Against a backdrop of surging tariffs, fracturing alliances, and rising protectionist sentiment on both sides of the Atlantic and the Pacific, the Economic Club of Minnesota gathered to celebrate someone who has spent her entire career swimming against that current. Dr. Mari Elka Pangestu, economist, former cabinet minister, World Bank managing director, and now Indonesia's Special Envoy for International Trade and Multilateral Cooperation, received the Bill Frenzel Champion of Free Trade Award.

The honor could not have come at a sharper moment. As Minnesota companies navigate the whiplash of new U.S. tariffs and retaliatory measures reshaping global supply chains, Pangestu offered something rarer than policy prescriptions: a long view, anchored in decades of experience navigating trade negotiations from Jakarta to Geneva to Washington.