Currently an adviser on international trade and global strategy to retailer Limited Brands, he played a key role in the creation and passage in 2000 of the landmark African Growth and Opportunity Act to open up trade with that continent. Neuman has provided economic counsel to presidents, trade ministers and other African leaders, and has developed models of expertise and technology transfer which have helped create hundreds of thousands of jobs, especially for women. A champion of fair trade, Neuman helped bring together the team that formed Cottonline, a joint venture in Madagascar that is now the largest U.S. investment in the sub-Saharan African apparel industry, and also led efforts to assist women-owned cotton cooperatives in Burkina Faso. Thanks in no small part to his efforts, Africa, as a whole, now boasts the highest rate of return on investment of any region in the world. A 2011 recipient of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Alumni Humanitarian Award and a life member of the Alumni Association, Neuman earned his bachelor’s degree in economics in 1985.

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