Anja Manuel Profile Photo

Anja Manuel

Keynote Speaker

Co-Founder and Principal, Rice, Hadley, Gates and Manuel, LLC

Author, former diplomat, speaker and now a sought-after advisor to Fortune 50 and Silicon Valley CEOs, Anja Manuel shares her powerful insights on the rise of emerging markets in Asia and beyond, what this means for us and America’s future role in international leadership.

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Anja Manuel Profile Photo

Former diplomat, author, and advisor on foreign policy, Anja Manuel 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 Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC, a strategic consulting firm that helps US companies navigate international markets.

Anja is the author of the critically acclaimed This Brave New World: India, China and the United States, published by Simon and Schuster in 2016, and numerous articles and papers.

She is the Executive Director of the Aspen Strategy Group and Aspen Security Forum — a premier bi-partisan forum on foreign policy in the U.S.

From 2005-2007, she served as an official at the U.S. Department of State, as Special Assistant to the Undersecretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, responsible for Asia policy. 

Earlier in her career, Anja was an attorney at WilmerHale working on Supreme Court and international cases, and represented clients before the US Congress, Supreme Court, Department of Justice, Department of Defense, and the SEC.  She began her career as an investment banker at Salomon Brothers in London. 

A cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and Stanford University, Manuel also lectured and was a research affiliate at Stanford University from 2009-2019, teaching courses on US Foreign Policy in Asia and Technology Policy.

Anja is a frequent speaker on foreign policy and technology policy, is a commentator for tv and radio (NBC/MSNBC, Bloomberg News, Fox Business, BBC, NPR, etc.), and writes for publications ranging from the Washington Post, New York Times, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic, Fortune, and Newsweek, among others.

Anja currently serves on two corporate boards: Ripple Labs Inc., a leading blockchain payments company, and Overseas Shipping Group, Inc., a NYSE-listed transportation company.  Manuel has also served on advisory boards of Care.com, Center for a New American Security, Flexport Inc., Synapse Inc., and the boards of the National Committee on US-China Relations, American Ditchley Foundation, and formerly Governor Brown’s California Export Council, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Anja also serves as a Member of the Defense Policy Board for the U.S. Department of Defense.

Featured Videos

Anja Manuel Profile Photo
Anja Manuel

Anja Manuel on Long Term Trends in China

Anja Manuel Profile Photo
Anja Manuel

How to Win the Technology Race with China | Anja Manuel | TEDxPaloAlto

Anja Manuel Profile Photo
Anja Manuel

Anja Manuel on U.S. China Relations

Anja Manuel Profile Photo
Anja Manuel

Anja Manuel on ‘Bloomberg Technology’ To Discuss U.S.-China Relations

Anja Manuel Profile Photo
Anja Manuel

Anja Manuel on Escalating Tensions between U.S. and China

Anja Manuel Profile Photo
Anja Manuel

Anja Manuel on the U.S. Government vs. Huawei

Anja Manuel Profile Photo
Anja Manuel

National Security and International Growth – Paley IC Summit 2017

Anja Manuel Profile Photo
Anja Manuel

Clip- Swell 2018 Regulating Innovation A Global Opportunity

Anja Manuel’s Speech Topics

  • President Biden: The Future of U.S. Foreign Policy and America’s Role in the World

    In this charged political environment, Anja Manuel is able to cut through the rhetoric to offer an informed analysis of how President Biden’s policies might affect the United States’ relationships with foreign allies and enemies alike. Drawing on years of experience working at the State Department and as an international business consultant with the esteemed firm of RiceHadleyGates, Manuel breaks down the sometimes inflammatory foreign policy and trade pronouncements into thoughtful and understandable realities. From the likely direction of U.S. trade policy, to relations China and India, to what the instability of the Middle East and Russia’s assertive policies might mean for the U.S. businesses in the near term, Manuel can draw on expertise in every region of the world to provide answers to today’s issues. Anja’s rational and measured approach to the issues has established her as an informed resource for audiences around the world.


  • What the Rise of Asia Means for Us

    In the next decade and a half, Asia will surpass the combined strength of North America and Europe in economic might, population size and military spending.


    From her front-row view of this colossal shift, first at the State Department and now as an advisor to American CEOs, Anja Manuel escorts the audience on an intimate tour of the corridors of power of Asia’s predominant powers—China and India—to reveal what makes each country “tick” and what Americans doing business there should know. Through vibrant stories that have been described as “both heartbreaking and funny,” she reveals how each country is working to surmount enormous challenges—from the crushing poverty of Indian slum dwellers and Chinese factory workers, to outrageous corruption scandals, rotting rivers and unbreathable air, to managing their citizens’ discontent, and how some of these challenges create opportunities for joint work with American companies.


    Based on her book This Brave New World, Manuel shows us an optimistic path—American politicians, businesses and ordinary citizens can bring China and India along as partners rather than alienating one or both, and thus extend our own leadership in the world.

  • Doing Business in Emerging Markets

    Every day, American businesses must decide where in the world to sell, invest or source parts of their supply chain. How do you determine which emerging markets to enter first? And how do you do it both effectively and ethically? Based on her extensive experience in government and now leading businesses through these difficult decisions, Anja Manuel shares her insight and illuminating stories about how to engage local governments and business partners from Bogota to Bangalore.

  • The Global Economy and long term consequences of the Covid crisis

    From her front row seat as advisor to U.S. CEOs, Anja Manuel untangles the implications of the coronavirus pandemic over the longer term for the world political system and economy, and the specific impact this may have on your business. She breaks down the avalanche of recent news into understandable realities. For example,

    • the impact on U.S.-China relations and the consequences for US businesses who invest there or whose supply chains run through Asia;
    • the cracks in the European Union, where reaction to the coronavirus crisis has been along nation-state lines in ways that may splinter regulatory regimes;
    • the pandemic’s impact on emerging markets, which are only beginning to be felt; to
    • the future effectiveness international institutions;

    Manuel draws on her first-hand expertise in every region of the world to provide answers at this uncertain time.


  • Navigating China’s Technological Rise: It’s Impact on Your Industry

    In this charged political environment, Anja Manuel is able to cut through the rhetoric to offer an informed analysis of how the complex relationship between the U.S. and China may play out, and how the enmity between these giants could impact your industry specifically. 

    As China becomes a technology superpower, Ms. Manuel unpacks what policies are contributing to China’s technological rise, whether and how worried western companies should be, how Western governments are reacting, and how recent developments from the Phase I trade agreement to the Covid-crisis are likely to affect future collaboration between the West and China. 

    She explains, in simple and lucid terms, illustrated with up to date vignettes, how this great technological race is likely to affect your business.



Works by Anja Manuel

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