WHAT:
Discussion of New Initiatives for Business Owners with the Export-Import Bank of the United States President and The White House
WITH:
Reta Jo Lewis, President and Chair of the Board of Directors,
The Export-Import Bank of the United States
and
Sameera Fazili, Deputy Assistant to the President and
Deputy Director of the White House National Economic Council
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Reta Jo Lewis is the EXIM’s President and Chair of the Board of Directors with over 25 years of leadership experience in international affairs, legal, public policy, business and regulatory affairs, and subnational diplomacy.
Ms. Lewis was most recently a Senior Fellow and Director of Congressional Affairs at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. At GMF, Ms. Lewis led and oversaw initiatives, programs, and bipartisan exchanges for members of the U.S. Congress and their European counterparts, focusing on leadership development and subnational diplomacy efforts. Prior to her time at GMF, she served as the first-ever Special Representative for Global Intergovernmental Affairs under Secretary Hillary Clinton at the U.S. Department of State during the Obama-Biden Administration. As Special Representative, Lewis was the chief diplomat in charge of the international efforts to build and support strategic relationships between the federal government, state and local leaders, and their foreign counterparts. In 2013, she was awarded the Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award.
Sameera Fazili is the Deputy Director of the National Economic Council (NEC) in the Biden Administration. Before joining NEC, she served as the director of engagement for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s community and economic development department. Fazili previously served as a senior policy advisor at NEC in the Obama administration, where she covered retirement, consumer finance, and community and economic development. Fazili has also worked at the Treasury Department on issues related to community development financial institutions, housing finance, and small business finance. She was also a senior adviser and chief of staff to the Treasury’s Under Secretary for International Affairs.
She was a clinical lecturer of law at Yale Law School and economic development clinic, where she helped start a CDFI bank and a local anti-foreclosure initiative and expanded the clinic’s work to international microfinance. Fazili is a graduate of Yale Law School and Harvard College where she received a Bachelor of Arts in social studies. Originally from Buffalo, she now lives in Georgia with her husband and three children.