Jeri Jensen

Managing Director, Private Sector Initiatives

Jeri Jensen is Managing Director for Private Sector Initiatives for the Millennium Challenge Corporation.  In this capacity she is responsible for helping MCC countries leverage their compacts with the private sector and stimulate follow-on trade and investment. 

Prior to joining MCC in 2007, Ms. Jensen served as Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), working on labor issues in recently negotiated Free Trade Agreements with Central America, Panama, and Colombia.  Also at USTR, Ms. Jensen served as deputy lead negotiator for U.S. Free Trade Agreement negotiations with Malaysia, implementing the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement, strengthening our trade relationship with ASEAN and managing trade policy issues on Thailand and New Zealand.

Before joining USTR, Ms. Jensen spent 18 years at the Department of Commerce in various capacities helping U.S. companies solve the problems they face when trading and investing abroad, most recently as Executive Director for Trade Promotion and Policy.  Among her responsibilities was, in consultation with the private sector, leading the development of U.S. government -wide strategies to improve and leverage federal trade promotion, investment and finance programs to strengthen U.S. competitiveness.  She also provided technical assistance to developing countries on strategic export promotion and export-led investment strategies, helped formulate and advocate Commerce Department positions on trade policy issues and bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations, and helped negotiate the Uruguay Round and NAFTA.

During her tenure at Commerce, she was assigned to Ex-Im Bank as Advisor to the Chairman, and to the National Security Council as Director for Inter-American Economic Affairs, where she coordinatedeconomic and trade issues for the 1994 Summit of the Americas. She has also served as senior economist to the Chairwoman of the International Trade Commission, and as a consultant to major corporations and trade associations.

Ms. Jensen has a Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Northwestern University, and proficiencies in Chinese and Spanish languages.  She has been awarded a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship and published articles on trade and investment issues.  She lives with her husband and daughter in Bethesda, MD.