Palau EAG Members

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Palau EAG Members

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The Palau Economic Advisory Group is comprised of five members: two designated by the President of Palau, two designated by the Government of the United States, the fifth chosen by the Government of the United States from a list of three submitted by the President of Palau. The members follow below.

James Galbraith

Economist

James K. Galbraith holds the Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and a professorship in Government at The University of Texas at Austin. He was executive director of the Joint Economic Committee of the United States Congress in the early 1980s, and before that, an economist for the House Banking Committee. He chaired the board of Economists for Peace and Security from 1996 to 2016 and directs The University of Texas Inequality Project. He is a managing editor of Structural Change and Economic Dynamics.

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Denise Konan

Economist

Dr. Denise Eby Konan is Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Professor of Economics at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM). As Dean, she provides leadership to twelve academic departments that deliver nearly a fifth of degrees offered on campus.

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Peter Watson

Investment Banker and Policy Adviser

Peter is President & CEO of The Dwight Group, the D.C.- based investment bank. He previously was appointed by President G. W. Bush as Chairman, President & CEO of the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), now the U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC). Prior to OPIC, Peter was Chairman of the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), being appointed to the ITC by President H.W. Bush, and Chairman by President William J. Clinton.

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Kaleb Udui Jr.

Minister of Finance

Mr. Kaleb Udui is the new Minister of Finance for the Republic of Palau having been sworn into office on February 8, 2021. His public service began as the Chief of the Division of Budget and Management in the early 1990’s. In the late 1990’s, he served as the Financial Advisor to the Ministry and Manager for a UNDP project that covered Personnel, Tax, and Planning reforms. In the 2000’s, Minister Udui worked in Banking and also served as the President of the National Development Bank of Palau. His private business activities have been in banking, energy consulting and in real estate. He has also served on various public and private Boards including Palau’s Banking Supervisory Board and the Palau Chamber of Commerce.

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Naoyuki Yoshino

Economist

Dr. Naoyuki Yoshino is Professor Emeritus at Keio University, Tokyo, Japan and until March 2020 was Dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI). He obtained his PhD from Johns Hopkins University (United States) in 1979 where his thesis supervisor was Sir Alan Walters, economic adviser to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Dr. Yoshino has been a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (United States) and a visiting professor at various universities including the University of New South Wales (Australia), Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques (France), and University of Gothenburg (Sweden). He has also been an assistant professor at the Statue University of New York at Buffalo and an economics professor at Keio University.

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Photo Gallery

Photos from recent activities hosted by the Pacific and Virgin Islands Training Initiatives (PITI-VITI) in support of conferences, training and leadership development, are available below.