Effective July 8th, 2019 Sarah Kemp joined the Policy, Communications and Population Health organization in the role of Executive Director, China Policy Strategy and Human Health Commercial International Strategic Policy Initiatives. In this role Sarah is responsible for supporting the MSD China team in their strategic policy shaping initiatives, defining and leading global above-country engagement in support of MSD China, and leading critical policy shaping initiatives in support of the entire ex-US market set.
Before joining Merck, Ms. Kemp was the Deputy Under Secretary, for the International Trade Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C. In this role she oversaw a $485 million annual budget and 2,100 trade and investment professionals based in 108 US cites and 76 markets around the world.
Prior to her time in D.C. she was the Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, overseeing the U.S. Department of Commerce’s trade promotion and trade policy activities in its operations in Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai, Wuhan, Shenyang and Guangzhou. In this capacity she was a key advisor to the Ambassador and advised U.S. CEOs—from fortune 500 companies to SME’s –on China business strategy, market access, export promotion, anti-dumping / countervailing duty cases, intellectual property protection and export controls.
As a career Foreign Commercial Service Officer, she served as the Country Manager in China and Vietnam, and had multiple postings in Beijing, Hong Kong and Bangkok. Ms. Kemp joined Commerce as a Presidential Management Fellow.
She received her Master of Business Administration from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, her Master of Public Administration from Columbia University and her Bachelor of Arts in Physiological–Anthropology from Hamilton College. She is married with two children.