David Talbot, PhD, is a director at the Milken Institute and leads research and policy programming for the New Geo-Economics Initiative. He focuses on the intersection of economics and geopolitics with an emphasis on international trade, critical and emerging technologies, and the energy transition.

Talbot previously served in the Obama administration as a policy advisor for international economics to US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, playing a central role in designing her commercial diplomacy strategy and developing signature initiatives to strengthen US economic relations with India, ASEAN, and Canada and Mexico; increase exports and inbound foreign direct investment; and promote responsible business conduct. Talbot has additionally worked on three US presidential campaigns, volunteered as an Economic Policy Advisory Committee member on Joe Biden for President, and counseled clients on complex geopolitical, economic, and regulatory issues.

Talbot holds a PhD in international political economy from the University of Cambridge, a master’s degree from the University of Oxford, and a BA from Yale University. He serves on the advisory board of CIV:LAB, a grantmaking nonprofit accelerating climate change mitigation and adaptation. Talbot is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy and the Los Angeles Committee of Human Rights Watch. His articles have appeared in numerous outlets, including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.