Team

Stephen
Adams

Senior Director
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Stephen is a Senior Director at Global Counsel. Over the last twenty years, Stephen has worked as a policy adviser on international trade and the EU single market in the European Parliament, as an advisor in DG Trade in the European Commission and an adviser to the British Secretary of State for Business. He was also an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs in London, where he worked on political risk in cross border M&A and supply chain design. Stephen is an Honorary Senior Research Associate in the School of Politics at University College London, where he lectures on contemporary aspects of public-policymaking, international trade policy and trade and investment politics.

At Global Counsel he chiefly supports the trade, investment and financial services policy practices, with a focus on industrial and trade policy, supply chain design and corporate internationalisation. He works with senior leaders in many GC clients to deepen and develop their engagement with public policymaking.

Recent examples of his work include:

  • Advising companies across multiple sectors on supply chain resilience after Brexit, with focus in areas such as customs processing, rules of origin and client novation in financial services.
  • Collaborating with a major UK Trade Association to produce a review of UK trade policy for the financial services sector and recommendations for the UK and other governments on how to design a trade policy for financial services. 
  • Providing expert training for the UK FCO and DIT in a number of trade policy sub-fields including services trade, IP rights in trade policy and level playing field provisions in trade law.

Stephen Adams is one of the UK’s leading providers of specialist training on trade policy for both public policymakers and trading companies. Learn more about his trade policy training.

Latest Insights by Stephen Adams

General Politics

Regulating food at times of innovation and insecurity with the FSA's Emily Miles

General Politics

Recorded last month at our Politics of Food conference in London, Senior Director Stephen Adams speaks to Emily Miles, Chief Executive of the UK's Food Standards Agency. They discuss the agency's transition through Brexit, the challenges of running a major food regulator through a pandemic, and the risks and opportunities offered by food innovation.

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TMT icon

The chain in the network: new thinking on supply chains

TMT

Over the last few months, GC has been fortunate to work as the Research Partner for R2 Factory, interviewing leading supply chain professionals on how they see their work after the covid-19 pandemic and against a backdrop of evolving demands on supply chains. Their basic answer: they have stopped thinking about supply chains, and started thinking in terms of networks of…

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General Policy icon

Global Month Ahead: The Politics of Food

General Policy

This year, Global Counsel's flagship policy conference is exploring the Politics of Food. Events throughout the month of January will offer a chance to debate and discuss the technological, regulatory and geopolitical challenges testing food systems around the world in 2023.

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View all Insights by Stephen Adams