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Ben Kostrzewa ‘07 jokes he has knack for timing when it comes to life decisions.

Shortly after moving his family to Hong Kong — where he practices international and regulatory trade — mass protests erupted in response to China’s tightening grip on the city. At year’s end, COVID-19 cases were on the rise.

For millions back home, Kostrzewa’s timing couldn’t be better. Since the pandemic broke out, the ������Ƶ alumnus has become instrumental to the export of millions of medical masks and supplies to the United States as shortages push health care workers to the limit. It is, he says, some of the most meaningful work of his career.

“A lot of times it’s hard to see the immediate result of the work you do,” Kostrzewa says. “The fact I'm using my skillset that in some small way means doctors, nurses and health care professionals can do their jobs safer means a lot to me.”

Hopefully this can also be a reminder that building walls between nations doesn’t work, and that there’s a reason to have a global trade system that benefits the most people.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues its stranglehold on the global economy, medical supplies are stretched impossibly thin. The United States cannot import masks fast enough, and the short supply and logistical challenges continue to compound the ability to do so. Passenger flights have dwindled, and private transportation — including a jet owned by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft — were donated into service.

Kostrzewa found an opportunity to use his expertise in U.S.-China trade relations to help. To do so, he would need to go further down the supply chain than ever before.

Connected Continents

Kostrzewa has always had a connection to the Middle Kingdom. His parents met in Beijing, and he was born in Tianjin before growing up in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Over the years, he traveled the world with his father, a professor who helped him develop a global view of world affairs. He took an interest in international law, and after completing his undergraduate degree at the George Washington University, he earned a fellowship to study Chinese and Chinese law at Peking University.

When deciding among law schools, he gravitated toward the UW because of its standout Asian law program.

“The UW had the right combination of prestige and scholarships that made for a really nice blend of opportunities,” Kostrzewa says.

He moved to New York where he got his start in corporate mergers and acquisitions right as the Great Recession was unfolding. In 2011, the Obama Administration hired him to litigate at the World Trade Organization as assistant general counsel at the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

He had found the path that would eventually lead him back to China. By 2018, he was handling a variety of international trade issues — trade remedy investigations, WTO dispute settlements, export controls and sanctions — as a registered foreign lawyer with , one of the largest international trade firms in the world.

Masks Up

When the pandemic hit, Kostrzewa shifted his work to medical supply agreement negotiation and assuring the quality of supplies being exported.

“If your mask doesn’t fit or work the way it’s supposed to and you put it on a doctor, it is really dangerous,” Kostrzewa says. “You need to get it right.”

Every flight is stuffed to the seams with tens of millions of masks, with boxes packed every which way and even strapped into passenger seats.��A��recent��order, for example, included 400 million masks and millions more in gloves.

Wheels up, he found, is just the first piece of the puzzle.

Before COVID-19, Kostrzewa didn’t have to pay much mind to how products physically moved once they were out the door. Now, he is deep in the weeds to ensure supplies reach their destinations.

That includes knowing shipments’ individual airplanes and trucks, whether there are blockades or quarantine requirements, if the drivers and pilots are healthy, if longshoremen will actually be at the ports to unload the shipment…

The details are enough to make one’s head spin, but for Kostrzewa, this is just what it takes to make the deals happen.

Moreover, the work reinforces the mindset he has lived by since a young age — a mindset that allows him to see the world as a truly global community that he can help in his own way.

“It’s important to recognize that the global trading system we’ve gotten used to in the last 20-30 years has downsides, particularly when it comes to income inequality and climate change,” Kostrzewa says. “Maybe this will be a good rethink.

“But hopefully this can also be a reminder that building walls between nations doesn’t work, and that there’s a reason to have a global trade system that benefits the most people.”

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