Michael Colopy

Michael Colopy’s presentation method is brain-stretching, enlightening and memorable. Colopy addresses corporate and association audiences on global trends and the challenges US businesses face around the world, especially in dealings with China, a country he knows well. In a brisk narrative style, incorporating new developments – including the morning’s news – he conveys deep and broad knowledge, navigating, analyzing, and forecasting world currents since 1988. The lively and unrehearsed Q & A portion of his presentations engages audience members directly, customizing the session to the interests of participants.

Educated at Princeton, Michael Colopy’s research projects have taken him to Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Ukraine, El Salvador, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, the PRC, France, the UK, and Venezuela. Colopy learned through firsthand experience how the attitudes and agendas of other nations can affect the American brand. He understands US government policy processes well, having served on staff in both the US House and Senate, a partner in a major DC lobbying firm, a consultant to foreign governments and an advisor to Fortune One Hundred corporations, and trade associations of every stripe.

Colopy’s record of accurate predictions stands out; he has anticipated and tracked global trends, regional developments (especially in East Asia), leadership choices, political agendas, economic shifts, and currency policies, connecting the dots among such distinct factors as the re-emergence of China’s reformers under Prime Minister Wen Jia-bao, transformation of the labor market, competition for commodity resources, pollution, adverse pressures on US corporations, the Google confrontation, skewing state investments to assuage leasers’ fears of discontent and to favor populist programs, the evolving "hostage capital" dilemma, and the changing face of internal discontent.  Colopy deftly unbraids the intricacies of Japan’s foreign policy, its trade and political disputes with China, the collapse of its economic renewal agenda, the lethargic response of its ministries, rising security anxieties, and the fundamental crisis of its aging population.

He also reviews positive prospects in Vietnam and the Philippines, political re-stabilizing in Thailand and Malaysia, resurgence in Indonesia, and the strategically crucial regional role of Australia.

Colopy’s dynamic style, recently described as “the antidote to jet lag”, is articulate, clear, and directly responsive to his audience. He is especially known for his humorous asides – he offers no feel-good “happy talk" but practical, highly specific, and insightful assessments.  Michael Colopy readily challenges old orthodoxies – when evidence and patterns warrant, or to test the validity of a plan or policy. His combination of wit, broad knowledge, practical information and energetic manner has impressed hundreds of audiences and earned him among the highest repeat rates in his field. A senior executive at a recent leadership retreat dubbed him “the anti-dote to jet lag” because “the breadth, relevance and wit of his insights fire up your brain cells.”