Mr. Gadbaw is currently a Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Institute of International Economic Law at Georgetown Law School, Senior Advisor to the US-ASEAN Business Council and serves as Co-Chair of the US-China Legal Cooperation Fund (USCLCF). He is also a Board member of the National Bureau of Asia Research, Partners for Democratic Change (PDC) and the European Institute.
At the Institute, Mr. Gadbaw’s research is focused on models and best practices for global regulation. He has helped organize panels and presentations on such issues as the global financial crisis, the prospects for a Bretton Woods II and global regulations for the American Society of International Law, the Institute for International Economic Law and the US Treasury Department. As a Senior Advisor to the US-ASEAN Business Council, he has facilitated that organization’s strategic review. He is an active supporter of efforts to build rule of law capacity in emerging markets, spearheading fundraising efforts for PDC’s Global Leadership Initiative and the 2008-2010 program of the US-China Legal Cooperation Fund. Mr. Gadbaw has served as a consultant, most recently for the World Bank in Mauritania on a project to build a civil society coalition to fight corruption.
In February 2008, Mr. Gadbaw retired after seventeen years as Vice President and Senior Counsel for General Electric’s International Law & Policy group. In that position, he was responsible for supporting the global operations of GE’s businesses, particularly in the areas of public policy, transaction advocacy, regulatory reform, global funding and compliance.
Mr. Gadbaw served as Chairman of GE’s International Practice Group and was the internal champion for GE policies on Improper Payments and International Trade Controls.
Mr. Gadbaw was founding Chairman of the State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy (1994-2008), Chairman of the US-Indonesia Business Committee of the US ASEAN Business Council, founding Chairman and founder of the India Interest Group; a Trustee of the U.S. Council for International Business; and a member and former Chairman of the U.S.-Egypt Presidents’ Council.
Before coming to GE, Mr. Gadbaw was in private practice (1980-1990), initially as a partner is Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand and then as a partner at Dewey Ballantine where he helped form that firm’s international trade group. Mr. Gadbaw began his legal career as Counsel in the General Counsel’s office in the U.S. Treasury Department and later served as Assistant and then Deputy General Counsel in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. While serving in the US Government, he was directly involved in negotiating a number of major international agreements, including the Tokyo Round, the U.S.-Japan Semiconductor Agreement, Non-Regional Membership in the African Development Bank and the Agreement establishing the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
Mr. Gadbaw completed his undergraduate work at Fordham University in 1969 (Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa), earned a Master’s Degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (1970), completed a year of graduate work at the Institut de Hautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva and received a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Michigan in 1974.