The Senior Commercial Attaché will be speaking on his experiences and recommendations concerning Doing business in Russia and the Newly Independent States. Arriving in Moscow in 1993 and departing in 2000, Mr. Steffens had the longest continuous service of any U.S. diplomat assigned to Russia. As an attaché in Moscow, senior commercial attaché in Tashkent, and trade consul in Vladivostok (the second American to serve in that position in recent history), Mr. Steffens opened up more than 60 Russian cities to U.S. trade, often as the first diplomat to visit these once closed regions. He is currently the youngest senior commercial attaché in Foreign Commercial Service Europe, managing the commercial section of the U.S. Embassy in Prague.

Prior to his diplomatic service, he worked as a management consultant for Arthur Andersen in New York, as Assistant Director of the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology (where he set up New Jersey’s business incubator program), and in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. He is author of The Changing Software Market and Secrets of a Venture Capitalist, as well as more than 100 articles mainly on international business, politics, and culture. (Under the penname Winston Shaw, he also writes musicals and screenplays. His musical, Tomorrowland, opened in Moscow in 1999 and is now slated for 2001 productions in Germany and the United Kingdom.)

A graduate of the Wharton School and the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Steffens holds a Masters in Government Administration from the Fels Center at the University of Pennsylvania and has served as adjunct professor and lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Graduate School.