Verinda Fike currently serves as a Country Manager in the East Asia Region for the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA). In this capacity, Ms. Fike is responsible for business development, project preparation and evaluation, and supervision of USTDA activities in the region. She also leads the agency's Global Aviation Sector Team and previously led the Electricity Transmission and Distribution Sector Team.

Ms. Fike has travelled and worked in over 40 countries and has managed projects in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. Prior to joining USTDA, Ms. Fike consulted U.S. private sector and USAID overseas missions on creating effective public-private partnerships in developing and emerging economies. She also spent three years in China managing patient relations and marketing for several women's health clinics.

Ms. Fike holds a Master of Science in Foreign Service and a Master of Public Policy from Georgetown University, as well as a B.A. from the University of Colorado in International Affairs and Mandarin Chinese.

Christian Koschil is a Commercial Officer for the U.S. Department of Commerce's Foreign Commercial Service at the U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai, China. Mr. Koschil's primary role is to support commercial engagement to advance U.S. policy, advocacy, and trade promotion goals, as well as supporting U.S. firms operating in China and Chinese firms investing in the United States. His areas of focus include healthcare, energy, senior care, and publishing. Mr. Koschil joined the U.S. Department of Commerce in April 2009 and was based both in Washington, D.C., resolving NAFTA market access and compliance issues for U.S. companies, as well as in Chicago, expanding U.S. exports of goods and services in the healthcare technologies sector. His projects included short- and long-term international assignments in Argentina, Mexico, Canada, the UAE, Germany, and Indonesia. Mr. Koschil's diverse private-sector experience prior to joining the U.S. Department of Commerce includes tactical research and marketing for a municipal economic development agency in Virginia named "one of the great economic success stories of our time" by Time Magazine, market research and sales for a leading Washington D.C.-based commercial real estate firm, and engineering roles with Fortune 500 oil companies and a global industrial gases manufacturer. A native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Mr. Koschil holds an M.A. in International Commerce & Policy from George Mason University and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He speaks Mandarin and Ukrainian and is fluent in Spanish, and is married with two young children.