Witney Schneidman is a nonresident fellow with the Africa Growth Initiative and a member of the Trade Advisory Committee on Africa in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Sub-Saharan African Advisory Committee at the U.S. Export-Import Bank, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Corporate Council on Africa. He is president of Schneidman & Associates International (SAI). Since 2001, SAI has helped American and international companies and non-governmental organizations achieve their commercial and program objectives in Africa. SAI has worked on a variety of projects in a number of sectors in Africa.
Schneidman helped to create the Africa-China-U.S. Trilateral Dialogue on behalf of the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Brenthurst Foundation, and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He has also worked for compliance with the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative on behalf of the Hess Corporation. During the Obama presidential campaign, Schneidman was co-chair of the Africa Experts Group and a member of the Presidential Transition Team. In the Clinton Administration, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, responsible for economic and commercial issues in Sub-Saharan Africa. His responsibilities included the passage and implementation of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, and coordinating the U.S.-SADC Forum, the U.S.-Angola Bilateral Consultative Commission and the U.S.-Nigeria Joint Economic Forum.
Schneidman is the author of Engaging Africa: Washington and the Fall of Portugal’s Colonial Empire. He is the author of the report "A Ten Year Strategy for Increasing Capital Flows to Africa," published by Peterson Institute for International Economics, and “Twelve Years of the African Growth and Opportunity Act,” published by the Brookings Institution. He has written extensively on African economic and political issues, and has served as a commentator for CNN, the BBC, and NPR, among other media outlets.
He received a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Southern California, an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and a B.A. (Cum Laude) from Temple University.
