Susanne Thorsen Stirling has headed CalChamber international activities for more than four decades.
She is an appointee of the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to the National Export Council, and serves on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce International Policy Committee, the California International Relations Foundation, and the Chile-California Council.
In previous years, Stirling was an appointee of Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. to the California International Trade and Investment Advisory Council, and served on the Board of Directors of the International Diplomacy Council, the World Affairs Council of Northern California (Sacramento), and the Danish-American Chamber of Commerce.
The CalChamber is a past recipient of the U.S. Presidential Award for Export Service, and received the Presidential Citation from the government of the Republic of Korea. In November 2019, Stirling was presented with the “Outstanding Woman of the Year in International Trade” award by the Women in International Trade, Los Angeles (WIT-LA). In March 2021, Senator Bill Dodd named Stirling “Woman of the Year” for Sacramento County, praising her as having been an ambassador for international trade for many years.
Before joining the CalChamber, Stirling held positions in public affairs and public relations for Burmeister & Wain A/S, an international shipbuilding company based in Copenhagen.
Stirling, originally from Denmark, studied at the University of Copenhagen and holds a B.A. in international relations from the University of the Pacific, where she served as a member of the Board of Regents for nine years. She earned an M.A. from the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California.