TAMIU IBC Keynote Speaker Series Features International Investment Expert

The former director of the focal point in the United Nations’ system for matters related to foreign direct investment and technology will present the last lecture in the International Bank of Commerce 2008 Western Hemispheric Trade Keynote Speaker Series at Texas A&M International University.

Dr. Karl P. Sauvant, executive director, The Columbia Program on International Investment, New York, N.Y., will present: “Is there a backlash against foreign direct investment in the making? Some evidence from the Western Hemisphere” on Wednesday, April 2 at 7:30 p.m. in TAMIU’s Western Hemispheric Trade Center (WHTC), room 111.

This event is free and open to the public.

Dr. Sauvant joined the U.N. in 1973 and, as of 1975, has focused his work on matters related to foreign direct investment (FDI). Since 1988, he was responsible for the U.N.’s policy analysis work on FDI and in 2001, he became director of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development’s Division of Investment, Technology and Enterprise Development, a position he held until July 2005.

His responsibilities included managing the Division, promoting international consensus building in the areas of FDI, technology and enterprise development, providing intellectual leadership for policy-oriented research and conceptualizing and supervising technical assistance activities in this field.

While still at the U.N., Sauvant created the prestigious annual World Investment Report, of which he was lead author until 2004. He also founded the journal Transnational Corporations and provided intellectual leadership and guidance to a series of 25 monographs on key issues related to international investment agreements that were published in 2004/05 in three volumes, and edited, along with Dr. John H. Dunning, the 20-volume “Library of Transnational Corporations.”

In addition to his work with the U.N., Sauvant has published extensively on issues related to economic development, FDI and services. His name is associated with some 150 U.N. publications on FDI over the past three decades.

Sauvant received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

For more information, please contact Amy Palacios, data and information specialist, at amy@tamiu.edu or 326.2820 or visit offices in WHTC 222E.

Journalists who need additional information or help with media requests and interviews should contact the Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services at prmis@tamiu.edu