John B. RICHARDSON is the head of the Task Force Maritime Affairs, Directorate-General for Fisheries and Maritime Policy for the European Commission in Brussels. He has taken up this post after having served as head of the delegation of the European Commission to the United Nations. Before then, he had been since 1996 minister and deputy head of the European Commission's Delegation in Washington. He served in the European Commission's Brussels headquarters for twenty-three years, including time as division chief for relations with the United States and then with Japan. Prior to 1989, he worked on external aspects of the single market and on international trade in services, and was a member of the Negotiating Group on Services in the Uruguay Round. Mr. Richardson has also worked on energy policy, particularly petroleum trade, and environmental policy. From 1969 to 1973, he was employed by Unilever Ltd. as an economist in both London and Hamburg. Mr. Richardson is a member of the Services World Forum, a private group devoted to the study of the global services economy. He received degrees in chemistry and economics at Downing College, Cambridge University and University College, London. Mr. Richardson is a member of the Board of the Salzburg Seminar, and served as a faculty member of numerous Salzburg Seminar sessions.