Faculty member invited to White House briefing on trade
Knud Berthelsen (MBA ’09), adjunct lecturer in management, was invited to the White House in November to attend a briefing on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and The President’s Trade Agenda.

The event was chaired by Diane Doukas, director of the White House Business Council, and guests included Fred Hochberg, president and chairman of the U.S. Export-Import Bank; Drew Quinn, deputy chief negotiator for TPP; and Jason Miller, deputy director of the National Economic Council.
“The White House Business Council invited business leaders and export professionals to discuss the details of this very complicated trade agreement and answer any questions that we might have,” says Berthelsen, CEO of Connect + Trade, a consulting firm that assists clients with finding and entering new markets. “The agreement will remove roughly 18,000 tariffs, so a lot of American companies will be able to enter markets and do things they couldn’t do before. It’s not perfect, but it’s significantly better than the current situation.”
Berthelsen teaches three international trade oriented courses at the Freeman School. Economic Environment of Global Business is a course in the Master of Management in Business (MMG) program that provides an overview of global business and includes a class trip to India, while Asia-Global Leadership IV, which Berthelsen teaches in both the MBA and PMBA programs, takes a more in-depth look at business in Asia with an emphasis on international marketing and export management. The MBA section of the course also include a class trip to China.
“All three classes provide students with the knowledge and skills they need to do business in and with Asia, and that’s very important right now,” says Berthelsen. “For the MBAs in particular, the Trans-Pacific Partnership is going to be the big news story when I’m teaching the class this spring, so we’ll be spending a lot of time in class discussing the agreement and what it means for them as business professionals.”
Interested in advancing your education and/or career? Learn more about Freeman’s wide range of graduate and undergraduate programs. Find the right program for you.
Recommended Reading
- Pierre Conner: The Future of Energy Is Now
- How to Choose an MBA Concentration
- What Will You Learn in an MBA Curriculum?
- Part-Time vs. Full-Time MBA
- Meet the MBA Class of ’26: Joshua Christian
- What Is a STEM-Designated Degree Program?
- Types of MBA Degrees
- From the Big Easy to the Swiss Peaks: My Journey at ZHAW
Other Related Articles
- Scientific Inquirer: Why Searching for Truth Online Might Be Making Us More Biased
- WDSU: Gas prices face uncertainty after US strikes on Iran
- Freeman announces new administrative appointments
- International MD/MBA class inspires student to volunteer in Guatemala
- Payments Dive: GENIUS Act is just the beginning
- Tulane study finds smaller companies get kinder online reviews - and empathy is the reason why
- Four honored with Freeman research awards
- Executive MBAs travel to South Africa for lessons in global management