Pontēs Advisory

Pontēs — from the Latin for bridges. Connecting decision-makers across languages, markets, and borders.

Where policy meets
business reality

Pontēs Advisory helps companies navigate the intersection of trade, technology regulation, and geopolitics across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, particularly Korea. We bring a multi-institutional perspective from Congress, the U.S. State Department, USTR, the White House, and Fortune 500 leadership to provide strategy that bridges policy analysis and business reality.

What we do

Our services

I.

Market Access & Trade

We help companies navigate tariffs and develop strategies in the face of shifting trade policy by drawing on deep expertise in negotiating and implementing bilateral and regional trade agreements, with a particular focus on the US-Korea and EU-Korea free trade agreements. In the current trade environment, that depth of experience has never been more relevant.

II.

Regulatory Navigation

Regulations rarely arrive without warning. The signals are there for those who know where to look. We help companies anticipate policy shifts, manage compliance risk, and where possible, shape the rules before they are finalised. Our focus spans technology and AI regulation across the U.S., EU, China, Korea, and beyond, informed by direct experience leading global AI and digital policy at one of Europe’s largest Fortune 500 corporations.

III.

Geopolitical Risk

In the face of fast-paced and unpredictable geopolitical dynamics, including the Korean Peninsula, U.S.-China relations, and transatlantic tensions, we help identify exposure early and respond with strategic decisions before risk becomes crisis.

IV.

Government & Stakeholder Relations

Knowing the right people matters. Knowing how to work with them matters more. We leverage our network and coalition-building experience in Washington, Brussels, Seoul, Tokyo, and beyond to help clients develop effective engagement strategies.

Deena Magnall

Who we are

Experience from both
sides of the table

Deena Magnall founded Pontēs Advisory after two decades at the intersection of trade policy, technology regulation, and geopolitics, spanning the White House, State Department, USTR, Congress, and Fortune 500 leadership across three continents.

From 2014–2019, she led Korea trade policy at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) under both the Obama and Trump Administrations. As Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Korea, she served as lead U.S. negotiator for the KORUS FTA renegotiations, one of the most consequential trade negotiations of that period. She also represented the United States under KORUS FTA committees, successfully removing market barriers and opening $3 billion in new market access in the $600 billion Korean market.

At the State Department, she directed the government-wide campaign that secured Congressional passage of KORUS, at the time the largest U.S. free trade agreement in 17 years, and coordinated a high-level diplomatic strategy that safeguarded $750 million in U.S. exports. As a Council on Foreign Relations–Hitachi Fellow, she served as an in-house trade policy expert at a Tokyo think tank, building deep relationships across Japan’s government and policy communities.

Most recently, she served as Global Head of Digital and AI Policy at one of Europe’s largest Fortune 500 corporations in Paris, advising C-suite executives on regulatory strategy across the U.S., EU, and Asia. She led a rapid multistakeholder campaign that secured a critical legislative carve-out in the EU AI Act, protecting a multimillion-dollar acquisition and preserving the company’s ability to innovate in a $460 billion global industry.

Fluent in Korean and French, with earlier roles at the World Bank, UNDP, U.S. Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Congress, Deena holds an MA in International Economics from Johns Hopkins SAIS and a Master’s in Linguistics from Université Sorbonne Nouvelle.

— Get in touch

Let’s start a
conversation

Whether you are navigating shifting trade policy, entering a new market, or managing regulatory complexity, we would love to hear from you.

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