Howie Wachtel is director of global sanctions advisory and strategy at PayPal, where he oversees a team responsible for developing and implementing global sanctions policies and investigative standards, while engaging with international organizations and regulatory bodies.
He previously worked as the director of U.N. and multilateral affairs at the National Security Council, where he covered a range of issues involving the U.N., peacekeeping, international justice, multilateral sanctions and human rights. Prior to this position, Wachtel served as acting coordinator of sanctions policy at the U.S. State Department, where he coordinated strategic analysis and action on U.S. sanctions policy initiatives, including multilateral outreach to the U.N. and the E.U. He previously held roles as deputy coordinator and senior adviser in the same office.
Prior to this work, he was deputy chief of the Sanctions and Counterterrorism Unit in the Political Section of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. He was the mission’s lead adviser on counterterrorism issues and was responsible for the negotiation and review of U.N. Security Council resolutions relating to several sanctions programs.
Wachtel joined the State Department in 2009, after spending three years as a litigation associate at Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett in New York. Prior to this role, he worked in the Office of the Legal Adviser (Treaty Affairs) at the State Department, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies in London. Wachtel has taught courses on U.N. sanctions and counterterrorism policy at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs and the Duke University School of Law.
He received his J.D. and LL.M. in international and comparative law from Duke University and his undergraduate degree from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. He also received a general course diploma from the London School of Economics.