Heather Byrnes, Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs, U.S. Embassy Ankara and Regional Senior Commercial Officer, Eurasia, U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service
As Regional Senior Commercial Officer for Eurasia, based in the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Heather Byrnes manages Commerce’s six offices in Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan as well as partner post commercial activities in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. In this role, Heather develops and implements policies, strategies and programs to advance U.S. economic and commercial interests throughout Eurasia and solves market access issues facing U.S. firms seeking to expand or enter the region.
Ambassador George Krol, Adjunct Professor, U.S. Naval War College, and Associate, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University
Ambassador George Krol retired from the United States Foreign Service in 2018 concluding a 36-year career during which he served in Poland, India, the Soviet Union, Russia, Ukraine and was ambassador to Belarus, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. In the State Department he held positions of, inter alia, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Central Asia and Director of the Office of Russian Affairs. Ambassador Krol currently is an Adjunct Professor at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I., lectures locally on foreign policy topics and is an Associate of Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. Ambassador Krol is a graduate of Harvard and Oxford universities.
J.P. Natkin, Managing Director, Macro-Advisory Ltd.
J.P. Natkin has worked in Russia, the CIS and the Eurasia region for over 30 years. He started his career in Washington on the Hill before transitioning to international business, included stints in industry, consulting, and investment banking. As a banker covering the EMEA and Eurasia region, J.P. was voted one of the top professionals in the Thomson Reuters Extel survey of institutional investors and has frequently placed in the top of these polls over the past 15 years. J.P. Natkin received a B.A. in Political Science from Boston University and did his graduate work in Strategic Studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
Javier Piedra, Senior Partner, Partnerships Asia Connections, LLC
Javier Piedra is a Senior Partner, Partnerships Asia Connections, LLC, providing strategic and targeted advisory with focus on private sector engagement, international development and connectivity.
Javier Piedra has 40 years of working experience in private and public sectors, international development, finance, marketing and advisory across multiple disciplines (USG, corporate and retail banking, SMEs, hedge fund management, credit reporting, and risk management). He possesses a deep knowledge of Asia and Latin America, regularly speaks at conferences and publishes on a variety of issues. He is fully fluent in Russian and Spanish.
Christopher J. Weafer, Chief Executive, Macro-Advisory Ltd.
Christopher Weafer is Chief Executive of Macro-Advisory Limited, the leading independent Russia-Eurasia focused strategic advisory firm, which was founded in 2013. He has worked in the Russia-Eurasia region for twenty-three years, with his experience in Emerging Markets spanning almost forty-five years. He is regularly voted the best market analyst in Russia and the Eurasia region in surveys carried out by Thomson Reuters and Institutional Investor. He is an advisor to the Beijing based Mencius Foundation and is ambassador for the Foundation in the Eurasia region. He is a board member of the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce.
