Deborah Lehr

Deborah Lehr is a Vice Chairman of The Paulson Institute. She has served in a number of positions focused on China and other emerging markets. In the private sector, she was a Senior Advisor to the Chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch as well as a Senior Managing Director at the New York Stock Exchange.

In addition, Lehr built a successful consulting business as a partner at Mayer Brown, a top-10 law firm, as President of Stonebridge China and then with her own firm. Her clients included JP Morgan, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Sesame Workshop, Tory Burch, Goldman Sachs, Sony Music, Time Warner and Boeing.

Lehr also served in the U.S. Government in the Executive Office of the President as a Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for China, where she was a lead negotiator for China’s accession to the World Trade Organization, for two intellectual property rights negotiations and on the team for the 1992 Market Access Agreement. Additionally, Lehr was a Director of Asian Affairs at the National Security Council and was involved in export control and trade policy issues at the Department of Commerce.

Lehr is Chairman of the Capitol Archaeological Institute at The George Washington University and a founding member of the International Coalition to counteract looting of Egyptian antiquities. She serves on National Geographic’s Council of Advisors, the Board of the American Institute of Archaeology, the Advisory Board of the London School of Economics and the Advisory Council of the Elliott School at The George Washington University.