Doing Business in Venezuela Webinar Series

David L. Fogel serves as the Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Director General of the United States and Foreign Commercial Service for the International Trade Administration (ITA) at the U.S. Department of Commerce. In this role, Mr. Fogel leads ITA’s Global Markets business unit dedicated to commercial diplomacy, commercial advocacy, export promotion, and foreign direct investment, with more than a thousand trade professionals across hundreds of offices globally.

Mr. Fogel’s previous public service includes his 2020 appointment as Senior Advisor and Chief Business Development Officer in the Office of the Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment at the U.S. Department of State.  He was subsequently nominated by President Donald J. Trump during his first term as Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs.  Prior to his role at the State Department, Mr. Fogel was appointed as Chief of Staff at the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM). At both the State Department and EXIM, Mr. Fogel advocated for U.S. business interests around the world.

In the private sector, Mr. Fogel has built and sold three FinTech companies:  NCCS/Coinmint, a crypto mining company, where he served as Chief Executive Officer; IndexIQ, an indexing and ETF company, where he served as Co-Founder and President; and SmartPortfolio.com, where he served as Co-Founder and Vice President. Mr. Fogel began his career as a corporate attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP.

Mr. Fogel received a B.S.F.S., summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, a J.D., magna cum laude and Order of the Coif, from Georgetown University Law Center, and an M.B.A. from the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business. He also has served as an Adjunct Professor in Entrepreneurship at the Georgetown University Law Center and on the Advisory Board of the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown.

John M. Barrett arrived as Chargé d’Affaires with the U.S. Embassy in Caracas in April 2026.  A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Mr. Barrett most recently served as Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala.  Prior to that he served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Panama from 2023 to 2025.  Previously, he served as the Counselor for Economic Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Peru, and earlier, as Consul General at the U.S. Consulate General in Recife, where he led U.S. diplomatic engagement across eight states in northeastern Brazil.

From 2015 to 2017, Mr. Barrett served in Washington, D.C., as the State Department’s senior country officer supporting the U.S.-Philippines bilateral relationship.  From 2012 to 2015, he was the Counselor for Economic Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador.  His career with the Foreign Service has also included assignments in China, Afghanistan, and a previous tour in Guatemala.

Before joining the Department of State, Mr. Barrett held business and strategic planning positions with PepsiCo, The Walt Disney Company, and L.E.K. Consulting.  He earned a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.  He speaks Spanish and Portuguese.

Iris Pilika works as a Senior Sanctions Compliance Officer at the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).  As part of OFAC’s Sanctions Compliance Division, she is responsible for implementing U.S. economic sanctions through outreach to and engagement with public and private sector partners. Iris regularly advises and educates on a variety of matters relating to compliance with U.S. economic sanctions programs. Previously, she served as a Sanctions Policy Advisor in OFAC’s Policy Division. Iris has extensive experience working on national security and illicit finance issues in the United States government, private sector, and international organizations.

Valentina Meneses is Co-Leader of the Energy Practice at Americas Market Intelligence (AMI), where she advises energy and infrastructure companies on how to grow, measure market opportunities, and protect investments across Latin America. Drawn to energy and mining projects for the social, political, economic, and environmental complexity they involve, she leads strategic research and market intelligence engagements that help companies navigate complex operating environments. Her work focuses on translating that complexity into actionable competitiveness, particularly in areas such as energy transformation, market entry, competitive dynamics, and investment opportunities.