Speakers
Ryan LeGrand serves as the president and CEO for the U.S. Grains Council (USGC), a non-profit organization that promotes the use of U.S. barley, corn, sorghum and related products worldwide.
LeGrand joined the Council in 2015 as the assistant director and then director of the Council’s Mexico office where he identified and addressed all relevant trade, technical and policy-related factors relevant to building and maintaining the market for U.S. grains and co-products in Mexico. Before joining the Council, LeGrand worked for Gavilon as the director of ingredients, located in Guadalajara, Mexico. In this capacity, he managed the company’s feed ingredients trading, import and distribution throughout Mexico. LeGrand also served as the director of exports for Hawkeye Gold, LLC where he exported DDGS to Latin America and Asia.
LeGrand earned a bachelor’s degree from Oklahoma State University in international business.
William F. Rooney has 48 years of experience in transportation management, covering a broad range of business functions. He is currently vice president of strategic development for Kuehne + Nagel, Inc. and has been with Kuehne + Nagel for 10 years.
Prior to Kuehne + Nagel, Rooney acted as president of Hanjin Shipping America, senior vice president of service delivery for CMA CGM and vice president of ocean services for GT Nexus, a logistics software provider. He also held several senior management positions with Sea-Land Service over a span of 25 years, including five years in Europe.. Rooney began his career conducting economic research for the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Additionally, Rooney has been a board member for several organizations, including the Pacific Maritime Association; the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association; the United States Maritime Alliance; Consolidated Chassis Management; the Ocean Carrier Equipment Management Association (OCEMA) and the Maritime Association of the Port of New York and New Jersey.
Rooney received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Marist College in New York and a master’s degree in economics from Northeastern University in Boston.
Sharon H. Yuan is the president of The Asia Group, where she brings nearly twenty years of experience as a senior policymaker and private sector attorney on China and international trade and investment-related issues.
Prior to joining The Asia Group, Yuan served as the deputy assistant secretary for trade and investment policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 2009-2015, and concurrently as the executive secretary and senior coordinator for China affairs and the Strategic and Economic Dialogue from 2012 to 2015. In those positions, she helped manage the U.S.-China economic relationship for the secretary of the treasury and oversaw the annual U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED). While working on the S&ED, Yuan successfully helped to inter alia secure China’s agreement to launch multilateral negotiations on official export financing disciplines. In addition, Yuan served as the treasury department’s lead on trade and investment policy and was responsible for the development of U.S. policy on official export financing, including as it relates to the U.S. Export-Import Bank. In recognition of her contributions and leadership while serving in these positions, Yuan was awarded the Treasury Medal.
Yuan also served on the staff of the National Economic Council in the White House from 1998 to 2000, where she focused on international economic matters, including China’s accession to the World Trade Organization, as well as coordinating U.S. participation in the 2000 G-7/G-8 Okinawa Summit.
Yuan was previously an attorney in the international trade and dispute resolution group at Sidley Austin LLP in Washington, D.C., from 2003 to 2009. Her practice focused on counseling clients on the implications of domestic and international trade rules on their global operations and to help address barriers to, as well as creating new, market access.
Yuan is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. She received a juris doctor degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, where she served as the production editor of the Virginia Journal of International Law and the editor-in-chief of the Virginia Law Weekly. She received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California, Berkeley. Additionally, Yuan is conversant in Mandarin Chinese.
Dr. Gary Williams is a leading international expert on the economics of commodity checkoff programs, publishing widely on the topic over the last 40 years. He recently retired from his roles as professor of agricultural economics and co-director of the Agribusiness, Food, and Consumer Economics Research Center (AFCERC) at Texas A&M University. Williams’ areas of teaching and research included commodity promotion programs; international agricultural trade and development; agricultural policy; and marketing and price analysis.
He holds a doctorate and a master’s degree in agricultural economics from Purdue University and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Brigham Young University.
Additionally, Williams is fluent in Spanish and has lived and worked in Latin America throughout his career. He is also known internationally for his research on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)/the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and world oilseed and livestock markets. Williams has chaired a National Research Council committee on the status and economic performance of the U.S. sheep and lamb industry.
Mark Slupek, deputy administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service’s (FAS) Global Programs, leads the administration of dozens of programs that support global food security, economic growth and U.S. private sector development of foreign markets for agricultural products. Global Programs also conducts agribusiness trade missions, virtual trade events and supports selected international food shows.
Slupek has worked with FAS programs since 1997. He also spent four years in the Fruit and Vegetable Program Area of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service.
Slupek attended Virginia Tech and Old Dominion University and holds a master’s degree in economics. He currently lives in Stafford, V.A., with his wife and the youngest of his three children.
Lillian Flemming is a Greenville, S.C., native who has served on City Council since 1981. Flemming currently serves as the District 2 representative and the Mayor Pro Tem.
She graduated with honors from Sterling High School and has both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in mathematics education from Furman University. She also received an honorary doctorate of humanities from Furman in September 2014. Each year, Furman University presents the Lillian Brock Flemming Leadership Award to an outstanding minority student.
In 2017, Flemming retired from Greenville County Schools with 46 years of service, first as a high school mathematics teacher, and later as a professional employment recruiter. She has an equally longstanding record of community service and has served on the boards of a wide array of organizations. She is a past president of the Municipal Association of South Carolina, past president of Greenville Blue Star Mothers-Chapter 3, past board chair of Southernside Block Partnership, Inc., and a charter member of the West End Lions Club.
Flemming currently serves on the boards of Brockwood Senior Housing (named for her mother, Lila Mae Brock), the Boy Scouts of America Blue Ridge Council, AdvanceSC and Upstate Warrior Solutions. She is a lifetime member of the Girl Scouts of SC – Mountains to Midlands and serves on both the board and the personnel committee. She is also a lifetime member of the Greenville branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
She has received numerous awards and honors throughout her career and tenure on City Council, including Furman University’s Outstanding Alumni Service Award and the United Negro College Fund’s Outstanding Service Award. Flemming has also been named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the Upstate and has been named one of the 50 Most Influential People in Greenville three times.
Lillian and her husband, Reverend J.M. Flemming, have seven sons and three daughters.
Ambassador Katherine Tai was sworn in as the 19th United States Trade Representative on March 18, 2021. As a member of the president’s cabinet, Ambassador Tai is the principal trade advisor, negotiator and spokesperson on U.S. trade policy.
Prior to her unanimous Senate confirmation, Ambassador Tai spent most of her career in public service focusing on international economic diplomacy, monitoring and enforcement. She previously served as chief trade counsel and trade subcommittee staff director for the House Ways and Means Committee in the United States Congress. In this capacity, Ambassador Tai played a pivotal role in shaping U.S. trade law, negotiations strategies and bilateral and multilateral agreements, including the recently re-negotiated United-States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
Ambassador Tai is an experienced World Trade Organization (WTO) litigator. She previously developed and tried cases for the Office of the United States Trade Representative, eventually becoming the chief counsel for China trade enforcement. Before transitioning to federal service, she practiced law in the private sector, clerked for district judges and taught English in Guangzhou, China.
Ambassador Tai earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. She is fluent in Mandarin.
Jason Hafemeister, Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs and the Trade Counsel to the Secretary, USDA
Jason Hafemeister is the acting deputy under secretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
He has been involved in agricultural farm and trade policy for almost 30 years, including almost 24 at USDA and with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). Hafemeister’s responsibilities have included serving as the lead U.S. negotiator on agriculture in the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Doha Round negotiations, the Central America Free Trade Agreement and China’s accession to the WTO.
Hafemeister received a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley, a master’s degree from the University of California at San Diego and a law degree from Georgetown University.
John Lummus serves as the president and CEO for the Upstate SC Alliance. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing the direction of the Alliance as well as running the day-to-day operations.
Prior to his current position, Lummus served as vice president of economic and institutional advancement at Tri-County Technical College, a position he held for eight years. Lummus also served as director of the Anderson County Office of Economic Development and worked to recruit new industry while supporting existing industry throughout the county.
Lummus has more than two decades of experience in economic development, governmental affairs and public administration. He began his career as a public administrator, then director of the Public Management Division for the Upper Savannah Council of Governments. He next served as assistant city administrator for Goose Creek, South Carolina, before moving into the governmental affairs arena as upstate office director for U.S. Senator Ernest F. Hollings. He was then named manager of governmental affairs for Trivergent Communications in Greenville, after which he moved into economic development, coordinating research, development and management of properties for Hughes Commercial Properties in Greenville.
A native of Anderson, Lummus is a graduate of Wake Forest University and received his master’s degree in public administration from the University of South Carolina (USC). He is also a graduate of the South Carolina Economic Developer’s School, USC’s Higher Education Leadership Program, and the National Executive Leadership Institute conducted by the League for Innovation in Community Colleges.