He co-leads the Bilbao Urban Innovation and Leadership Dialogues, and is currently working in partnership with OCP to develop and launch the Wider Atlantic Leader Fellowship, an immersive policy studies program. Prior to GMF, Cottrell served as the vice president of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and he has held leadership positions with LEAD San Diego, the University of California San Diego, and San Diego State University. He is a past recipient of the Senator Margaret Chase Smith Fellowship, a visiting scholar at Universidad de las Américas in Mexico City, a 2008 Marshall Memorial Fellow, and a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy.