Where Global Policy Meets Practice

Cristina Hernandez G27 WG27 found herself meeting with cattle producers in Uruguay this spring as part of her studies at Penn’s Lauder Institute. The conversations centered on a question she had been grappling with: How will the newly signed EU-Mercosur trade agreement affect small and midsize businesses across South America?

For Hernandez, the experience was the culmination of months of preparation through Lauder’s Politics and Policy Program, a selective co-curricular initiative in its third year. Designed to illustrate how political and regulatory forces influence business, the yearlong program known as PPP sends students into the field to conduct research, interview decision-makers, and produce professional policy briefs.

“This agreement was signed just as I was choosing my PPP topic, after more than 25 years of negotiations,” says Hernandez, who is currently completing her project. “It was like the topic chose me.” The agreement, which provisionally took effect on May 1, creates one of the largest free-trade areas in the world by linking the European Union with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

Conceptualized by Regina Abrami — Chang Sun Term Professor and faculty director of the Global Program and strategic initiatives at Lauder — PPP moves students beyond classroom discussions and into real-world policy environments. “What differentiates this program is that it isn’t just talking about the importance of geopolitics,” Abrami says. “It’s asking students to go out and actually understand what it means for businesses, exposing them to the kinds of considerations and constraints that don’t always show up in textbooks.”

Pavel Oliva G00 WG00, founder and managing partner of investment firm RockHill Global, LLC, has spent much of his career navigating the intersection of policy and global capital markets. Since graduating from Lauder, he has built a track record of investing worldwide across developed and emerging markets, often in industries heavily affected by government action. He and his wife, Kimberly Oliva GED99, provided the support needed to launch PPP in 2024. For him, the value of the initiative lies in affording students hands-on experience with the people and processes behind major decisions. “The more they understand how the sausage is made,” he says, “the better prepared they are to understand how that impacts their business.”

Lauder students apply to PPP during their first year and if selected receive training in policy research, interviewing, and writing. As part of the program, they travel to Penn Washington, where they gain insight into how policy is crafted and implemented. Students then conduct up to 10 days of fieldwork with policymakers, academics, industry leaders, and other stakeholders. The program covers travel costs, enabling students to conduct fieldwork in locations relevant to their research. Those who complete the program are designated Lauder Politics and Policy Fellows at graduation.

In addition to learning about cattle and agricultural production in Uruguay, Hernandez interviewed sources ranging from an academic expert on the EU-Mercosur agreement to prominent public-sector leaders. She has found that while the agreement creates significant opportunities, small and midsize businesses may struggle to benefit unless larger exporters and development organizations help them manage complex European regulatory requirements. “I discovered that SMEs are very unlikely to export directly to Europe at scale,” she says, “but a more realistic path is integrating them into EU-compliant value chains.” Following her fieldwork, Hernandez is synthesizing her findings into her final policy brief.

PPP projects span a wide range of industries and geographies. Recent graduate Hiroki Kobayashi G26 WG26, a former professional soccer player who transitioned to private equity before joining Lauder, used the program to explore how policy impacts professional sports. Kobayashi traveled to the headquarters of the Union of European Football Associations in Nyon, Switzerland, last summer to examine how the governing body is responding to financial instability among European soccer clubs. As outside investors pour more money into the sport, such instability has become increasingly prevalent among mid- and lower-tier clubs, a challenge Kobayashi addressed in his recommendations.

In Nyon, Kobayashi spent two hours speaking with senior UEFA officials about the changing ownership landscape in European soccer, gaining access to perspectives that might otherwise have remained out of reach. “If I had been in the U.S., it would have been very difficult for me to have a genuine conversation,” he says.

Those are the kinds of interactions the program is designed to make possible. Says Pavel Oliva: “Especially since 2008, global business and markets are increasingly driven by policy decisions. It’s incredibly important for students to get on the ground level and be able to identify, understand, and potentially influence people who will drive change.”