Season 6, Episode 3. Ana Laura Lizano is Minister Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the World Trade Organization (WTO). This is episode 70 if you are keeping track. I can't believe it has been 70 already! I do these for myself because I love doing them, but it is great to hear when people reach out to say they enjoy them. Thanks to everyone who has reached out; I really appreciate it. Ana has worked in International Trade for many years, including in the private sector,...

Season 6, Episode 2. Miguel Antonio Villamizar Parra. Counsellor Legal Affairs at the World Trade Organization. WTO. Continuing with our second season, I had the pleasure of hosting Miguel Villamizar, who is likely among one of the most well-liked individuals in International Trade. When you meet him, you will know what I am talking about, and after listening to this conversation, you will likely agree with me. I didn't know this, but Miguel has been listening to the podcast for some time,...

Season 6, Episode 1. Ralph Ossa. Chief Economist at the World Trade Organization. WTO. This is the first episode of our sixth season, and I could not think of a better guest than Ralph Ossa, who has been serving as Chief Economist for the WTO for over a year after a long career as an academic. Ralph walks us through his career, describing his interests, motivations, and some of the challenges he encountered along the way. The way he describes it clearly explains the evolution in his career...

Season 5, Episode 13. Bonus Christmas episode. Rodolfo Rivas. Marijke Smit is back! For this special bonus episode, I am again joined by my colleague Marijke, only this time, the roles are reversed. Seeing how much fun Marijke had talked about ten influential films in her life, I decided to revisit my most influential movies and discuss them with her. I am glad she accepted my invitation; this time, she plays host, and I play guest. I enjoyed the experience of thinking and preparing my...

Season 5 Episode 12. Kilian Riedhof, Award-winning Filmmaker known for "Gladbeck" (2018), “You Will Not Have My Hate" (2022), and his latest "Stella. A Life." (2023), which stars Berlinale best actress award-winner Paula Beer. Kilian is a multi-talented Director and writer who studied at the Hamburg Film School. He was at the Zurich Film Festival to present his latest film, and that is when I had the pleasure to sit down with him to discuss his career, his craft, his latest film, and also a...

Tayutic Mena, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Tayutic is a seasoned veteran among the delegates dealing with the WTO. I have been working with him for many years, and we have worked together in many negotiations, including the ITA expansion, EGA, and TiSA. Since then, he has become a celebrity in the WTO, thanks to his involvement in agriculture, a topic that is close to his heart, and by the way he describes it, it should be close to...

Season 5 Episode 10 – Willy Alfaro, Director, Vision & Strategy at the World Trade Organization (WTO). Willy has been in Geneva and the WTO since the GATT days and has had a vibrant experience across the WTO, serving in different capacities across various divisions. Everyone knows Willy, and this is because he is a very knowledgeable and friendly person who, in terms of the Multilateral Trading System, has seen it all. We discussed some influences in his decision to study at the...

Season 5 Episode 09 – Barbara Ramos, Director, Chief, Research and Strategies for Exports at International Trade Centre (ITC). I've had plenty of interesting guests in the over 60 episodes across five seasons, and yet, Barbara stands out amongst them with a vibrant story spanning continents and experiences. Barbara, originally from Brazil, was attracted to International Relations early and has run at it since. She's worked at two Development Banks, an Embassy, and USAID, while also...

Season 5 Episode 08 – Nir Baranga, Director, Trade in Services and Investment Department at the Foreign Trade Administration of the Ministry of Economy, Israel. Nir is one of my earliest colleagues at the Ministry. We started around the same time and remain kicking and screaming. He is a frontline negotiator leading bilateral, plurilateral, and multilateral services negotiations for Israel. When he visits Geneva, we usually talk about many things besides trade, and podcasts are one of them....

Season 5 Episode 07 – Geraldo Vidigal, Coordinator, LL.M. International Trade and Investment Law, University of Amsterdam. Geraldo, although young, is a veteran of the International Trade world. Ask anyone interested in trade, and they will know of him. I have known Geraldo for a long time, with our professional careers running in parallel. I had the opportunity to sit down with Geraldo during his last visit to Geneva, and the conversation was a blast! We covered his origin story and how...

Season 5 Episode 06 – Jorge Castro, Chief of Section at the World Trade Organization’s Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation (ITTC), in Geneva, Switzerland. Jorge is a very experienced professional on the regional and multilateral front. He worked for the Venezuelan government and then for the Andean Community before making his way to the WTO. He was in Legal Affairs for many years before a stint at Pascal Lamy's DG office and now as Chief of Section at ITTC. We covered a lot of...

Season 5 Episode 05 – Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, Director of the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE) in Brussels. Hosuk is a leading author on trade diplomacy, EU-Far East relations, and the digital economy. I enjoyed catching up with him during his recent visit to Geneva. I have known him for a while, and we’ve talked and exchanged messages, but this was the first time I met him, and it was an excellent opportunity to learn more about him and his thoughts on various...

Season 5 Episode 04 – Antony Taubman, Director, Intellectual Property, Government Procurement & Competition Division at the World Trade Organization. Antony Taubman, a well-known figure in the International Intellectual Property scene, serving as Director of the Intellectual Property, Government Procurement & Competition Division at the World Trade Organization. We had a fascinating conversation spanning his illustrious career across the private sector, the Australian Department of...

Season 5 Episode 03 – Stuart Harbinson, former Permanent Representative of Hong Kong and the HK Special Administrative Region of China at the WTO, and former Chief of Staff to the DG of the WTO. Stuart had a distinguished career in public service in Hong Kong, serving from 1994 to 2002 and then joining the WTO as one of the OGs Chief of Staff to Director-General Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, and later became a became Senior Adviser to Director-General Pascal Lamy. He also chaired many bodies,...

Season 5 Episode 02 – Sainabou Taal Knebel, Head of Fisheries Subsidies at the World Trade Organization (WTO), in Geneva, Switzerland. For the second episode of our fifth season, yes, you heard that right, our fifth season, and episode 56 if you are counting, I had the pleasure of talking to Sainabou Taal Knebel, who leads Fisheries Subsidies work at the World Trade Organization. Sai is passionate about International Trade and her work, which is evident when talking to her. You can't help...

Season 5 Episode 01 – David Bisbee, Deputy Permanent Representative of the United States of America (USA) to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland. As we kick off the 5th season of the podcast, I could not think of a better guest than David. I have known David since the beginning of my time working with WTO. We worked on several files, including Trade Facilitation and Government Procurement. David is very experienced in the Multilateral Trading System (MTS), and it is...

Season 4 Episode 17 – Juan Pablo Moya Hoyos, Dispute Settlement Lawyer at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland. I have known Juan Pablo for some time since we ran in the same circles, and we have common friends, but we only really had time to talk recently. We have a lot in common and cover much of it in this fun and insightful conversation. However, we only got to some of it. Juan Pablo is an economist and a lawyer, but as he tells it, his brain works more like an...

Season 4 Episode 16 – Lenka Nahlovska, Secretary of the Czech Arbitration Court and Head of Domain Name Dispute Resolution. During my recent trip to Prague for the Panelist meeting, where I had the privilege of making a presentation, I wanted to get Lenka on the podcast. I've known Lenka for a while, and working with Czech Arbitration Court through all these years has been a pleasure. Lenka has been doing a great job in growing the Center, with yearly growth and the recent launch of the new...

Season 4 Episode 15 – Gavin Weeks, Associate Fellow at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and a Clinical Psychologist and Neuropsychologist. During my recent trip to Oxford University for a Chief of Staff Certification at its world-renowned business school, I had to opportunity to meet Gavin. As part of the program, he delivered an insightful lecture on sustaining energy at work. I found the lecture very useful and thought we could talk more about it and other topics in a...

Season 4 Episode 14 – Anna Kazejak, award-winning Filmmaker. Anna is the talented filmmaker behind the funny and intelligent "F*****g Bornholm", which I had the pleasure of watching during the Zurich Film Festival in a packed theater. The film is very personal, and we hear a lot more about the development and some behind-the-scenes stories in our conversation. Although we try not to go into spoilers, we delve into some of the story's specifics. Anna also tells us about her career and...

Season 4 Episode 13 – Marijke Smit, Senior Counsellor at the Mission of Israel to the WTO. For episode 50, I wanted to do something a little different, and I cannot think of a better guest to track how ten films have influenced the personal and professional life of someone than my friend and colleague, Marijke Smit. We have been colleagues for over six years, and we usually talk about International Trade but also about films, music, and popular culture. Hence, let us bring a bit of that...

Season 4 Episode 12 – Robin Tallendier, Founder & Director at Atelier Wen. During Geneva Watch Days, I met a couple of individuals in the watch industry. I was lucky to talk to Robin Tallendier, Founder of Atelier Wen, a watch brand focusing on luxury watches made in China. Robin is passionate about Chinese watches, and we talked for hours. We captured some of that conversation in this episode. We talked about their latest model, the aptly named Perception, which has a passionate...

Season 4 Episode 11 – Emeric Delalandre, Co-Founder at Hegid. Emeric is a talented and passionate entrepreneur currently working in watches at Hegid. Still, from our conversation, I could tell he could easily be working in any other industry and succeed. It just happens that he is passionate about watches, which is why we have Hegid. Emeric is a French national, and this is something that drives him, with one of his goals being bringing French watchmaking to the forefront. French...

Season 4 Episode 08 – Roy Davidoff, Modern & Vintage watch expert and half of the Roy and Sacha duo. The Rodolfo Rivas Project has always been about talking to interesting individuals and learning from their experiences. Since I am a lawyer working in International Trade, Intellectual Property, and Dispute Settlement, many of my guests work in these areas. However, I’ve also featured filmmakers because film is a passion of mine, CEOs because I also dabble in entrepreneurship, and other...