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Greetings Friends & Colleagues! It’s the New Year! Time to reflect on the past and look to the future. First, thanks to everyone who has made 2025 a landmark year for many reasons, personal and professional. Could not have done any of it without your support! Over these remarkable past twelve months, the success of working as a consultant has offered me the latitude to pursue interests including rowing, travel, and most importantly, spending time with family and friends. The freedom to make things up, with no boss, no commute, and no office is something I did not anticipate enjoying this much, and there is no going back! I have reunited with Jess, a friend from college and POOF, just like that, I have a partner, personally and professionally, to share all that I do. Together we run Seekonk West in the Bay Area and Seekonk East in Washington D.C. In between I make frequent trips to Houston in support of work at the Baker Institute and quarterly trips to Seoul. Reconnecting with Jess has been the best thing that has happened to me in many years and her support has been foundational and transformative. Seekonk LLC started in June 2024 as a second career built on the experience of my first career in the U.S. Department of State. I entered A-100 in September 1999 and served my first tour as a Consular Officer in Seoul, South Korea. After thirteen tours in D.C. and around the world, I chose to leave State and work as an independent consultant because of the flexibility it provides, knowing it would also take a lot of work to find clients, create and build a new professional identity, and to set up the logistics and framework to support the work. Jess has an entirely different skill set that allows me to say ‘yes’ to everything. Her work in design and publishing informs a sense of order, structure, and precision—all of which complement my more “give it a whirl” approach. Seekonk started with a few ideas on a shared google doc and over the past 18 months, we have built a portfolio of work supporting a range of clients in multiple sectors. The Foreign Service is a Twenty-Five Year Apprenticeship, at which point officers have exceptional capabilities and numerous professional opportunities that many of us, myself included, did not realize were marketable. There is no guide book to monetize our skills or facilitate a “say yes to everything” enterprise. For those interested in building a portfolio of independent work, either full time or for occasional projects, we created STARTUP that offers guidance and first steps to set up an LLC and open a business. Check it out and email us if you have questions. We hope that those of you leaving government or considering a transition will find this helpful. Meanwhile, a few recent Seekonk updates: collaboration with great friend Graham Nelson at Albion East Ltd has expanded with a new grant to develop policy specific to AI Safety and Governance in addition to the previous grant advocating for best use of Official Development Assistance. Recent publications have included an OpEd in Kyongyang Shimun, Baker Energy Insights 2025, and a policy brief for George Washington Institute for Korea Studies. Lectures over the fall and winter at the University of Michigan, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, George Washington University, and University of Miami have been a great way to connect with students and understand the issues most important to the next generation, while explaining how one might build an international career either in or outside of government. Conferences continue to offer a great chance to learn and connect with experts and colleagues. Last October I participated in a policy discussion at the Ministry of Unification Conference on diplomatic approaches to the DPRK and in December I attended the Indo-Pacific Dialogue at CSDS in Brussels. The opportunity to share opinions and expertise with the press has been instrumental in articulating my views, mostly on Korea and U.S, foreign policy, to a broader audience. Recent examples have included interviews with Arirang TV, Maeil Business, New York Times, FOX, Hankyorah, South China Morning Post, and the Washington Examiner. And it is always a bonus to attend celebrations and events including the annual Korea Society dinner in New York City and Korea’s National Foundation Day and Armed Forces Day at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Washington, D.C. On the family front, it is a pleasure to see Hugo thrive at Towson in swimming and as an applied chemistry major, and to help Bruno through the college application process, all while watching Esmé excel in her first year of high school. So proud of them and all they do and I continue to root for them at swim meets and concerts. Next up… Seoul Jan 29-Feb 4—reach out if you will be there and have some time to meet up! That’s all for now. Follow us on LinkedIn. More soon!
Henry + Jessica
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