Florida's Fourth Annual Caribbean-American Business Expo & Conference will be held at the new Caribbean American owned Pegasus Conference Center in Orlando, Florida, June 10-12, 2009. We are pleased to announce that the CCAA (Caribbean-Central American Action) is participating as a supporting organization for this years event.
Exhibits will be open free of cost to the public on Thursday, June 11 and Friday, June 12, 2009.
The Exibit will display of goods and services offered by businesses from Florida and from the Caribbean region.
This Caribbean American Business Expo & Conference will help exhibitors to:
- Discuss and find solutions to a range of issues which impact on small businesses especially at this time of a global financial crisis
- Introduce your goods and services to a diversified market which includes Americans, immigrants and tourists with good disposable incomes
- Demonstrate your product or service to customers face-to-face
- Test a new market and launch new products and services
- Find out what customers in the US and the Caribbean need
- Good opportunities for networking
- Meet potential customers concentrated in one place
- Meet potential suppliers concentrated in one place
- Get information on how to do business with various institutions and agencies
"This month we also recognize the critical relationship the United States maintains with Caribbean nations. In a world of increasing communication and connectivity, this friendship has become even more important" - President Obama
"The Caribbean American Business Expo is an important vehicle for the economic development and growth of our region by providing an excellent opportunity for Caribbean American Entrepreneurs to promote their products and services to the community."
Special forum on agriculture at Caribbean American Expo & Conference
A special forum on the promotion of agriculture in the Caribbean and the opportunities for trade in primary and processed agricultural products will form part of the Fourth Annual Caribbean American Business Expo & Conference to be held in Orlando, Florida, June 10-12.
The forum will be put on by the Trinidad and Tobago headquartered Caribbean Agriculture Research and Development Institute (CARDI) and will feature a presentation by Dr. Arlington Chesney, the Institute's executive director. The Expo and Conference, put on by Florida's Caribbean Sun newspaper is part of the activities planned in observance of Caribbean Heritage Month in the United States.
CARDI will also have a booth at the expo with displays and information material on agriculture research in the region and about primary and processed agricultural products available for export to the United States. Read More
Special Luncheon address to be delivered by veteran US diplomat Ambassador Harriet L. Elam Thomas
Strategies for successfully engaging the United States Administration of President Barack Obama will be the focus of the address to be delivered by veteran US diplomat Ambassador Harriet L. Elam Thomas at a special luncheon on Thursday, June 11 at 1:00 pm. at the Fourth Annual Caribbean American Business Expo and Conference.
Ambassador Thomas, who has served in the US Foreign Service for four decades, has held several key positions in Washington, DC and around the world.Read More
Conference Speakers
Donald Augustin
Mr. Donald Augustin is an economist/business analyst and former Secretary to the Treasury in the Ministry of Finance, Guyana. He has held several other senior posts, including Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Trade, and Chief Planning Officer, in the Guyana civil service, and has been Chairman and/or Director on the Boards of Directors of several financial institutions in the areas of commercial, development, and central banking, including the central Bank of Guyana and the Caribbean Development Bank; trusts and insurance companies.
He was attached to several international institutions, including the World Bank, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the Inter American Development Bank (IDB), as an economic adviser/consultant in the Caribbean and in Africa. For several years, he was a financial adviser/consultant in the U.S. securities industry.
Sandra Ann Baptiste
Sandra Ann is a Business Consultant and Specialist in Caribbean Affairs who has provided analysis and written extensively for over two decades on CARICOM trade, economic, tourism and social issues, as well as external relations.
As a World Bank Consultant, she established and was the first head of the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-INVEST) and subsequently served as a Consultant on Investment and Private Sector Development in the Guyana Ministry of Finance. She also managed a Canadian Government funded institutional strengthening project for the Guyana Manufacturers Association.
A former Barbados-based Caribbean journalist, Sandra Ann was Communications Consultant to Caribbean Export and the Independent West Indian Commission that reviewed CARICOM and recommended its future direction. She is trained in international relations, international trade and communications.
Dr. H. Arlington Chesney
Dr. H. Arlington Chesney is currently head of the Caribbean Agriculture Research and Development Institute (CARDI) headquartered in Trinidad and Tobago. He has vast experience in the agriculture sector in the Caribbean having served in several regional institutions including the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA) and the Caribbean Food Corporation.
From 2005 to 2007 Dr, Chesney served as Director of Operations and Regional Integration at IICA after having served from 1994 as IICA's representative In Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, as Director of its Regional Center and as Advisor to the Institute's Director General.
He holds a Doctorate in Soil Fertility and Chemistry, a Master of Science in Soil Chemistry and Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Agriculture. He is the author of several technical publications and has represented the Caribbean on a number of international bodies and at numerous meetings.
Karl Chung
Karl Chung is President of CGI Financial Group and a long-standing member of the Jamaica Labor Party. He has twice contested a seat in Jamaican national elections, losing to the late Prime Minister Michael Manley in the December 1976 election. He was the youngest candidate in that election
He has served as a director of the Chamber of Commerce, the Florida Partnership for Caribbean Development and the Asian American Chamber of Commerce and has been a guest lecturer at several US colleges and universities.
Mr. Chung has also participated in meetings on trade, finance, insurance and development issues in the Caribbean and the US.
Anne Marie de Govia
Anne Marie de Govia is the Assistant to the Dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando and has been the Advisor for UCF's Caribbean Students' Association for the last 13 years. She is a member of UCF's Student Conduct Review Board and is one of the university's conflict resolution mediators.
Ms. de Govia has worked at the World Bank and USAirways. She has served as the Chairman of the Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce of Florida for four years and also served on the executive boards of the Caribbean American Cultural Association of Central Florida, the Orange County NAACP and the Southwest Orlando Jaycees. Her volunteer service has included the projects with the Coalition for the Homeless, the African-American Male and Female Summits and the Parramore Heritage Renovation area.
Brian Edun
Brian Edun is Business Development Manager at Laparkan Shipping in Miami Florida. He holds responsibility for the company's marketing and sales in the South East Region of the United States, stretching from Atlanta, Georgia to South Florida.
Mr. Edun has considerable experience in freight forwarding and shipping operations having been employed with Laparkan for over a decade. He is very knowledgeable about the rules and regulations as well as many of the problems which affect commercial and personal effects shipping to and from the Caribbean.
Mr Edun has also served as a member of the Advisory Board of the Caribbean American Business Expo and Conference from its inception.
Keith Gooden
Keith Gooden is a Business Executive with 18+ years of International Pharmaceutical and Consumer Goods experience with Fortune 100 companies. Keith served as the Executive Director for the "Caribbean American Business Expo and Conference" for the past three years. He is the President/CEO of CARUSA Consulting Services LLC.
Mr. Gooden also worked for Procter & Gamble Co. for more than 8 years in both New York/New Jersey and Puerto Rico markets. He is a director with the Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce of Florida. Mr. Gooden brings a wealth of experience and knowledge in the areas of marketing, sales, training and strategic planning.
Claremont Kirton
Claremont Kirton is Head of the Department of Economics at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, Jamaica. A specialist in Economic Development Policy, he has lectured in macro-economics, banking and finance courses at UWI. He is a founding member of the Caribbean Diaspora Economy Research Group (CDERG) in the Department of Economics, UWI, Mona. His research interests include development policy, regional economic integration, financial sector performance, micro and small scale enterprises, and economics of the Diaspora.
He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Jamaica Deposit Insurance Corporation (JDIC), and has also served on the Boards of the Association of Development Agencies (ADA) and the National Development Bank of Jamaica. He has worked on various technical committees of the Planning Institute of Jamaica and the Bank of Jamaica. He has also consulted for the United Nations Development Program; the World Bank; the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation; the European Union; the Eastern Caribbean Economic Management Program; OXFAM; CUSO; and the Central Banks of Belize and Guyana. He is currently a member of the CARICOM Special Task Force on the Single Economy.
He has authored and co-authored monographs and articles in academic journals as well as technical reports on a range of issues related to economic development, regional economic integration, small and micro enterprises, remittances and banking and finance.
Dr. Mark Kirton
Dr. Mark Kirton is senior lecturer at the Institute of International Relations at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, He holds a Bachelor of Arts (distinction) from the University of Guyana, a Master of Science (M.Sc) in International Relations from Georgetown University in Washington, DC and a Phd. in Government (Latin America & Caribbean) from the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a Fellow of the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies of the US National Defense University.
He has held the position of Chairman of the Committee of Deans of the University of Guyana and also Senior lLecturer and Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences. He has also lectured at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Anton de Kom University of Suriname and the Federal University of Roraima, Brazil.
Dr. Kirton has been involved in a number of projects on behalf of the United Nations, UNCF, IDB, OAS, and ACS among others and has co-edited a recently published book 'Governance, Conflict Analysis and Conflict Resolution". He has published on a range of issues including US/Latin America/Caribbean relations, regional integration and the role of small states in a changing global environment.
Grant Lally
Grant Lally is a Partner at Lally & Lally. He practices primarily in the
area of commercial litigation, and his clients include leading companies in
the transportation, real estate and media sectors. He also specializes in
handling complex family law matters, and cross-border and international
jurisdictional conflicts. In addition, he counsels corporate clients in
governmental and public policy matters. Mr. Lally has represented a number
of clients from the Caribbean Basin area, including high profile cases
involving the restitution of property illegally confiscated in Cuba.
He has been involved in New York State and national politics for over 20
years. In 1994 and 1996, Mr. Lally won the Republican and Conservative
nominations to run for U.S. Congress. In 2006, he was appointed President
of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, a national bi-partisan coalition seeking changes to the immigration law on behalf of undocumented immigrants.
He currently serves as the National Co-Chair of The Irish American
Republicans, and serves on the National Advisory Board of Caribbean-American Republicans. Mr. Lally also serves on the board of numerous community and charitable organizations. In 2001, he was named Man of the Year by the Caribbean Development Research Institute.
Stanley Ming
Mr. Stanley Ming is a leading Guyanese businessman. He is the main architect of a plan for Guyana's development in the 21st century, popularly known as Guyana 21 which much of the private sector and civil society has embraced.
He is also very active in the pursuit of empowerment of Guyana's underprivileged communities.
Mr. Ming is chairman and chief executive officer of Mings Products an Services, Ltd. which he established in 1992 and which is the distributor for all Yamaha Products in Guyana and all motor vehicles manufactured by Mitsubishi Motors Corporation in Japan. He also serves as chairman of General Equipment Guyana Ltd.- dstributor for John Deere tractors and agricultural equipment, Komatsu & Daewoo heavy duty equipment and machinery. Between 1978-88 he served as chairman and production manager of Industrial Engineering Ltd. during which time the company won the President's Award for Science and Technology and for Import Substitution..
He was a Member of Parliament of Guyana from 2001 to 2006 during which time he served on the Public Accounts Committee and the Social Services Committee and as the Shadow Minister of Housing and Water.
Stanley is an active member of several social and charitable organizations and is a motorcycle and motor car racing champion.
Ana Molina-Diaz
Ana Molina-Diaz joined Seafreight Agencies in 1995 and was promoted to
Vice-President of Sales and Marketing in 2007.
She is responsible for business development and all aspects of USA & International Sales, Pricing and Compliance for multiple destinations served by Seafreight Lines including:
Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada, Haiti and Barbados.Read More
Russell Morgan
Assistant Area Port Director Russell Morgan started his career at JFK Airport in 1987 as a summer temp. That same year he was selected to a fulltime position as a Customs Inspector and then moved on to the Port of Newark where he was mostly assigned to marine functions.
Russell Morgan transferred to Orlando in 1991 where he has worked in Cargo, Passenger Processing, and on the Contraband Enforcement Team (A-TCET) and the Passenger Analytical Unit (PAU).
He was promoted to a Senior Customs Inspector in 1995 and subsequently to the position of a Supervisory Customs Inspector in 2000 as the Passenger Service Representative (PSR). He has supervised the Cargo Unit, the Contraband Enforcement Team and the Passenger Analytical Units at Orlando International Airport.
He was promoted to Assistant Area Port Director in April of 2005 and currently oversees all Trade Operations for the Area Port of Orlando and is responsible for administering various CBP trade-related programs.
Deborah Misir
Ms. Misir is a partner in the Law Offices of Deborah N.Misir. She
specializes in handling complex Labor and Employment/ Immigration, Appellate
and Administrative Law/ Regulatory matters.
Before entering private practice, Ms. Misir had over ten years of experience
in the federal government, shaping regulations, enforcement and compliance
policies, and representing the U.S. government in federal court. In
particular, as a former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor, she is
highly experienced in almost every area of labor and employment law,
including immigration, pensions, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act
(ERISA), labor management, and occupational health and safety. Ms. Misir
also served in the White House Counsel's Office, and was an Adjunct
Professor in appellate advocacy at the George Washington University Law
School.
Ms. Misir started her career at the U.S. Department of Justice, serving in
the Executive Office for Immigration Review, and the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), where she was a lead agency counsel for business and employment based immigration legal policies.
Rev. Dr. Raulston Nembhard
The Rev. Dr. Raulston Nembhard is a priest in the Episcopal Church and currently serves in the Diocese of Central Florida, at the parish of St. John the Baptist, Orlando. He has earned degrees in theology, ministerial studies and family counseling from the University of the West Indies, Yale University Divinity School, Stetson University and the Reformed Theological Seminary. He is a Florida Spreme Court certified family and county mediator.
Mr. He is the author of three books:You and Your Neighbor in a Broken World; Muslim Rage and Christian Arrogance: A Time for Reason, Repentance and Dialogue; and Finding Peace in the Midst of Life's Storms.
George Rodon
George Rodon is currently serving as Mayor Richard T. Crotty's Chief of Staff. In this capacity, he is responsible for the operation of one of Central Florida's highest profile elected official. Mr. Rodon is also responsible for the County's economic development initiatives and international trade.
Mr. Rodon has traveled extensively in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East to promote local companies and reverse trade. He has been invited to make presentations on trade development in Bogota, Columbia and Sao Paolo, Brazil and has represented Central Florida in many international business missions. These missions have led to the opening in Central Florida of the largest Hispanic bank in the USA, Banco Popular and the establishment of Indra Systems' (Spanish premier high technology company) North American headquarters in Orange County.
Michael A. Schiffhauer
Michael Schiffhauer is the Director for Field Operations & European Trade Development for Enterprise Florida, Inc. (EFI), International Trade & Business Development Office (ITBD). Michael manages the six field offices and is the contact liaison for trade development with Europe.
Additional, areas of responsibility consists of the promotion of the Life Science/Medical and Information Communications Technologies/Computer industries globally. This entails the development and implementation of Florida Pavilions in the major international industry focused trade fairs abroad.Read More
Annette Schmidt
Customs and Border Protection Agriculture Specialist Annette Schmidt started her career with the United States Dept. of Agriculture in 1995 as a Plant Protection and Quarantine Officer Aid in LMM Airport in Puerto Rico. In 1997 she began working as a PPQ Officer at JFK Airport in New York where she was mostly assigned to Passenger operations and Cargo operations.
She transferred to Orlando in 2001 where she had worked with USDA in Cargo, the Plant Inspection Station and Passenger Processing. She entered on duty with Department of Homeland Security in 2003 where she has been mostly assigned to Passenger Processing and Cargo Processing.
CBPAS A. Schmidt has performed her duties during her career in various ports of entry conducting comprehensive agriculture inspections to protect our agricultural and economic interest from harmful pests and diseases; regulating, and at the same time, facilitating international trade and enforcing rules and regulations.
Gail S. Seeram
Gail S. Seeram, attorney-at-law, will chair the panel discussion on immigration and its impact on the conduct of business between the Caribbean and the United States.This panel will examine the opportunities and requirements for business visas, immigration laws regarding employment, the impact of deportees on the business climate in the Caribbean and strategies for attracting skilled Caribbean professionals from the Diaspora. Ms. Seeram has practiced in the area of immigration law since 1999.
Ms. Seeram is a former associate with the prominent firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers located in New York, New York. At PricewaterhouseCoopers, she assisted corporate clients in real estate matters and structuring mergers and acquisition to optimize tax savings. Further, she was an adjunct assistant professor at Queens College where she taught Federal Income Taxation.
Mike Singh
Mike Singh will be a speaker on the panel 'Doing Business with the Caribbean' and will address issues in telecommunications in the Caribbean and between the United States and the Caribbean. He is a regular presenter on issues of relevance to the global telecoms sector with a special focus on mobile development and growth in the emerging markets of Latin America & the Caribbean and is highly sought after for his expertise by such global industry leaders as CNN International, BBC World, Deustche Welle, CBC, The Financial Times, Fortune & Bloomberg.
Mr. Singh's global speaking engagements have taken him throughout the world. In October 2007, he was the only invitee from the Caribbean Basin to have participated in and also addressed the prestigious FORTUNE GLOBAL FORUM held in Delhi, India. Mr. Singh is currently the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Telkom Caribe founded in 2003.
