Anja Manuel

Anja Manuel is a former U.S. State Department official. She is Co-Founder and Partner along with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, in RiceHadleyGates LLC, a strategic consulting firm. The firm assists CEOs and senior executives at major companies — many of them headquartered in California — to export, expand their businesses, and meet regulatory challenges in key emerging markets such as China, India and the Middle East.

Manuel is also a Lecturer in the International Policy Studies Program at Stanford University where she designed and teaches a course on US Foreign Policy in Asia.

Early life

Manuel was raised in part by her grandparents in a small village in northern Germany. Her father was a German aid worker, and the family spent 1980-1981 in Abbottabad, Pakistan. She moved to the United States in 1984 and attended schools in Los Angeles and Dallas before college at Stanford.

She lives in San Francisco with her husband, Greg Manuel, and their two children.

Career

From 2005 to 2007, Manuel served as Special Assistant to Under-Secretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns at the U.S. Department of State. In this role, Manuel had responsibility for South and Central Asia Policy, Congressional outreach and legal matters. She was part of the negotiating team for the U.S.-India civilian nuclear accord, helped to secure passage of the accord in the U.S. Congress, and was extensively involved in developing U.S. policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan.

From 2001 to 2005, and from late 2007 to 2009, Manuel was an attorney at the law firm of WilmerHale, where she specialized in international litigation and arbitration, anti-corruption matters, and Congressional investigations. In her legal practice, Manuel advised clients on anti-corruption and international arbitration matters in China, India, Latin America, and Africa; and worked on matters of public policy interest, including representing Senators McCain and Feingold in their defense of the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act before the Supreme Court. She also represented the German Economy Foundation Initiative in its efforts to set up a foundation to compensate forced labor victims of World War II.

Manuel started her career in the investment banking division of Salomon Brothers, working on German and Eastern European mergers and privatizations.

Education

She graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School, and holds bachelor's and master's degree with distinction from Stanford University.

Boards and Activities

Manuel is a member of the Aspen India Strategy Group, and the Council on Foreign Relations. She serves on the Board of Directors of Internews, Board of Advisors for the Center for a New American Security, the non-profit Developments in Literacy, and Flexport, Inc. She was a board director of Zipcourt, Inc.

Publications

Manuel is a frequent contributor to publications such as Reuters op-ed page, The Daily Beast, Foreign Policy, NewYork Times online, and others. Some of her publications are listed below.

New York Times, Room to Debate, September 15, 2014, Does the US Have the Allies it Needs to Fight Isis? 1

Reuters, May 2014, Why India Has Less Inequality Than The U.S. 2

Reuters, March 2014, The Nuclear Option for Emerging Markets? 3

Foreign Policy, April 2014, Let Me Down Easy: Keep Aid to Afghanistan 4

Reuters, January 2014, Is There a Right Path for the U.S. In Syria? 5

Daily Beast, May 2013, Beyond Malala: Progress for Pakistan's Women 6

Fortune.CNN Money, February 2011, India Wont Outpace China Without a Few Miracles. 7

Contributed Chapter on India to the Book, American Interests in South Asia, Aspen Strategy Group, 2010. 8

Women in Public Affairs, Interview with Anja Manuel, June 2011 9

Foreign Affairs, August 2002, A New Model Afghan Army 10