Who is advising Obama during the transition? An army of well connected people. Here are the team leaders for economics and international trade. Many have past public service and current charity work. For those now working in the for-profit sector, we have emphasized only the business ties.

Economics and International Trade Team Leads

Corporate, Investment, Law Firm and Consultant

WIPO Member States attending the WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property have been invited to a tequila tasting event on 6 March 2008 at the Hotel de Paix coinciding with the candidacy of the Mexican candidate (Jorge Amigo) to the position of Director General of WIPO. The text of the invitation is reproduced below.

Tom Giovanetti kindly sent me a link to his latest NGO bashing. This one titled: “IP skeptic NGOs as Marxists.” This is his attempt to label the various public health groups as Marxists, and his brief attempt to understand or describe a February 2005 proposal for one possible approach R&D Treaty.

First, I have told Tom Giovanetti several times that while his hysterical red baiting is amusing at times, it is also sometimes offensive and boring.

Richard Kjeldgaard, a former Senior Counsellor in the Biotechnology and Genetic Resources Division of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and now employed by the U.S. based Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) performed his role as “bouncer” admirably today at a luncheon organized by the Biotechnology Industry Organization.