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Staff
Claude G.B. Fontheim
Claude Fontheim is BCGD's Senior Advisor and the CEO of Fontheim International, LLC; Partner and the Chairman of the Global Services Group of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, LLP; and he serves as Chairman of GlobalWorks Foundation, which is dedicated to fighting global poverty.
Mr. Fontheim advises global companies on international trade and business; government relations; and environmental sustainability, social responsibility, and governance (ESG). He was among the first ESG practitioners and his work includes environment, energy, labor, human rights, health, and economic development issues.
Mr. Fontheim has served on the State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy and currently serves on the U.S. Trade Representative’s Trade Advisory Committee on Africa. He has also served on the President’s Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations.
Mr. Fontheim is on the Executive Committee of the Alliance to End Hunger and has served on the board of the New Democrat Network. He is on the advisory boards of Securing America’s Future Energy, the U.S.-Bangladesh Advisory Council, and the Harvard University Public Diplomacy Collaborative. He is the Chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council Project on The Global Economy.
Mr. Fontheim is a Senior Advisor to the Trade, Aid and Security Coalition.
Mr. Fontheim has published numerous articles, including on corporate social responsibility, international business and labor policy. These articles have appeared in Blueprint magazine, PR Week, various scholarly journals, and he authored the chapter on European telecommunications policy and regulation in the American Enterprise Institute series, "The United States Faces a United Europe," and the concluding chapter of Trade Policy: The Lawyer's Perspective of which he was co-editor. He has also spoken widely on these topics.
Business and Global Development
Mr. Fontheim has served as an advisor on trade, economic and foreign policy to national and congressional political campaigns.
Mr. Fontheim received his J.D., M.P.P., and B.A. from the University of Michigan. He was Managing Editor of Michigan’s international law publication.
Leslie Griffin
Leslie Griffin is a Senior Advisor to the BCGD and Vice President of Fontheim International, LLC.
Leslie Griffin is Vice President of Fontheim International, LLC and Executive Director of GlobalWorks Foundation. Ms. Griffin most recently served as Vice President of International Governmental Affairs for New York Life Insurance Company, where she represented the company's interests on international policy and financial services issues before domestic and foreign government officials. She previously served as Chief of Staff to the Chairman and CEO of New York Life International.
Prior to joining New York Life, Ms. Griffin was Managing Director for Asian Affairs at the US Chamber of Commerce, where she worked with member companies across multiple sectors on trade policy priorities. While at the Chamber, she also held the roles of Executive Director of the US-Korea Business Council and the Hong Kong-US Business Council. Earlier roles include analyst positions with the American Petroleum Institute and the Congressional Budget Office.
Ms. Griffin taught and studied in Nanjing, China and is a member of the National Committee on US-China Relations. She is proficient in Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.
Ms. Griffin holds an M.Sc. in International Relations from the London School of Economics and a B.A. in Economics from Wellesley College.