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Michael Headshot (2)Michael R. Castle Miller
Executive Director

Michael is an attorney who has helped develop special economic zone (SEZ) programs in over a dozen countries. He founded Refugee Cities to apply best practices from SEZs to expand opportunities for migrants so they can exercise their skills and vocations even while displaced.

In addition to leading Refugee Cities, Michael is the Managing Director of Locus Economica, where he has helped develop laws, policies, and regulatory authorities for SEZ programs in Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Senegal, Madagascar, Lesotho, Qatar, Pakistan, Lao PDR, Chile, Peru, and Mexico. As part of this work, he recommends business environment reforms, drafts laws and regulations, trains regulatory personnel, structures public-private partnerships, and develops social and environmental safeguards.

Previously, Michael was a consultant with the World Bank Legal Vice Presidency on urban law and development issues in the Private Sector, Infrastructure, and Finance Unit. Before that, he worked with the Public International Law and Policy Group (PILPG), though which he helped advise the governments of South Sudan, Georgia, and Yemen on post-conflict transition and minority representation.

Michael graduated with a J.D., summa cum laude, Order of the Coif, from American University, Washington College of Law and an M.A. in International Politics from American University, School of International Service. His publications in legal journals cover the political economy of international trade and investment, comparative local government, U.S. immigration law, and expropriation jurisprudence. Michael is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy and a Senior Program Officer for WEPZA, a trade association of SEZ practitioners. He is also a member of the Bar of the State of New York.

Read Michael’s Note from the Executive Director >>

Lotta MobergLotta Moberg
Director of Economics

Lotta Moberg is a senior macro analyst on the Dynamic Allocation Strategies team at William Blair. She has Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University, where she also taught classes in economics. Lotta has previously worked for the Swedish foreign
ministry in Russia, the Swedish Defense Forces in Kosovo, and the World Bank as a consultant. She has published in several economics journals, including the Journal of Institutional Economics and the Review of Austrian Economics. Lotta wrote her Ph.D. dissertation on special economic zones, and has also researched areas such as tax policy and municipal bankruptcy.

Harold GodsoeHarold Grant Godsoe
Director of Law and Policy,
Secretary

As a trade lawyer, Harold has worked on the judicial side of international arbitration under the CARICOM Agreement at the Caribbean Court of Justice and served private sector clients in resolving cross-border business and regulatory policy cases as an associate at a prominent trade law boutique in Washington. He joined Locus Economica in 2014 to develop trade policy for special economic zones,
and has also assumed the duties of an officer of WEPZA, the world’s first SEZ trade association. He earned an LL.M. in trade law from American University, Washington College of Law in D.C.

Harold began his international legal studies at the Tokyo campus of Temple University, and lived in Japan from 2005 to 2010. A native of Nova Scotia, Canada, he has been granted the opportunity to relocate many times – ultimately to Washington, D.C.

Megan McWilliams
Director of Finance and Administration headshot
Megan McWilliams is a Corporate Controller for an international manufacturing company with revenues over $1 billion. She began her career at the public accounting firm, Deloitte, serving public and private company clients. Following her tenure at Deloitte, she continued her career at various companies assisting with IPOs, Spin-offs, and acquisitions, building various aspects of departmental processes, procedures and internal controls.
Additionally, Megan has served at a number of nonprofit organizations over the years in a volunteer capacity, most recently as a coordinator and financial counselor for New Friends New Life.
Megan is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and holds a BBA in Accounting and Masters in Finance from Texas A&M University.
Kati Suominen
Senior Trade Economist

Kati Suominen PicKati is an accomplished trade economist, business and policy entrepreneur, and author with 20 years of thought leadership, research, and policy work on trade and development; global and regional trade policies, digitization, and e-commerce; foreign direct investment, and private-sector development globally. She is a seasoned advisor to senior economic policy makers in the United States, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean, Asia-Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East; poised media commentator, and speaker in leading business and policy forums.

Kati is the founder and CEO of two companies advancing global trade with world-class clients and on advisory boards of four trade-focused organizations. She is an Adjunct Professor at UCLA Anderson School of Management and an Adjunct Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. She is a former Inter-American Development Bank Integration and Trade Sector official and advisor to APEC Senior Officials. She is also a member of the World Economic Forum-sponsored global expert groups on digital economy, regional trade agreements, and global value chains. She has authored 80 articles and 9 books by leading academic presses. She is a former German Marshall Fund Fellow, has a PhD in Political Economy and an MBA from Wharton. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and works in six languages.

Read her full CV for more.

Joshua StaceyJoshua Stacey Headshot
Forced Displacement Specialist

Joshua Stacey has eleven years of experience working in small, grass-roots non-profit organizations, seven of those years in Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq. He recently finished his MA in Social Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, writing his dissertation on the humanitarian representation of male refugees.

Before moving to London, Joshua worked in Amman, Jordan, with Iraqi and Syrian refugees applying for asylum in the West. He is currently a Research Associate at the Centre on Religion and Global Affairs where, in addition to editing their policy briefings, he researches the potential and pitfalls of faith-based humanitarianism as it relates to the Syrian refugee crisis. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Davidson College, studied Arabic at the American University of Cairo, and completed further post-graduate studies at the American University in Beirut, the Near East School of Theology, and the Global Trauma Recovery Institute.

Jean-Francois MaystadtJean-Francois Maystadt
Economic Consultant

Jean-Francois Maystadt is a Senior Lecturer in Development Economics at Lancaster University. Before joining Lancaster, he held positions at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI, Washington DC, 2010-2014) and Center for Institutions and Economic Performance (LICOS, 2012-2014) at KU Leuven, Belgium. He is a development economist specializing in the study of Conflicts, Natural Disasters and Forced Migration. His research is related to the causes and consequences of conflicts and forced migration in Central Africa (Democratic Republic of Congo), Eastern Africa (Tanzania, Somalia, South Sudan, Horn of Africa), Asia (China, Nepal), and the Arab world.  His works on refugees are related to the following papers:

Gregory SongGreg Headshot (2)
Research Assistant

Gregory Song is a Junior Fellow at the Pacific Council on International Policy where he focuses on communications strategy and external relations. Greg has worked closely with premier global membership organizations in California, fostering a professional network with the Asia Society, Berggruen Institute, Los Angeles World Affairs Council, and the Pacific Council. His dedication to Refugee Cities comes from his personal focus on the Korean
Peninsula and inter-Korean cooperation in Special Economic Zones. He hopes to work towards an international solution of economic development and opportunity for the potential North Korean refugee crisis.

Greg holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and East Asian Studies from Villanova University, where he specialized in the political economy of China, Japan, and Korea. He has studied throughout the Asia-Pacific, speaks Korean and basic Cantonese, and is involved in several Asian-American organizations on the U.S. East and West Coast.