Andrea Spear: Brief Career History (2014)
Andrea Spear has been working in international trade, investment and private sector development for three decades. For the last decade she has been assisting least-developed countries and economies in transition on WTO, trade, investment and competitiveness issues. She also evaluates development assistance projects and designs aid programmes.
Now an independent adviser based in Geneva, Ms Spear was previously Regional Adviser for Trade and Investment Policy for the UN Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
Before that, she was with the Australian Government, where she held a variety of senior positions in diplomacy, trade, investment, private sector development, regional development and public sector reform. This included four years as a WTO negotiator in Geneva, where she was responsible for Services, investment, competition policy, government procurement, trade facilitation, e-commerce and other topics.
Before entering public service, Ms Spear was Strategic Planning Coordinator at an Australian multinational company with transport, distribution, logistics, security and healthcare operations in 18 countries. She spent the first 12 years of her career with Business International/The Economist Group, working with international companies and governments in Latin America, Asia and Oceania on business environment reform, trade, investment, risk management, public-private sector dialogue and business advocacy.
Contact: andrea_spear@yahoo.fr