At first glance, Michael Punke doesn't look very different from his peers at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva except for his extraordinary height. When the nattily dressed 51-year-old talks about his role as a trade negotiator representing the US government, he sounds convincing and determined to pursue what can be a controversial job.
But the US diplomat has another life, thanks to a passion for writing that has made him a worldwide celebrity, if a slightly reluctant one. His 2002 novel The Revenant last year became an award-winning movie that brought Academy Awards to director Alejandro Iñárritu and leading man Leonardo DiCaprio. Mr Punke's riveting tale of the survival of an American fur trapper who comes back for revenge, has been reprinted 21 times and sold more than half a million copies since a new hardcover came out in 2015 to coincide with the movie.
His successful side career began when Mr Punke was working as a partner at the Washington office of the global law firm Mayer Brown. According to people close to him, he would wake up around 4.30 each morning and go to the office to write for a few hours before starting his regular work.
"One of my sons, who is friends with Michael's daughter, told me they were making a movie about [the book] with Leo DiCaprio. Well, I've come across a lot in 20 years in the WTO but this was quite special," said Keith Rockwell, director of the WTO's Information and External Relations Division, recalling how he first learned the news.
"Hollywood is far away from Geneva in pretty much every respect so we all thought it was quite amazing," he told Asia Focus.
"I told him that I thought it was really cool that a guy who works so hard and does so well as a trade negotiator could also write such great books. He's a modest guy who doesn't draw attention to himself, so when I said this to him he just smiled and nodded his head."
Interest in the landscape and subject matter of The Revenant comes naturally to someone who was born and raised in the wide open spaces of the American West. Mr Punke grew up in Torrington, Wyoming, where his father taught high-school biology. The family took part frequently in activities in the wilderness including fishing, hunting, hiking, shooting and mountain biking. As a teenager, he spent three summers working at the Fort Laramie National Historic Site.
Michael Punke wrote The Revenant nearly 15 years ago but only lately has it become a best-seller, thanks to the exposure provided by the Oscar-winning movie.
A champion debater in high school, he went on to attend the University of Massachusetts Amherst, later transferring to George Washington University to graduate with a degree in International Affairs. He later received his law degree from Cornell Law School, where he focused on trade law.
Mr Punke came up with the idea for his novel while on an airplane, after reading an excerpt in a history book about the real-life frontier fur trapper Hugh Glass. The Revenant ultimately took a total of four years to complete and involved extensive research on Glass, which included setting up and testing real hunting traps.
The book was published in 2002 to little fanfare, although Mr Punke was able to sell the movie rights to it. Once he discovered the novel, director Alejandro González Iñárritu fought for it to be made into a movie, and the rest is history.
While his current and past colleagues marvel at his success, Mr Punke isn't even allowed to talk about The Revenant or autograph copies of his book. Federal ethics rules prohibit him from doing any side work or promotional activities that might enrich him and potentially represent an abuse of his high-ranking office.
On the night of the Hollywood premiere of The Revenant, his wife Traci Punk flew from the family home in Geneva with the couple's two children to attend the event. Mr Punke, meanwhile, was 16,000 kilometres away in Nairobi, putting the final touches on a US$1.3-trillion international IT trade deal, an achievement he's very proud of.
Looking back, Mr Punke talks about the moment he decided to set aside his writing career and take up his WTO position. He was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as the US Ambassador to the WTO in 2009 and confirmed by the Senate in 2011.
"I spent 13 years in Washington as a government worker and a lawyer," he told Asia Focus. "In Washington, I liked writing a lot. Then we moved to Montana where I was a writer and a teacher and I loved it. I lived there for six years before I got the opportunity to work as the ambassador to the WTO. It was an interesting opportunity so I decided to set aside the writing stuff for now and came back to the real world.
"They are two different worlds and I love both of them. I love the creative world of writing, books and screenplays. I think I really like that. So it's all an impressive counterpart."
NEW ROLE
Mr Punke has recently taken on a new role as the chief US negotiator for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a huge regional trade agreement (RTA) being negotiated between the US and the European Union.
In his new position Mr Punke is sure to hear from critics who feel that trade negotiators have shifted their focus toward regional agreements that discriminate against non-member countries and could undermine the effectiveness of the multilateral trading system embodied by the WTO.
But he believes that his two different roles can go together given his experience.
"That experience has made me fundamentally believe that these things are complementary, something we can do in a small configuration first and carry on to a bigger configuration later," he told a group of journalists from Asia and Africa in Geneva recently.
"They are very different environments and you learn a lot from the environment that you are in. One of the things that convinced me is that there is a lot of potential for these two domains to complement each other."
He points to the heated debate of two decades ago over the perceived incompatibility between the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) and the Uruguay Round of WTO negotiations.
"Everybody said [at the time] that if the US, Mexico and Canada entered into Nafta, it would be the death knell for multilateral trade negotiations. Instead what happened is that the US, Mexico and Canada concluded Nafta and one year later, the Uruguay round was concluded," Mr Punke said.
As well, he said, the Uruguay round was able to build on the concepts developed in the "laboratory" of the Nafta negotiations -- for example, trade rules for services -- and bring them for the first time to the multilateral system.
The WTO today has 162 members with differing opinions and dramatically different levels of development, making it very difficult for trade negotiations to proceed. Successful outcomes can take years or even decades.
"It's going to take some time to figure out ways to do it but I would not be in a vehicle that is heading directly toward the wall," said Mr Punke. "I would rather be on an uncertain path that at least I know is not leading straight toward the wall. And that's the position we are in today."
The TTIP has only two participants, the US and the EU, but the latter comprises 28 country members and feelings run high in every single one on both sides of the debate. In theory, both economies are well-regulated and advanced with high standards for protection of consumers, workers and the environment.
The US and EU have set a target to conclude TTIP negotiations this year but Mr Punke acknowledges this as an "ambitious goal". Ambitious in this case could best be translated as "impossible", especially given the anti-trade passions being stoked on the US presidential campaign trail.
In any case, Mr Punke prefers to take the longer view of what could emerge.
"With the TTIP, it will lead to the US and EU having only one standard but it's not going to happen overnight. There is no scenario that standards are going to be lower. That's the reality," he said.
"We have a very well and highly regulated standard. If you are outside of the bloc, it's better to look at only one standard rather than two."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which the US and 11 other Pacific Rim countries have signed, also sets a high standard that existing and future members will all have to meet.
"When that will happen is a complex question but the concept is that the platform is open, and TPP participants believe very strongly that being a part of that agreement is good for them," said the ambassador.
ALWAYS CONTROVERSIAL
Mr Punke acknowledges that trade has always been controversial, and it falls to negotiators such as himself to explain the facts to everyone involved.
"One thing we know is that international trade is very controversial everywhere. We have known since 25 years ago that trade is controversial in the US. Certainly, the TTIP is an example that trade is very controversial in Europe," he said.
"Having worked in the WTO for six years, I have learned that trade is very controversial in every one of the member countries. We do know that at the same time, it is our obligation to explain to our people why we think trade is good, though having that debate between proponents and opponents is very hard to do."
Although the debates can get very heated, they are a very important part of advancing the trade agenda, which aims to promote growth and jobs for the people of the United States. The Obama administration is very committed to that kind of debate, he said.
"All governments that want to be in trade negotiations have to be willing to engage in that type of difficult discussion with domestic stakeholders because trade is very controversial. There's a lot of misperception about trade and trade gets tied up with lots of issues. It's a complex debate but we have to engage with it."
Even in Geneva these days there is an ongoing debate about multilateralism versus regionalism, bilateralism and plurilateralism.
"We (the US) are for all of those things and we think they are all complementing each other," said Mr Punke. "On the multilateral level, we want to achieve as much as we possibly can in trade agreements.
"If you can do it multilaterally, it's great because it covers everybody. So multilateral has been our focus and we are very committed to multilateral agreements and helping to lead others in agreements such as trade facilitation and export competitiveness."
At the same time, he said, the US is also actively pursuing regional agreements.
"We think those negotiations are opportunities in particular for that region, for example the TPP with Asia and the TTIP with Europe. Inside the WTO, we are among the leaders in pursuing so-called plurilateral agreements -- on IT, the environment, and goods and services. All of those can work altogether. We will continue to find partners who are ambitious in those areas.
"Americans are 4% of the global population. So if we are not trading or exporting, then we ignore 96% of the world's population in terms of potential consumers. That doesn't make any sense," he continued.
"We are lucky that we have a large internal market but that is obviously a mature market. We know growth will come from being able to expand our sales overseas and our strategies are very focused on these markets. We have had strategies since the beginning of this administration; we look at all opportunities to boost exports."
Among his colleagues, Mr Punke is viewed as a first-rate lawyer and negotiator.
"He's widely considered to be one of the most effective and knowledgeable ambassadors at the WTO," said Mr Rockwell. "But he's also a very normal guy who really likes the outdoors, enjoys sports and hanging out with his friends and family. He's very easy-going and approachable and very popular with his peers."
Mr Punke himself has embraced every role and opportunity that has come his way in life.
"I think I will continue to try to find ways somehow to balance all those things," he says. "One thing that is interesting to me today is that all of us in our lifetime can have multiple careers. It's not just father or grandfather, mother or grandmother. My father was a teacher and I have been more different things. I hope my children do something different."
