Adrean Scheid
United States | Non-Resident Senior Fellow,
Principal International Policy Advisor, Arnold & Porter
Adrean Elisabeth Scheid brings to her practice extensive corporate affairs and global public policy experience, providing strategic counsel across a range of policy, trade and investment, and commercial issues.
Prior to joining the firm, Scheid served as senior vice president–international relations for UnitedHealth Group. During her tenure she provided strategic intelligence and analysis in support of the company’s global growth and investment agenda and led the initial development of the international relations–Latin America capability. She supported integration and alignment efforts following the company’s US $2.8 billion acquisition of Empresas Banmédica, recruiting and managing a local External Affairs capability in Chile, Colombia, and Peru and overseeing the strategic development of UnitedHealth Group’s policy and advocacy agenda in the region.
Scheid previously served as vice president of government relations–Latin America for Millicom, a leading provider of cable, mobile, and high-speed broadband services dedicated to emerging markets in Latin America and Africa. Scheid built and led Millicom’s Latin American government relations capability and was responsible for developing and executing policy and advocacy strategies for the region and coordinating outreach across markets. In this role she advanced the formulation of sound policies and practices including on spectrum policy, licensing requirements, broadband infrastructure deployment, interconnection policy, intellectual property protection, content piracy, consumer protection, net neutrality, and competition.
Prior to joining Millicom, Scheid was senior director of government relations–Latin America and the Caribbean for BlackBerry, where she led the strategic development and management of policy and advocacy campaigns, overseeing a team of in-country directors to ensure market access, protect the supply chain, and respond to government relations challenges and opportunities. She engaged at the presidential, ministerial, sub-ministerial, and legislative level to shape the business and policy environment and minimize risk, successfully influencing legislation and regulation on key issues including forced localization, data privacy, intellectual property protection, lawful access, e-waste, network outages, and product security.
Scheid also previously served as vice president of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the US Chamber of Commerce, the world’s largest business organization. She led the activities of the department and served as executive vice president of both the Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America and the Caribbean (AACCLA) and the Brazil-US Business Council. In this role she worked closely with member companies, governments, multilateral organizations, and American Chambers of Commerce (AmChams) to advance economic and commercial relationships and advocate for local and regional business priorities including in the areas of trade and investment, taxes and tariffs, economic and fiscal policy, intellectual property rights, supply chain, and social responsibility.
Earlier in her career, Scheid worked with the Group of Fifty (G-50), the Inter-American Dialogue, the Council of the Americas, and the Carter Center.
Since 2020, Scheid has served as a member of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation’s Getting Word African American Oral History Project Descendant Advisory Committee, which preserves the histories of Monticello’s enslaved families and their descendants.
