Alumni Profile: J. Matthew Szymanski

J. Matthew Szymanski is a senior advisor for the US-Asia Institute and a self-employed consultant. From 1990-2002, he practiced law and served in government in the Washington, D.C. area. From 2002-2007, he served the U.S. Congress as chief of staff for both the House Small Business Committee and the U.S.-China Interparliamentary Exchange. In the latter role, he helped manage U.S.-China relations by organizing 20 U.S. delegations to China and hosting many Chinese delegations in the United States.

From 2007-2014, Mr. Szymanski was vice president for corporate relations at Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) at its headquarters in Shanghai, China. He resided on SMIC’s Shanghai campus with his family and together they traveled widely. To promote U.S.-China relations, he hosted U.S. and Chinese delegations at work and at home and volunteered time teaching U.S.-style rule of law (ROL) courses at East China University of Political Science and Law, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Fudan University, and Peking University School of Transnational Law. He also served as an adjunct professor for Council on International Educational Exchange, teaching international business law to American undergraduates studying abroad at East China Normal University. In 2010, the City of Shanghai awarded him Leading Professionalstatus.

In 2008, Mr. Szymanski partnered with USAI to establish the USAI-Szymanski ROL Program for Chinese Students to host top Chinese law students in Washington, D.C. For four weeks each summer, a handful of students experience the U.S. system firsthand, observing legislative and judicial proceedings and meeting with officials from all three branches of the U.S. Government. In 2015, he partnered with USAI to establish the USAI-Syzmanski ROL Program for U.S. Students. The inaugural program occurred in May-June, 2016 in China. For more information on Mr. Szymanski, see his LinkedIn profile.