Sean Connell is a senior fellow at the Mansfield Foundation. His research and writing focuses on economic and innovation policy in Japan and Korea, and U.S.-Japan and U.S.-Korea economic relations, including at the sub-national level.
Mr. Connell previously served as Vice President, Government and Public Relations, for LAVLE USA Inc., a Washington State-based supplier and developer of advanced energy storage systems making use of advanced battery cell technologies from the Japanese company 3DOM Inc. Prior to that, he served in leadership roles in economic development and international trade in Washington State.
From 2003 through 2011, Mr. Connell served as director for Japan and Korea at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and concurrently as executive director of the U.S.-Korea Business Council. In these positions, he spearheaded the U.S. Chamber’s policy initiatives on Japan and Korea, and played key coordinating roles in the U.S. business community’s efforts to secure the successful negotiation and approval by the U.S. Congress of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement.
From 2011 to 2012, Mr. Connell was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow in Japan and visiting scholar at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade, and Industry in Tokyo. In 2013 he was a POSCO Visiting Fellow at the East-West Center, and Japan Studies Visiting Fellow at the East-West Center in Washington. Mr. Connell has also worked for the Washington State House of Representatives and Mie Prefectural Government in Japan.
Mr. Connell holds a BA with high honors from Wesleyan University and an MA from the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University, and he has studied at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. He is a board member of the Washington State China Relations Council, and a member of the national advisory committees for the Japan-America Student Conference and Korea-America Student Conference.