Michael C. Camuñez is President and CEO of ManattJones Global Strategies LLC, which provides strategic advice and advocacy to help companies doing business in emerging economies, with a particular emphasis on Mexico. Mr. Camuñez has significant experience as a senior executive, counselor and advocate advising U.S. companies in domestic and global markets, and he possesses a unique combination of political, legal, economic and international expertise.

He served from 2010 to 2013 as one of the nation’s leading commercial diplomats as the Assistant Secretary of Commerce at the International Trade Administration, where he managed a global portfolio to help lead the U.S. government’s efforts to open new markets for U.S. goods and services. He visited more than 30 countries to advance U.S. trade and economic policy and was appointed by the President to serve on the U.S. Helsinki Commission, managing the economic dimension of U.S. engagement with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He is most widely recognized for playing a critical role in rebalancing U.S. economic policy toward Mexico, leading numerous trade and policy missions there and helping to update and modernize a range of initiatives to enhance cross-border trade and investment. He was the chief architect of the recently established U.S.-Mexico High Level Economic Dialogue, which he proposed, coordinated and later helped launch during President Obama’s visit to Mexico in May 2013.

Prior to assuming his role at the Department of Commerce, Mr. Camuñez served in the Obama White House for two years as Special Counsel to the President in the Office of the White House Counsel as well as Special Assistant to the President, where he helped manage the President’s appointments to the domestic cabinet. He is a former equity partner of O’Melveny & Myers LLP, where he counseled and represented companies and financial institutions in foreign international litigation and international corporate compliance, including Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and Anti-Money Laundering counseling. He previously served in the first term of the Clinton Administration where he focused on domestic policy issues and was on the team that designed and launched the AmeriCorps national service program.

Apart from his career in public service, he also has a long track record of community leadership. He has served as a member of the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission and as the governor-appointed Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of California’s public service commission, known as California Volunteers, which administers all state funding for the AmeriCorps service programs through California. He is the past president of the Board of Trustees of the Mexican American Bar Foundation, a past member of the Stanford Law School Board of Visitors, and a current director of the Pacific Council on International Policy. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Stanford Law School.

Mr. Camuñez has been widely recognized for his leadership and community service. In 2014 he received the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute's National Leadership in Public Service Award in Washington, D.C. He also received the 2014 Mexican American Bar Foundation Professional Achievement Award. He has been named by Poder Magazine as one of the "Top 75 Most Influential Hispanic Americans" in the United States and was a recipient of the 2006 "Angel Award" by California Lawyer Magazine for outstanding pro bono service in California.