Jon K. Hartzell
Chairman


Jon K. Hartzell serves as Chairman of KWR International, Inc. (KWR), a firm specializing in the delivery of research, communications, consulting, and advisory services to public and private sector clients; he also undertakes independent consulting assignments.  With a principal focus on Financial Regulation and Governance, Corporate Communications, and Investor Relations issues, Mr. Hartzell assists senior management of banks, corporations, and other financial and service firms in U.S. and overseas markets with their regulatory strategies, resolution of regulatory and policy issues, and external corporate and investor relations needs.
                                
Prior to affiliating with KWR in 2003, Mr. Hartzell spent seven years with investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) and its predecessor Dresdner Kleinwort Benson (DrKB), first as Director, Group Strategy and Economics, and later as Senior Vice President for Corporate and External Affairs.  During that time, as a member of the DrKB North America Management Committee, he launched, staffed, and managed Dresdner’s North America corporate communications and external relations program and functioned as regulatory and government relations advisor to the regional CEO and senior management.  Mr. Hartzell also served as principal press spokesman and frequently represented the firm at external events, business associations, and conferences.

Before joining Dresdner, Mr. Hartzell held senior career positions within the U.S. government for nearly three decades, with hands-on leadership of complex financial regulatory programs and key roles in international policy and regulatory negotiations. These assignments included multi-year residencies in Japan, Germany, and Switzerland and wide-ranging field visits in some 45 other countries and jurisdictions.  As Deputy Comptroller of the Currency (1990-95), Mr. Hartzell had overall responsibility for supervisory policy oversight of some 75 foreign bank branches under OCC license in the U.S.  He reconstituted and expanded OCC’s International Banking and Finance function, initiating and managing OCC relationships with official banking supervisory organizations in about 40 key countries around the world; participated in meetings and work of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision; and was a regular speaker on international banking issues.  From 1983 to 1990, he was chief U.S. Treasury representative in Germany and then in Japan, where he was a key player in shaping and conducting the U.S.-Japan Yen-Dollar and Structural Impediments Initiative (SII) negotiations.  Earlier, he served as a senior member of the Geneva-based U.S. negotiating team for the Tokyo Round of GATT Multilateral Trade Negotiations. He began his public sector career at the Office of Management and Budget, as a budget examiner in both the International and National Security Divisions.

Mr. Hartzell holds an MPA degree in economics from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, an MA in economics and international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and a BA in history (highest honors) from Principia College.  He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Foreign Policy Association, the Bretton Woods Committee, the Japan Society, the Korea Society, and the American Council on Germany, and serves on the Advisory Board of the European Union Studies Center of the City University of New York Graduate Center.  Mr. Hartzell speaks German, basic French, and some Spanish and Japanese.