Kenneth I Juster

Career

Juster was the Deputy Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council from January 2017-June 2017. In that role, he helped coordinate the administration’s international economic policy and helped integrate it with national security and foreign policy. Juster was also a senior member of both the National Security Council staff and the National Economic Council staff. He helped establish the U.S.-Japan Economic Dialogue and the U.S.-U.K. Economic Dialogue. He contributed to the U.S. economic relationships with Canada, China, Germany, India, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea. Juster served as the President’s representative and lead U.S. negotiator (“Sherpa”) in the run-up to the 2017 G7 Summit in Taormina, Italy.

Juster was a Partner at Warburg Pincus, where he worked since October 2010. He focused on geopolitical risk, global public policy, and regulatory matters relating to the firm's investment activities and portfolio companies. He headed the firm's environmental, social, and governance program and initiatives. From 2005 to 2010, he was Executive Vice President of Law, Policy, and Corporate Strategy at salesforce.com, a software company. He was a member of the company's executive committee and oversaw corporate development, legal affairs, global public policy and strategy, enterprise risk management, human resources, internal audit, and worldwide real estate.

Juster previously served as U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce from 2001-2005, in charge of the Bureau of Industry and Security. In that capacity, Juster oversaw issues at the intersection of business and national security, including strategic trade controls related to the export of sensitive U.S. goods and technologies, imports and foreign investments that affect U.S. security, enforcement of anti-boycott laws, and industry compliance with international arms control agreements. He served as the U.S. Chair of the U.S.-India High Technology Cooperation Group, and was one of the architects of the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership initiative between the United States and India. His work relating to India and helped lay the foundation for the historic civil nuclear agreement between the two countries. Juster was also responsible for helping negotiate the End-Use Visit Agreement between the United States and China, which increased the security of exports of U.S. high technology to China. In addition, he helped launch the Transshipment Country Export Control Initiative, which enhanced security through increased export controls at major transshipment hubs such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Panama, and the United Arab Emirates. He also worked with Israel on the export of sensitive U.S. technologies, and with European allies and Japan to coordinate export control initiatives. Upon completion of his term at the Commerce Department, Juster received the Secretary of Commerce's William C. Redfield Award and Medal, the Commerce Department's highest honor.

Juster served as the Acting Counselor of the U.S. Department of State from 1992 to 1993, and as the Deputy and Senior Adviser to Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger from 1989-1992. He was one of the government officials involved in establishing and managing U.S. assistance programs to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. On behalf of Secretary of State James A. Baker, III, Juster organized the first Coordinating Conference on Assistance to the New Independent States (NIS) of the former Soviet Union in January 1992 and led the first international delegation to meet with representatives of the NIS in Minsk, Belarus in February 1992. He also helped organize and launch the initial U.S. Enterprise Funds for countries in Central and Eastern Europe. He was a member of the five-man team that traveled to Israel prior to and during the first Gulf War to negotiate with the Israelis regarding their posture during the war. Juster was involved at State in policy matters relating to China, Japan, Latin America, and the Persian Gulf. Upon completion of his tenure at the State Department, Juster received the Secretary of State's Distinguished Service Award and Medal, the State Department's highest honor.

Between 1981-1989 and 1993-2001, Juster practiced law at Arnold & Porter. He became a senior partner in international arbitration and litigation, corporate counseling, regulatory matters, and international trade and transactions. Among his noteworthy cases was his representation of the Government of Panama-in-exile against the Noriega regime in 1988-1989. In that matter, he coordinated a legal strategy that secured the overseas assets of the Government of Panama and helped institute U.S. sanctions against the Noriega regime. Juster also represented U.S. investment funds in Ukraine, Moldova, and Slovakia, and several non-profit organizations, including the National Endowment for Democracy, the Kennan Institute (George Kennan), and the Gorbachev Foundation. In addition, he successfully argued cases in the U.S. Court of Appeals and in U.S. District Courts.

Juster served as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in 2010-2011, and at the Council on Foreign Relations in 1993; as a law clerk in 1980-1981 to Judge James L. Oakes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; and at the National Security Council in 1978.

Education

Juster holds a law degree from Harvard Law School, a master's degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in government (Phi Beta Kappa) from Harvard College. While an undergraduate at Harvard, he was research assistant to Professor Samuel P. Huntington and wrote his senior thesis on Japanese foreign policy under Professor Edwin O. Reischauer. Juster was an AFS Exchange Student to Thailand in 1971.

Awards

Juster has received numerous honors and awards, including:

Member, U.S. President's Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations, 2007-2010

Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit from the President of the Federal Republic of Germany (for contributions to U.S.-German relations), 2006

Secretary of Commerce’s William C. Redfield Award and Medal, 2005

Vasco Núñez de Balboa en el Grado de Gran Cruz Decoration and Medal from the President of Panama (for contributions to U.S.-Panama relations), 2004

Blackwill Award from the U.S.-India Business Council (for contributions to U.S.-India relations), 2004

Friendship Award from the U.S.-Panama Business Council (for contributions to U.S.-Panama relations), 2004, 2002

Secretary of State's Distinguished Service Award and Medal, 1993

Distinguished Alumnus of Scarsdale High School, 2007

Publications

Juster has published on international economic and legal issues, including Making Economic Policy: An Assessment of the National Economic Council (Brookings Institution, 1997) and “The Myth of Iraqgate” in Foreign Policy magazine (Spring 1994). Juster's research, analysis, and public discourse on the so-called Iraqgate scandal.

Other publications by Juster include:

“Unleashing U.S.-India Defense Trade,” Working Paper, Center for a New American Security, October 2010 (co-author).

“Myths and Mistrust: Striking the right chord seems an uphill task in the Indo-US defence trade,” Force, Vol. 7, No. 11, July 2010 (co-author).

“Room for Give and Take: Unleashing US defence trade with India will be key to pushing forward bilateral ties,” The Times of India, May 31, 2010 (co-author).

“Using Cloud Computing to Close the Development Gap,” Foreign Service Journal, p. 47, September 2009.

“The Weapons of Mass Disruption,” Business Standard (India), p. 8, October 15, 2004.

“A New Strategic Partnership for the U.S. and India,” The Wall Street Journal Online/The Asian Wall Street Journal, p. 11, October 1–3, 2004.

“U.S.-India High-Tech Cooperation,” Business Times (India), Vol. 23, No. 1 (2004).

“Critical Infrastructure Assurance: A Conceptual Overview,” in Security in the Information Age: New Challenges, New Strategies (Joint Economic Committee, U.S. Congress, 2002) (co-author).

“The United States and Iraq: Perils of Engagement,” in Richard N. Haass and Meghan O’Sullivan (eds.) Honey and Vinegar: Incentives, Sanctions, and Foreign Policy (Brookings Institution, 2000).

“The Santa Elena Case: Two Steps Forward, Three Steps Back,” The American Review of International Arbitration, Vol. 10 (1999).

“The Mistake of a Separate Peace,” The Washington Post, p. A15, August 9, 1999.

“Iraq: An American Perspective,” in Richard N. Haass (ed.) Transatlantic Tensions: The United States, Europe, and Problem Countries (Brookings Institution, 1999).

“Lessons on the Uprooted From Bosnia Peace Accord,” Christian Science Monitor, p. 18, February 7, 1996 (co-author).

“International Arbitration and Other Procedures for Dispute Resolution,” in James A. Dobkin, et al. (eds.) Joint Ventures With International Partners (Butterworths, 1993).

“Assisting Countries in Transition,” in Michael A. Epstein, et al. (eds.) New Developments in Doing Business in Eastern Europe, Russia and Ukraine (Prentice Hall, 1993).

“An Overview of U.S. Government Assistance to Central and Eastern Europe,” in Charles Wolf, Jr. (ed.) Promoting Democracy and Free Markets in Eastern Europe (RAND, 1991).

“The Libyan Sanctions: A Rational Response to State-Sponsored Terrorism?” Virginia Journal of International Law, Vol. 26, No. 4 (1986) (co-author).

“Foreign Policy-Making During the Oil Crisis,” The Japan Interpreter, Vol. 11, No. 3 (1977).

“Kissinger's Evolving Agenda for China,” Harvard Political Review, Vol. 3, No. 4 (1975).