ABAC Member Biographies
Deb Henretta is Group President, Asia, Procter & Gamble with responsibility for The Procter & Gamble Company’s business in Asia.
Deb has a MA in Mass Communications and Advertising, Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University, USA. Deb started as a Marketing Assistant on Bold laundry detergent in 1985, progressing to President, Global Baby Care in 2001 and most recently to Group President, Asia. Deb is credited with turning around Baby Care, creating a $7 Billion P&G Baby Care business, behind the Company’s flagship Pampers brand. She finished her tenure in Baby Care in 2005 with four consecutive years of global growth in net sales, volume and profit – results not seen in nearly two decades.
Since her move from Cincinnati to Singapore in 2005 as President - ASEAN, Australasia and India (AAI) and subsequent appointment in 2007 as Group President of Asia she has delivered three years of record volume, sales and profits. Since 2007, Deb has also redesigned how P&G operates across the region by creating a One Asia organization for P&G, covering all markets in which P&G does business across Asia. Deb has also been active in the ongoing discussion of development of Asia through her participation as a Board member of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) at multiple forums. This included the American Chamber of Commerce Regional CEO roundtable, Singapore (2005-2006) and the Asia Pacific Council of American Chambers of Commerce (APCAC) conference in Singapore (2009). Most recently Deb was appointed as one of three US representatives on the business council of APEC.
In 2008 Deb was listed at # 24 on Fortune Magazines list of “Most Powerful Women in Business – International.” In addition to a number of global causes she supports (YWCA prevention of violence, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, P&G Advancement of Women initiative, etc) Deb is an active volunteer for Caring for Cambodia, helping build homes for the needy in Cambodia.
Deb continues to play an important role in the larger business and social community. A frequent speaker on topics of leadership, advancement of women and work/life balance, Deb enjoys family time – sports, music, the arts, and traveling across Asia with her husband and children.
Peter L. Scher is the Executive Vice President of Global Government Affairs and Public Policy for JPMorgan Chase and Co.
Mr. Scher oversees the firm’s State, Federal and International Government Relations efforts and serves as a member of JPMorgan’s Executive Committee. He and his team provide strategic advice and intelligence to senior management on the impact of public policy on the firm and its clients and represent the firm’s interests before government and regulatory officials in the United States and around the world.
Prior to joining JPMorgan Chase in 2008, Mr. Scher was the Managing Partner of the Washington, D.C. office of Mayer Brown LLP, one of the largest law firms in the world. Mr. Scher chaired Mayer Brown’s Government and Global Trade Practice, managing the practice in the United States, the European Union and Asia. The Chambers Legal Guide selected him as one of the “Leading Lawyers” for 2005, 2006 and 2007, noting Scher’s “…depth of understanding particularly with regard to financial institutions competing in international markets.” Chambers noted that Scher “is smart and savvy and knows how to handle matters sensitively and diplomatically.”
Prior to joining Mayer Brown in 2000, Mr. Scher spent nearly a decade serving in senior governmental positions. He was nominated by President Clinton and confirmed by the United States Senate to serve as the U.S. Special Trade Ambassador in the Office of the United States Trade Representative. In this capacity, he led U.S. negotiating teams with countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America to reach agreements expanding market opportunities for American products, including the agreement for China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as the agreement by China to lift its twenty-year ban on exports of food and agricultural products. He was appointed by the White House to negotiate a settlement to a cross-border dispute between nine northern state Governors and the Government of Canada arising from a dispute over Canadian imports into the United States.
Prior to serving as the Special Trade Negotiator, Mr. Scher served as Chief of Staff in the Office of the United States Trade Representative and in the same position at the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Prior to joining the Executive Branch, Mr. Scher served on Capitol Hill as the Chief of Staff to U.S. Senator Max Baucus and as the Majority Staff Director for the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Mr. Scher has been active in national Democratic political campaigns for more than twenty years, including the Clinton-Gore campaigns of 1992 and 1996 and the Gore-Lieberman campaign in 2000. In 2004, he was the Campaign Manager for the Vice Presidential Campaign of Senator John Edwards.
Mr. Scher has been an active speaker and participant on several high-profile commissions addressing global trade and regulatory issues, including as a member of the Atlantic Council of the United States Working Group on U.S.- European Union Trade and Regulatory Issues and currently as a member of the Asia Task Force for the Center for Strategic and International Studies addressing U.S. economic relations with China, Japan and India.
Born in New York City, New York, Mr. Scher received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from The American University and his Juris Doctor from the American University’s Washington College of Law.
Mr. Scher is married to Kimberly Tilley. They have two sons.
D.
Nick Reilly, Group
Vice President, General Motors, President, GM Asia Pacific
Nick
Reilly has served as president of GM Asia Pacific and GM group vice president
since
Reilly
began his GM career in 1975 with the former Detroit Diesel Allison Division in
the United Kingdom. From 1978 to 1984, he held various assignments with General
Motors in Belgium, the United States, and Mexico.
Returning
to England, he moved to Vauxhall Motors as general operations manager,
aftersales. He later held the post of Vauxhall supply manager and was appointed
a director of the company in 1986.
In
1987, Reilly was named vice president of operations and a member of the board of
directors of GM's
He
returned to the U.K. in 1996 as chairman and managing director of Vauxhall and,
in 1997, was named a GM vice president. In 2001, Reilly returned to Zurich,
Switzerland, as vice president of sales, marketing, and aftersales for GM
Europe, from where he transferred to Korea to lead GM's transition team in the
formation of GM Daewoo, beginning in January 2002. He assumed the duties of
president and chief executive officer of GMDAT upon the company's founding in
October 2002.