CITD Seminar - Resources for International Trade Development

The seminar will provide information on resources that are available to help businesses develop their international sales and will cover both government organizations as well as resources in the private sector. There will be a detailed overview of international resources such as consulates, economic development agencies, non-profit trade related groups, and for-profit resources including attorneys, banks and consultants. This will be followed by a more in-depth look at services for exporters offered by the US Department of Commerce and the California Centers for International Trade Development.

This seminar is one of a nine-part seminar series on international business and is supported by the US Department of Commerce and the Small Business Association.

Click on the highlighted links for the presentation download.

Date: Tuesday, November 9, 2004
Location: USDoC, 250 Montgomery Street, 14th floor, San Francisco CA 94104
Time 8:45 am - 1:00 pm

08:45 - 09:15 Registration and Networking
09:15 - 09:20 Introductions
09:20 - 10:10 Chris Lynch, company C. Lynch International, export resources
10:10 - 10:40 Keith Rayner, Kemarra Inc., leveraging private sector international business development consulting groups abroad
10:40 - 11:00 break
11:00 - 11:40 Stephan Crawford, Director, US Department of Commerce – USDoC services for exporters
11:40 - 12:20 Richard Soyombo, Bay Area CITD – California trade resources
12:20 - 12:30 Panel discussions and questions
12:30 - 13:00 Networking

The panel moderator will be Keith Rayner of Kemarra, Inc.

Biographies

Christopher Lynch
Christopher Lynch is President of C Lynch International, a strategic management consulting firm specializing in solving tough international business problems. He currently has clients and projects in Germany, Chile, Argentina and the United States. He is Chairman of the German-American Business Association of California and Chair of the International Business Alliance of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. Previously, Mr. Lynch was a career Foreign Service Officer with the US Department of State specializing in business promotion and economic policy. From 1997-2001, Mr. Lynch was Consul General in Hamburg and senior US representative in Northern Germany. From 1994-1997, he headed the Economic and Commercial section of the US Embassy in El Salvador. From 1993-1994, he worked in an exchange program with Caterpillar Financial Services, helping the company to establish subsidiaries in Spain, Portugal and Mexico. Other assignments with the Department of State include Spain, Chile, Colombia and Washington D.C. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Mr. Lynch worked at the US Department of Commerce and the US Trade Representative. Mr. Lynch received his Masters degree from the Pamplin School of Business at Virginia Tech and his Bachelor’s degree from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He speaks fluent Spanish and German.

Stephan Crawford
Stephan Crawford is the Director of the United States Commercial Service’s San Francisco office. His past experience includes working with the Office of the Secretary of Commerce on defense conversion issues in Northern California, as well as temporary assignments in Europe and Central America. Stephan earned his BA, magna cum laude, from the University of Southern California, was an Adenauer Scholar at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, and holds a Masters in International Affairs from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Boston, Massachusetts. He speaks German and Spanish and has intermediate French.

Richard A.F. Soyombo
Richard A.F. Soyombo is the Director for the Center for International Trade Development (CITD). His experience spans two decades of international business development. He has played various successful roles in both the public and private sectors helping corporations to succeed internationally and providing guidance for foreign governments in the development of localized strategies to implement international trade as a tool for economic development.

A strategic planning and positioning specialist, he possesses a solid background in successful international market growth solutions, localization of plants and personnel, distributor network development and multiculturalis and has held various executive-level positions with responsibilities in both Latin America and Africa.

His background includes:

* In 1984 he founded a trade-company operating between Brazil and Africa.
* Sr. Consultant specializing in markets of Latin America, Sub-Sahara Africa and South East Asia.
* Regional Director, Latin America/Caribbean (in the high-tech/telecomm industries).
* Assistant to Director Latin American Trade (MASSPORT - Massachusetts Port Authority) where he was responsible for various business development projects in Latin America.
* Adjunct Faculty (International Business) at various Northern California colleges (and Universities).
* Consultant on minority business development.

Richard is an acknowledged speaker/writer at several international forums (throughout Africa, South America and the USA.) and is actively involved with a diverse portfolio of community based organizations throughout the Bay Area. He holds a graduate degree in Multinational Commerce/Business from Boston University.

Keith Rayner , Kemarra Inc.
Keith Rayner is Managing Director of Kemarra Inc, an international business development consultancy specializing in the ICT and Life Sciences sectors. The company is based in San Francisco, next to Silicon Valley, and is ideally situated to help companies establish themselves in this important high-tech region. Kemarra also works with our network of international partners abroad who provide local representation in the own geographic locations and ensure the success of US companies in their move to new markets.
Mr. Rayner started his international career in London, working on the commodity and stock markets. A move abroad to New York saw consultancy work on Wall Street with Goldman, Sachs & Co., and Citibank. He then broadened his international experience with four years in Berlin, Germany, and five years in Paris, France, consulting for a number of companies in the financial and IT sectors. With fluency in both German and French, he then represented a US software product company in sales and marketing to European multinational telecommunication companies, overseeing a number of projects in different countries. Keith then returned to the US, transitioning full-time to product marketing for several US software firms.
As founder of Kemarra Inc. Mr Rayner is keenly aware of the factors that determine the success of a move into a new market abroad, and can help companies avoid many of the pitfalls that await the unwary.
Keith has a BSc in Psychology from Reading University in the UK, a Diploma in Medical Sciences from the University of Central England, and the "Grosses Deutsches Sprachdiplom", specialist subject Economics, from the Goethe Institute in Germany. Kemarra Inc. can be found at www.kemarra.com.