Thomas Andrew O'Keefe

Thomas Andrew O’Keefe is the President of Mercosur Consulting Group, Ltd., a legal and economic consulting firm founded in 1993 and based in Washington, D.C., which assists companies with their strategic business planning for South America.

Mr. O’Keefe is the author of numerous articles on Latin American economic integration and has ectured extensively on the topic both in the United States and abroad. He briefs U.S. government officials; testifies before the U.S. Congress; and is also a frequent guest on television programs on the subject of developments within MERCOSUR and the Free Trade Area of the Americas project.

He is the former Managing Editor of Focus Americas, an analytical review of business and egal developments throughout the Western Hemisphere. His new book, Latin American Trade Agreements, is the only comprehensive publication in English which discusses the major Latin American economic integration projects from a practical perspective and addresses related issues such as foreign investment laws, tax and labor regulations, and legislation designed to protect intellectual property rights.

He did his undergraduate work at Columbia University, and received his J.D. from the Villanova University School of Law. In 1986 he worked for the legal departments of the Chilean Human Rights Commission and the Vicaría de la Solidaridad (the human rights office of the Archdiocese of Santiago).

He also worked as an associate for a number of years at the Wall Street law firm of Carter, Ledyard & Milburn and the Boston-based Gadsby & Hannah before returning to study at the University of Oxford, where he received an M.Phil. in Latin American Studies (History and Economics) in 1992. He teaches courses on Western Hemisphere economic integration at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Mr. O’Keefe is a dual national of the United States and Chile.

He is bilingual in English and Spanish, and fluent in French and Portuguese.

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