Trade Conference 2025: Future-Proofing UK Tech: Growth and Resilience in an Uncertain World

Amanda Brooks

Director General for Trade Policy, Implementation and Negotiations, Department for Business and Trade

Amanda Brooks has been Director General for Trade Policy, Implementation and Negotiations in the Department for Business and Trade since June 2021. Amanda leads teams: negotiating free trade agreements (FTAs) and leading the DBT contribution to the reset of the UK-EU relationship; implementing some trade agreements, including aspects of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement and Windsor Framework; providing policy leadership for work on market access, multilateral trade, and development of broader economic relationships; and developing related domestic regulatory policy to improve trade and domestic outcomes together.

Amanda joined the then Department for International Trade in 2016. Her prior roles include Director of Business Innovation, and Deputy High Commissioner and Director of Trade and Investment in Singapore. Amanda holds an MBA from Imperial College.

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Sabina Ciofu

Associate Director – International, techUK

Sabina leads techUK's international policy and engagement. Based in Brussels, she manages our EU policy priorities as well as our international trade agenda.

Sabina leads techUK’s engagement with the European Union institutions, as well as the EU Member States. Outside of the EU, her work is focused on key trade partners, such as the USA and Japan, as well as key international organisations, such as the WTO and the OECD. Previously, she worked as Policy Advisor in the European Parliament for almost a decade, where she specialised in tech regulation, international trade and EU-US relations.

Sabina is the founder of the Gentlewomen’s Club, co-organiser of the Young Professionals in Digital Policy and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community, where she has led several youth civic engagement and gender equality projects.

She holds an MA in War Studies from King’s College London and a BA in Classics from the University of Cambridge.

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Johanna Hill

Deputy Director-General, World Trade Organization

Johanna Hill is a Deputy Director-General at the World Trade Organization, a position she assumed on 13 November 2023. With over 30 years of experience in international trade, Ms Hill, a native of El Salvador, has collaborated with governments and businesses to foster economic development through international policy and trade negotiations.

Before joining the WTO, Ms Hill advised firms and SMEs on trade regulations, foreign direct investment strategies, and market access. She has also held senior roles in financial institutions and has leadership experience in telecommunications regulation. Additionally, she served as Vice Minister of Economy for El Salvador, where she oversaw trade policy formulation and negotiated both bilateral and multilateral trade agreements.

In her role as Deputy Director-General, Ms Hill leads the WTO’s work on economic research and statistics, digital trade, intellectual property, government procurement, competition, trade in services and investment, and documentation and information management.

She holds a bachelor's degree from Tufts University and a master’s degree from Columbia University and serves on the board of TradeExperettes.

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L. Daniel Mullaney

Nonresident Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council’s Europe Center and GeoEconomics Center

L. Daniel Mullaney is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center and GeoEconomics Center. Most recently, he served as assistant US trade representative (AUSTR) for Europe and the Middle East in the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) from 2010 to 2023. He was chief negotiator for comprehensive trade agreements with the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom, as well as trade lead for the US-EU Trade and Technology Council, and was responsible for developing and implementing US trade policy in Europe, Eurasia, Russia, the Middle East, and North Africa.

Before assuming the post of AUSTR, he served as senior trade representative in the US Mission to the European Union in Brussels, where he was the principal voice for US trade policy in interactions with the EU institutions and EU member state governments, the public, and the international press. Prior to that posting, Mullaney was in USTR’s Office of General Counsel for seven years, where he represented the United States in dispute settlement proceedings at the World Trade Organization and led negotiations and acted as legal counsel for free trade and other agreements. Before joining USTR, Mullaney was in private practice for nearly twenty years, specializing in international trade law and litigation; when he entered public service, he was a partner at the law firm of Dorsey and Whitney.

Mullaney is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio. He holds a BA from Amherst College, and a joint law/foreign service JD/MSFS degree from Georgetown University.

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Antony Walker

Deputy CEO, techUK

Antony Walker is deputy CEO of techUK,  which he played a lead role in launching in November 2013.

Antony is a member of the senior leadership team and has overall responsibility for techUK’s policy work. Prior to his appointment in July 2012 Antony was chief executive of the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG), the UK’s independent advisory group on broadband policy. Antony was closely involved in the development of broadband policy development in the UK since the BSG was established in 2001 and authored several major reports to government. He also led the development of the UK’s world leading Open Internet Code of Practice that addresses the issue of net neutrality in the UK. Prior to setting up the BSG, Antony spent six years working in Brussels for the American Chamber of Commerce following and writing about telecoms issues and as a consultant working on EU social affairs and environmental issues. Antony is a graduate of Aberdeen University and KU Leuven and is also a Policy Fellow Alumni of the Centre for Science and Policy at Cambridge University.

: @techUKdepceo

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Lewis Walmesley-Browne

Head of Market Access and Consumer Tech, techUK

Lewis' programmes cover a range of policy areas within Market Access (international trade regulation, sanctions and export controls, technical standards and product compliance, supply chains) and Consumer Tech (media and broadcast policy, consumer electronics, and connected home technology).

Prior to joining techUK, Lewis worked in government affairs and policy roles for international trade associations in Southeast Asia including the American Malaysian Chamber of Commerce and the European Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia.

He holds an undergraduate degree in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in Public Policy & Management from SOAS University of London.

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