Archives for April 2014

Georgios Papanikolaou , Consul General of Greece

Accepted his duties on October 18, 2011.
He was born in Athens in 1975.
He has studied International Relations and International Economy at the University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece, (1993-97), at the University of Nice, France (1997-98), and has completed his studies with an MA in International Economic and Monetary Relations from the American University and Georgetown University, Washington D.C., USA (1998-2000).

Working experience:

2003 – 2005 Marketing consultant 2005 Joined the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affair
2005 – 2006 Served at the Greek Diplomatic Academy in Athens, Greece
2006 – 2007 Deputy Head of Mission and Consul at the Embassy of Greece in Kinshasa, DRC
2007 – 2008 Stationed at the Special Secretariat of the Greek MFA for the Development of International Program
2008 – 2011 Deputy Head of Mission and Consul at the Embassy of Greece in Baku, Azerbaijan He is married to Mrs. Afshana Danishani.

Vice President, Manufacturing and World Wide Operation of National Instrument

As vice president of manufacturing for National Instruments, Rob Porterfield oversees the worldwide manufacturing organization including purchasing production, operations, and services. Porterfield and team focus on continuously improving customer satisfaction and production efficiency, lowering material costs, reducing quoted product lead times, managing inventory levels, and ensuring the timely release of new products into production. Since joining NI in 1993 as a warehousing supervisor, Porterfield has held positions including materials manager, planning manager, director of international operations and global planning, and director of international operations and global supply chain. Prior to joining NI, Porterfield worked as a design engineer at General Dynamics. Porterfield holds a master’s degree in business administration from The University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Auburn University.

US President, Cintra

Nicolas Rubio is US President at Cintra, the transportation infrastructure development arm of the infrastructure global leader Ferrovial. Cintra operates on three continents with managed assets in excess of $25 billion. In the US Cintra is a majority shareholder in toll roads with an investment over $13 billion, including SH 130 in Cental Texas; NTE, LBJ, and I-35W in the Dallas Fort Worth region; the Chicago Skyway; and the Indiana Toll Road. Cintra was recently selected preferred bidder for the I-77 managed lanes project in North Carolina.

Leading operations from Cintra’s US corporate headquarters in Austin, Texas, Mr. Rubio has more than two decades of international executive leadership experience within the transportation and construction sectors.

From 1998 through 2009, Mr. Rubio was Head of Business Development and Technical Department for Cintra. During his tenure, Mr. Rubio was involved in the development of more than 150 private infrastructure projects spanning more than 30 countries.

Mr. Rubio’s professional experience began in the construction industry, with several executive management positions in Europe and Africa. His professional qualifications include a Master’s degree in civil engineering from Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain.

In 2010 Mr. Rubio was presented the Entrepreneur of the Year Award by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association “for his continuing contributions that have promoted the art and practice of public private partnerships for transportation in the United States”.

Mr. Rubio and his family reside in Austin, Texas.

Sujiro Seam joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1998. In 2001, he moved to Brussels, working as a national expert in the World Trade Organisation Dispute Settlement Unit of the Directorate General for Trade in the European Commission. In 2004, he joined the Permanent Representation of France to the European Union, as Counsellor in charge of fisheries, regional policy, outermost regions, overseas countries and territories and maritime affairs. In this capacity he chaired the working parties on these matters under the French Presidency of the European Union in 2008. 

In 2009, he returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris, where he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for food security and economic development. He was promoted Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Global Public Goods in 2011 and then for Development and Global Public Goods in 2013. During these years in the Headquarters, he was in charge of the preparation of the Ministerial Conference of the 6th World Water Forum in Marseille in 2012 and led the French Delegation to the Development Working Group of the G20. 

Sujiro Seam was appointed Consul General of France in Houston on 17 June 2013. He holds a diploma from the Paris Graduate School of Management (École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris, class of 1993), and also studied in the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Institut d’études politiques de Paris, 1993/1994) and in the National School of Administration (École Nationale d’administration, class of 1998).

VP Technology, IDA Ireland

Mícheál Smith leads IDA Ireland’s Technology Division across Texas, the Mid-West and the South-East. Mícheál works with US companies making the leap into Europe for the first time and is also responsible for maintaining the relationship between IDA and many of the leading technology brands at a corporate level across the region who already have a presence in Ireland.

IDA Ireland, the Irish Government’s inward investment agency, promotes Ireland as a cost efficient and effective bridge to Europe and EMEA for US and other international companies. IDA works with its existing client base of over 1000 of the world’s top companies in an effort to ensure the development of their internationally-focused activities in Ireland.

Mícheál has recently moved to the USA from Asia where he spend 7 years. The first 4 of those years were with Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs, based in The Embassy of Ireland in Singapore, with an Asian-wide Economic and Innovation remit. He then went on to open IDA Ireland’s first ASEAN office, which he ran for 3 years.

Previous to his time in Asia Mìcheál spent 4 years as an Economic Analyst with Ireland’s Department of Communications and Energy while also working weekends and holidays in his Family’s food business.

Mìcheál holds a BSC in Management (Business & Economics) from Queen’s University Belfast and a MSC in Economic Policy Studies from Trinity College Dublin.

(FYI Mícheál is Irish for Michael and pronounced Me-Haul)

Tomasz Sowa is the deputy head of the Trade and Investment Section in the Embassy of Poland in Washington D.C. He received his M.Sc. from Warsaw University of Technology and by training he is a production engineer. His portfolio in the Trade and Investment Section covers trade policy, trade promotion and support for trade mission and companies entering the American market.

Before posting to the Embassy he worked for the Trade Policy Department in the Ministry of Economy and was in charge of international trade analysis as well as impact assessment of trade policy measures. Previously to the Ministry he worked for a few financial institutions and was responsible for financial planning and controlling. He currently resides in Bethesda with his wife Monika and their three year old Izabela.

Project Manager, Transatlantic Relations

Gemma is a Director at Indeed, working with Indeed’s International Team in Austin, Texas. Indeed is the #1 job site in the world and allows job seekers to search millions of jobs on the web or mobile in over 50 countries. More than 140 million unique visitors come to Indeed each month to search more than 16 million jobs.

Gemma leads a team of Country Managers and International Operations Associates who drive Indeed’s growth in key international markets. Gemma also worked on establishing Indeed’s EMEA headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. Gemma earned a BA in Modern and Medieval Languages from the University of Cambridge, UK, and an MBA from the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin.

As an Area Director for the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA), Ms. Turner helps growing U.S. businesses setup their European operations. For those companies well entrenched in Europe, she discusses and helps evaluate strategies for expansion as well as cost savings and consolidation.

Based in Atlanta, Ms. Turner reaches out to generate business expansion interest in the southeastern U.S. region, including important economic areas such as Atlanta, Raleigh, the greater DC region, Texas and the South East. Prior to joining the NFIA, Ms. Turner was project manager at the Rotterdam Municipal Port Authorities. She gained European business development experience while assisting companies as they established European distribution centers and facilitating the development of business partnerships. Previously, Ms. Turner worked at the European headquarters for Nissan Motor Parts in Amsterdam, where she focused on business planning, market research and project management.

Geert C. Visser is currently the President of the Netherlands – American Chamber of Commerce, Texas Chapter and the former Honorary Consul of the Kingdom of the Netherlands He has exercised the position of Executive Secretary of the Consular Corps of Houston, Texas, since 2006. On January 01, 2010, Geert Visser was appointed Regional Director in the U.S. for the Port of Rotterdam. Since 1982, Geert Visser has occupied the position of President of Global Marine Transport Inc. With more than 30 years of experience in the Marine Transportation industry, Geert has carried out and contributed to Marine Transportation projects throughout the world. Prior to his relocation to Houston, in 1978, Geert was Vice President of the Dutch Marine Installation company of Heerema Marine Contractors and as such was stationed in The Hague, The Netherlands, in London, England, in Aberdeen, Scotland, and in Port Gentile in the Congo. Geert’s work environments have exposed him to different cultures and his extensive work experience has consistently involved operation management, diplomacy, and technical and security issues. Geert Visser is a Dutch national and has a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of The Hague, The Netherlands. Besides his native Dutch, his languages include English and German.