonian magazine from 1979 to 1981.

Sam Pitroda is an internationally respected development thinker, telecom inventor, and entrepreneur who has spent forty years researching information and communications technology and related human and national developments. He has worked in private and public sectors as well as governments around the world. Credited with laying the foundation for and ushering in India’s technology and telecommunications revolution in the 1980s, Mr. Pitroda has been a leading campaigner to help bridge the digital divide. During his tenure as advisor to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in the 1980s, Mr. Pitroda headed six technology missions focused on telecommunications, water, literacy, immunization, dairy, and oil seeds. He was also the founder and first chairman of India’s Telecom Commission. He was recently appointed chairman of India’s National Knowledge Commission, reporting to the prime minister.