President and General Manager for China

Kamal I. Latham

Kamal I. Latham leads Diplomatic Treatment and its China operations. Mr. Latham is a licensed Foreign Expert in China and a former career United States Diplomat. He last served at American Embassy Beijing as Deputy Chief of the Trade and Transportation Policy Unit in the Economic Affairs Section. Prior to becoming a diplomat, he was a financial analyst with the investment bank Salomon Smith Barney. Mr. Latham has a Master of Public Policy degree from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Temple University. He speaks and reads Mandarin Chinese.

Licensed Foreign Expert in China
Mr. Latham is licensed as a Foreign Expert in China by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of China. He is also an appointed advisor to the Hebei Province Foreign Experts Bureau for investment, high technology and economic development projects.

Former Career U.S. Diplomat
Mr. Latham was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 2000 and re-appointed by President George W. Bush in 2004 as a Foreign Service Officer in the Diplomatic Service of the United States. As a career diplomat, he served at the American Embassy in Beijing, the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris and at the American Consulate-General in Shenyang, China.

Market Access Advisor
As a diplomat serving at American Embassy Beijing, Mr. Latham counseled senior executives and country managers of Fortune 500 companies on China market access/expansion strategies. He developed policy and commercial advocacy strategies to expand business opportunities in China for foreign companies in sectors such as aviation, maritime, road and rail transport, express mail delivery, telecommunications, high technology, construction, design and engineering, distribution, direct selling and tourism.

Government Relations
Mr. Latham represented the Departments of State, Transportation and other federal agencies before Chinese Government ministries such as the Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Railways, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

Delegation Coordination
Mr. Latham arranged meetings in China and managed trip logistics for visiting United States Government officials such as the Secretary of Transportation, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Federal Communications Commission Chairman, the Maritime Administrator and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Administrator.

Aviation
Mr. Latham helped secure agreements facilitating increased trade flows between the United States and China. He received a Meritorious Honor Award from the Department of State for his role in negotiating the 2007 Air Services Agreement, which was estimated to stimulate US $5 billion in new business for U.S. airlines.

Tourism
The Department of State conferred a Group Meritorious Honor Award upon Mr. Latham for helping to secure the 2007 Tourism Agreement between the United States and China. The agreement facilitated group leisure travel from China to America and removed prohibitions on United States destinations marketing themselves in China.

Transportation and Logistics
Mr. Latham led Embassy negotiations with the Ministry of Transport which help yield the Joint Declaration on Transportation Cooperation between the United States and China. The Joint Declaration established the Transportation Forum which launched bilateral cooperation in areas such as transportation technologies and supply chain logistics.

Information and Communications Technology
Mr. Latham coordinated the first Communications and Information Policy Consultations between the United States and China. The Consultations were high-level dialogues addressing telecommunications market access issues, technological convergence and other matters.

Foreign Direct Investment
While serving as the Finance and Investment Policy Advisor at the U.S. Mission to the OECD in Paris, Mr. Latham was a member of the official U.S. Government delegations to the OECD committees on Investment, Financial Services, Insurance and Competition. He helped launch a multi-million dollar foreign direct investment policy liberalization program in countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

U.S. Visa Policy
As a vice consul at American Consulate-General Shenyang in Northeastern China, Mr. Latham interviewed approximately 15,000 Chinese nationals applying for visas to the visit the United States. He also served as the fraud prevention officer and coordinated a multi-lateral conference on visa fraud prevention.

Financial Services
Prior to becoming a diplomat, Mr. Latham was a financial analyst with the investment bank Salomon Smith Barney. At Salomon, he structured M&A models, helped advise an insurance company on the US $60 million sale of a subsidiary and assisted in raising over US $1 billion in debt and equity capital for financial institutions.

Published Articles
“Open for Growth: The Outlook for China’s Airport Development”
Airport Magazine (April/May 2009)

“Tianjin: Snapshot of an Up-and-Coming City”
China Brief Magazine (January/February 2009)

Presentations and Speeches
“Emerging Issues in Container Security: Food and Product Safety,” TPM Asia Conference (Shenzhen, China – October 2009)

“China Market Access Challenges for Multinationals,” Georgia State University, J. Mack Robinson College of Business MBA Program (Beijing, China – May 2009)

“Tianjin and Binhai Radio: East/West Program,” Interview (Tianjin, China - May 2009)

“Investment Attraction and Retention in Caofeidian,” Sino-U.S. International Symposium on Logistics Development in Caofeidian (Tangshan, China - November 2008)

“U.S.-China Transportation and Logistics Partnership,” China World Logistics Conference: Roundtable Discussion Chairman (Nanjing, China - November 2008)