APCO Launches Center for Trade, Investment and Market Access

Center brings together group of global experts under leadership of former senior U.S. trade official Felicia Pullam

Washington D.C., March 4, 2025 – APCO today announced the launch of the Center for Trade, Investment and Market Access, building on decades of experience counseling clients on these issues. The Center, which will serve as a brain trust for C-Suites navigating cross-border commercial issues, brings together more than 50 global experts in trade and investment, representing former trade ministers, business leaders and policy professionals with deep know-how at the nexus of trade and commerce.

In launching the Center, APCO CEO Brad Staples said: “Unprecedented headwinds mean global businesses need a strategic partner like APCO with deep expertise in every key market, as well as connectivity to guide them across markets. APCO’s Center for Trade, Investment and Market Access builds on our strength in Washington, D.C., and other global capitals and brings together a wealth of policy and political experience to help advance clients’ commercial interests.”

The Center will support global businesses and governments as they look to navigate a new era of globalization characterized by tariffs, export controls, sanctions, industrial policies, changing bilateral and multilateral economic blocs and a range of other new and unconventional barriers and accelerators for global businesses. The Center will focus on supporting clients that have supply chains and capital investment strategies that rely on key economies and trade corridors, including those between the United States, China, Mexico, and Gulf nations.

Some of the key members of the Center include:

• Martha Delgado Peralta, chair of APCO in Mexico and Latin America and former Mexican undersecretary focused on attracting investment;
• Richard Burn, former HM Trade Commissioner for the UK to Europe and China;
• Teresa Lu, managing director of APCO’s Global China Practice and former lead of Walmart’s government affairs and public policy function for East Asia;
• Pamela Passman, chair of Corporate Advisory and former corporate vice president and deputy general counsel at Microsoft;
• Safiya Ghori-Ahmad, head of Global Public Affairs at APCO and former advisor at the U.S. Department of State;
• Tim Roemer, former U.S. Member of Congress and ambassador to India;
• Jonathan Winer, former deputy assistant secretary for international law enforcement at the U.S. Department of State;
• Nick Ashton-Hart, senior director of Digital Economy Policy at APCO and former WTO services trade negotiator and adviser to member-states; and
• Danny Phan, Southeast Asia market leader for APCO.

Additionally, the Center will draw on the expertise of dozens of former heads of state, ambassadors, elected officials and business leaders who serve on APCO’s International Advisory Council.

The Center will be led by Felicia Pullam, who joins APCO in a newly created senior director role. She previously served in a key role at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and as a deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Commerce, where she also helped drive U.S. government efforts to encourage foreign direct investment in the United States. Earlier in her career, she worked with global companies, small businesses and international organizations on their trade, investment and engagement strategies in Asia and the United States.

On joining APCO, Pullam said: “APCO has long been a pioneer in helping businesses advance in the global marketplace. I helped celebrate APCO’s 20th anniversary back in 2004 and I’m thrilled to rejoin just after our 40^th—I know firsthand that this is a phenomenal team. Businesses are facing a host of market access, trade and investment challenges, and I look forward to partnering with executives as they grapple with these issues.”

Pullam most recently served as the executive director of Trade Relations at CBP, advising the Commissioner on trade and leading stakeholder engagement around hot-button political issues and industry operational challenges.

Pullam has worked on bipartisan trade issues from both the state and federal perspective: she has served at the Delaware Department of State, the Maryland Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Commerce. During the Obama Administration, Pullam helped steer SelectUSA, a presidential initiative housed within Commerce, through a high-pressure start-up phase to promote the United States as the leading global destination for foreign direct investment. She was then appointed to the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary for Textiles, Consumer Goods and Materials, where she managed three offices to analyze and implement trade policy covering a large swath of the global economy.

Outside of government service, Pullam was previously the director of strategy at the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. Earlier in her career, she spent nearly a decade in China, leading the Asia regional corporate responsibility and sustainability practice for APCO. She got her start as a Princeton in Asia Fellow, followed by a yearlong adventure as the tutor and translator for actress Zhang Ziyi. She graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University.