A Conversation with Ambassador Frank Lavin

Amb. Frank Lavin joins Victor Lago '26 and Anika Mukker '26 on The Outlook.

Frank Lavin served as Under Secretary for International Trade at the U.S. Department of Commerce in the George H.W. Bush administration. In that capacity, Lavin served as lead trade negotiator for both China and India and was responsible for commercial policy, export promotion, and trade negotiations across the globe. Lavin was previously U.S. ambassador to Singapore, where he helped negotiate the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement. 

Lavin is active in U.S.-Asia policy, U.S. domestic politics, and trade policy matters. He serves as a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution as well as a Trustee of the Asia Foundation and as a Director of the Asia Society of Northern California. 

In the private sector, Lavin served in senior finance and management positions in Hong Kong and Singapore with Edelman, Bank of America, and Citibank. Lavin also served in the George W. Bush and Reagan Administrations, working in the Department of Commerce, Department of State, National Security Council, and White House. In the Reagan Administration, Lavin served as White House Political Director. 

He is a columnist for Forbes.com and has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and elsewhere. Lavin is also the author of Inside the Reagan White House, The Smart Business Guide to China E-Commerce, co-author of Export Now, and author of Home Front to Battlefront, a World War II history book. 

Lavin is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and serves on the Advisory Board of ECIPE, a Brussels-based think tank. Lavin has participated in two humanitarian missions to Ukraine. He formerly served as a Lt Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserves. Lavin earned a BS from the School of Foreign Service; an M.S. in Chinese Language and History from Georgetown University; an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies; and an M.B.A. in Finance from the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania.