Speaker Bio

Ireas Cook
Senior Commercial Officer
American Institute in Taiwan
Taipei

Ireas Cook is a career Foreign Commercial Service Officer with the U.S. Department of Commerce. She has been recently assigned to serve as the Senior Commercial Officer in Taiwan. Beginning in August of 2011, she served as the Regional Commercial Counselor for Central America. Mrs. Cook was based in El Salvador in this capacity, and advanced U.S. commercial interests in six countries of the region, which includes El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Belize.

She previously served in China, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and South Africa. While in China, Mrs. Cook was instrumental in promoting U.S. commercial interests in the South China region which represents 40 percent of China’s total imports and exports. In Saudi Arabia, Mrs. Cook was recognized for her cross cultural ability to promote U.S. export in a demanding environment. In Taiwan, she managed a team that focused on many challenging issues, including U.S.-Taiwan pharmaceutical negotiations, intellectual property rights protection, technology standards, U.S. education promotion, and environmental technology trade promotion. In South Africa, Mrs. Cook oversaw post administration and led in many international market development activities. Mrs. Cook received numerous awards for her contributions in advancing U.S business interests.

Prior to joining the U.S. Commercial Service, Ms. Cook worked for many years with the Transamerica Group to develop overseas markets on behalf of the company. Mrs. Cook oversaw post administration and was involved in many international market development activities.