We are grateful for the knowledge and time our speakers are willing to lend to TREM12 delegates. Our speakers this year are:

His Excellency Ichiro Fujisaki - Ambassador Extraodinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to the USA

Ambassador Fujisaki started his duties as the Ambassador of Japan to the United States in June 2008. Prior to his current post, he served as Ambassador to the UN and to the WTO in Geneva. While there, he served as the Chairman of the Executive Committee of UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees). He previously served as the political minister of the Embassy of Japan in Washington, DC, from 1995-99. As a diplomat, he has also served in Jakarta, Paris (OECD), and London.

In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo, he has held such posts as Deputy Director-General for Asian Affairs and Director-General for North American Affairs before being appointed as the Deputy Foreign Minister. He has also served as the Sherpa, or the personal representative, of the Prime Minister to G8 Summit meetings.

His wife Yoriko attended kindergarten at Ben Murch in Washington, DC. Their two daughters also attended school in the Washington area. The elder daughter Mari graduated from Stone Ridge High School in Bethesda, MD. The younger daughter Emi studied at the same school as well as at Somerset Elementary School in Montgomery County, MD. Both daughters now work as journalists in Japan.

The Honorable Lisa Murkowski - United States Senator from the State of Alaska

Senator Lisa Murkowski is the first Alaskan-born Senator and only the sixth United States Senator to serve the state. Since joining the Senate in 2002, Senator Murkowski has been a strong advocate for Alaska on the important issues facing the state, including energy, health care, education, military/veterans’ affairs and infrastructure development.

Senator Murkowski is the senior Republican member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and also serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, where she is the ranking Republican of the Interior and Environment Subcommittee.  Senator Murkowski is a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee – the first Alaskan to serve on that panel – and also is a senior member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

She earned a B.A. in economics from Georgetown University in 1980 and a law degree from Willamette University in 1985.  Prior to her appointment to the United States Senate, Senator Murkowski practiced commercial law in Anchorage and served three terms in the Alaska State House of Representatives.  She was elected to a full six-year U.S. Senate term in 2004, and was re-elected in 2010 in a historic write-in campaign, the first successful write-in effort to the Senate since 1954. Senator Murkowski is married to Verne Martell and they have two sons. She enjoys spending time with her family in the Alaska outdoors.

The Honorable David Sandalow, Assistant Secretary of Energy

As Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs, David Sandalow helps coordinate policy and manage international activities at the Energy Department. Prior to being confirmed as Assistant Secretary, Mr. Sandalow was Energy and Environment Scholar and a Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program of the Brookings Institution, as well as Energy and Climate Change Working Group Chair at the Clinton Global Initiative. He is the author of Freedom from Oil (McGraw-Hill, 2008) and editor of Plug-In Electric Vehicles: What Role for Washington? (Brookings Press, 2009). Mr. Sandalow has written widely on energy and environmental policy, including op-eds in the New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times and other publications. Previously, he served as Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans, Environment & Science; Senior Director for Environmental Affairs, National Security Council; Associate Director for the Global Environment, White House Council on Environmental Quality; and Executive Vice President, World Wildlife Fund - U.S. Mr. Sandalow is a graduate of Yale College (BA Philosophy) and the University of Michigan Law School (JD).

Robert F. Cekuta, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State

The Energy Resources Bureau’s Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and working to ensure U.S. global energy security, Bob Cekuta also has direct oversight over the Bureau’s work on transparency and access to energy. Bob comes to the Bureau having most recently been Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy, Sanctions, and Commodities in the State Department’s Bureau for Energy and Business Affairs.Recent overseas assignments include Tokyo (2007 – 2009) and Berlin (2003 – 2007) where he led the USG’s engagement on the full range of economic issues with two of the world’s top economies. Bob’s work as Economic Minister Counselor in Germany included counter-terrorism and efforts to combat international criminal activities. He was also Senior Advisor for Food Security in the State Department’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs and Senior Deputy Coordinating Director at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan for all development and economic affairs. Having been assigned overseas in Albania, Austria, Iraq, South Africa, and Yemen, Bob has also worked in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (1999 – 2000). He has held positions in Washington at the State Department responsible for energy, trade, and economic development, including Director for Economic Policy Analysis and Public Diplomacy, Special Negotiator for Biotechnology, and Director of the Iraq Economic Task Force.Bob is a graduate of Georgetown University and holds Masters Degrees from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and the National War College

We are extremely grateful to the following organizations for helping us continue our important work of linking energy, defense, international trade and resource policies. For more information on how to become a TREM '11 conference sponsor, please contact us. We would like to thank the following companies for their support: