The EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement

Magnus Rydén is currently Deputy Director General for Trade at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Stockholm and Head of the Department for International Trade Policy and the EU Single Market.

Working with international issues for more than two decades Mr Rydén has a broad understanding of global challenges and the role EU and Sweden plays, especially in the field of Trade Policy, Investments and Export Promotion . He has a long career in the Swedish Foreign Service with diplomatic postings in Brussels, Dublin and Washington. Magnus also has a background from the National Board of Trade in Sweden and the Financial Sector in Stockholm.

Born in Rome in 1967, Mr Rydén has a Master of Law degree from the University of Uppsala with academic credentials from Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, the Netherlands

Ola Brohman is currently Deputy Director at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Stockholm at the Department for International Trade Policy and the EU Single Market.

Ola has been working with EU Single Market and international trade policy since 2008 at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the National Board of Trade. Ola also has a background from the Administrative Court in Stockholm and the Swedish Board for Accreditation and Conformity Assessment.

Born in Stockholm in 1977, Ola has a Master of Law degree from the University of Stockholm.

Since June 2018, Jean-Pierre works as Trade Policy Officer at the European Union Delegation to Singapore. His current tasks include the preparation of the implementation of the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (EUSFTA) and EU-Singapore Investment Protection Agreement (EUSIPA).
From 2014 to 2018, he worked as Economic and Trade Officer at the European Union Delegation to Colombia and Ecuador, where he was responsible for the implementation of the EU-Colombia/Peru/Ecuador Trade Agreement and Colombia’s accession process to the OECD. Prior to that, he served at the Directorate of Trade Development and External Economic Relations of the Association of Caribbean States in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, and as University Lecturer of Regional Integration and International Affairs at the University Sergio Arboleda of Bogotá, Colombia.
He holds a Master Degree in International Relations of the University of Leuven (Belgium) and specialisation in International Trade.

Mr Oscar Wåglund Söderström is currently Director and Head of Department at the National Board of Trade, Sweden's government agency for trade policy and the EU internal market. Previously to this he was State Secretary for EU Affairs in the Swedish government. Mr Wåglund Söderström is also chair of Liberalerna's (the Liberal party, Sweden) international committee, coordinating the party's international relations.

Mr Wåglund Söderström expertise is within EU and government affairs, trade policy, EU internal market and political communication. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) Economic History, Business Law.

Dr Deborah Elms is the Founder and Executive Director of the Asian Trade Centre (ATC). She is Vice Chair of the Advisory Board for the Asia Business Trade Association (ABTA), Co-Chair of the Trade Policy Committee of the Global Trade Professionals Alliance (GTPA), and also a senior fellow in the Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry’s Trade Academy.

Previously, Dr Elms was head of the Temasek Foundation Centre for Trade & Negotiations (TFCTN) and Senior Fellow of International Political Economy at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Dr. Elms received a PhD in political science from the University of Washington, a MA in international relations from the University of Southern California, and bachelor’s degrees from Boston University. Dr Elms publishes the Talking Trade Blog.

Mr. Ti-Hwei How is the Country President of AstraZeneca Singapore, a global, science-led pharmaceutical company, focused on the discovery, development and commercialisation of life-changing prescription medicines. He also serves as the President of the Singapore Association of Pharmaceutical Industries (SAPI), and the Chair of the European Chamber of Commerce (EuroCham) Healthcare Committee.

He is also a member of the NUS Pharmacy Programme Advisory Board, and the Ngee Ann Polytechnic Life Sciences & Chemical Technology Advisory Committee.

A Singapore national, Mr How holds a Bachelor of Science (Pharmacy) with Honours, and an MBA from the National University of Singapore.

Mr How has had more than 20 years of Commercial experience across the Pharmaceutical & FMCG industries, and has spent the last 7 years in various General Management roles. Outside of Singapore, his career has seen him lived and worked in Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia.

With more than a decade of experience in international business and policy development in Europe and Asia, Emil advises companies on market entry and market growth strategies across various sectors including healthcare, smart and sustainable cities, fintech, and transport infrastructure. Before relocating to Singapore in 2013 for Business Sweden (“the Swedish Trade and Invest Council”), Emil represented them in China and the Benelux region (Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg). Emil also serves as a non-elected Board Member of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Singapore as well as the inaugural Chairman of the Nordic Innovation House in Singapore and a Member of the global board.

A Stockholm native, Emil holds an LL.M in International Law from Stockholm University.