Barry Schumacher

Barry Schumacher is a Program Director for The Conference Board. He is also a government relations and public affairs consultant, who has spent more than 40 years working in the public arena and on public policy issues.  Barry spent most of his career at APCO Worldwide, and ran the government relations practice for more than a decade building that practice group from a staff of 10 to a staff of 22 at its height.  During those years he helped triple the group’s revenue and expanded the group’s reach from a domestic only focus to one that had an international outlook as well.

While at APCO Worldwide, he specialized in international trade and commercial issues and foreign policy. He has helped to shape major trade, investment and foreign assistance legislation since the early 1980s, representing private companies, trade associations and governments.  In addition, he worked on environment, transportation, health, tax, finance and government efficiency issues.  Barry has also had an opportunity to work on legislation that included the Caribbean Basin Initiative, the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement, the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Freedom Support Act of 1990, the Uruguay Round implementing legislation and more recently, the Doha Development Round. Barry has also helped shape U.S. procurement policy, especially in areas relating to the environment. In addition to his legislative specialties, he has assisted numerous national governments present themselves in the U.S. in order to attract new investment or to communicate key issues to policy makers and the media.   

Prior to joining APCO in 1987, Barry served as an assistant specializing in trade issues for Florida Governor Bob Graham.  Barry was also a former director of inter-governmental relations for Puerto Rico’s Federal Affairs Administration and was actively involved in the formation of the Caribbean Basin Initiative.  Barry has written extensively on such topics as foreign investment in the U.S., U.S. trade policy and grassroots organizing. He helped write the 1991 edition of the reference work, Trade Warriors, a profile of congressional and executive branch officials active on international trade issues. Barry’s work has been published in the U.S. and internationally.  Most recently, he has written a regular column for a business magazine on U.S. policy and Latin America.   

Barry holds a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, a Master of Arts in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley and a Master of Arts in International Affairs from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.  He is also fluent in Spanish.