Podcasts about opic

Welcome to The Doers Nepal Podcast – Nepal's No.1 Business Podcast, where we uncover the stories of leaders driving innovation and success across industries. In this episode, we are joined by Gavin Ryan, a globally renowned expert in Emerging Markets private equity. With over two decades of experience, Gavin shares how he achieved an impressive average return of 40%+ on private equity investments, putting him in the top quartile of fund managers. We delve into his journey managing multi-million-dollar funds, including ventures supported by George Soros and OPIC, and his experience advising global institutions like the Brunei Investment Authority and African Development Bank. Gavin also offers valuable insights into the evolving landscape of emerging markets and the principles behind sustainable investment success. Tune in for an engaging conversation filled with expertise, inspiration, and strategies to thrive in the world of private equity. Get Inspired, Be a Doer. Host: Anup Ghimire Guest: Gavin Ryan

Žijeme ve velmi dekadentních časech, o tom něco vědí dvě poslední zbylé Čelisti, Vít a Tomáš. Zatímco se Aleš léčí doma z následků poleptání islandskou žraločí močí, dvojice verbálních pretoriánů vyrazila na zteč směr Řím a Trump Tower.Všechny díly podcastu Čelisti můžete pohodlně poslouchat v mobilní aplikaci mujRozhlas pro Android a iOS nebo na webu mujRozhlas.cz.

Žijeme ve velmi dekadentních časech, o tom něco vědí dvě poslední zbylé Čelisti, Vít a Tomáš. Zatímco se Aleš léčí doma z následků poleptání islandskou žraločí močí, dvojice verbálních pretoriánů vyrazila na zteč směr Řím a Trump Tower.

Gideon Mendels is the Chief Executive Officer at Comet, the leading solution for managing machine learning workflows. How to Systematically Test and Evaluate Your LLMs Apps // MLOps Podcast #269 with Gideon Mendels, CEO of Comet. // Abstract When building LLM Applications, Developers need to take a hybrid approach from both ML and SW Engineering best practices. They need to define eval metrics and track their entire experimentation to see what is and is not working. They also need to define comprehensive unit tests for their particular use-case so they can confidently check if their LLM App is ready to be deployed. // Bio Gideon Mendels is the CEO and co-founder of Comet, the leading solution for managing machine learning workflows from experimentation to production. He is a computer scientist, ML researcher and entrepreneur at his core. Before Comet, Gideon co-founded GroupWize, where they trained and deployed NLP models processing billions of chats. His journey with NLP and Speech Recognition models began at Columbia University and Google where he worked on hate speech and deception detection. // MLOps Swag/Merch https://mlops-community.myshopify.com/ // Related Links Website: https://www.comet.com/site/ All the Hard Stuff with LLMs in Product Development // Phillip Carter // MLOps Podcast #170: https://youtu.be/DZgXln3v85s Opik by Comet: https://www.comet.com/site/products/opik/ --------------- ✌️Connect With Us ✌️ ------------- Join our slack community: https://go.mlops.community/slack Follow us on Twitter: @mlopscommunity Sign up for the next meetup: https://go.mlops.community/register Catch all episodes, blogs, newsletters, and more: https://mlops.community/ Connect with Demetrios on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dpbrinkm/ Connect with Gideon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gideon-mendels/ Timestamps: [00:00] Gideon's preferred coffee [00:17] Takeaways [01:50] A huge shout-out to Comet ML for sponsoring this episode! [02:09] Please like, share, leave a review, and subscribe to our MLOps channels! [03:30] Evaluation metrics in AI [06:55] LLM Evaluation in Practice [10:57] LLM testing methodologies [16:56] LLM as a judge [18:53] OPIC track function overview [20:33] Tracking user response value [26:32] Exploring AI metrics integration [29:05] Experiment tracking and LLMs [34:27] Micro Macro collaboration in AI [38:20] RAG Pipeline Reproducibility Snapshot [40:15] Collaborative experiment tracking [45:29] Feature flags in CI/CD [48:55] Labeling challenges and solutions [54:31] LLM output quality alerts [56:32] Anomaly detection in model outputs [1:01:07] Wrap up

MovieZone Live s pořadovým číslem 223 je tady a těšit se můžete na tu nejnadupanější sestavu, ale taky na spoustu hodně zajímavých filmů. Probírat budeme Kaskadéra, Království Planeta opic, akční divočinu Boy Kills World, asijský hit City Hunter, komedii Unfrosted nebo chválené drama Všichni moji cizinci. A budeme odpovídat i na vaše dotazy z Herohero a chatu. Web: https://www.moviezone.cz FB: https://www.facebook.com/moviezonecz IG: https://www.instagram.com/moviezonecz Herohero: https://herohero.co/moviezonelive CSFD: https://www.csfd.cz/film/303130-moviezone-live/prehled/

Aleš, Vít a Tomáš se ve studiu sešli mimo jiné proto, aby probrali, zda lze snáze najít něco podobného civilizaci v postapokalyptickém světě snímku Království Planeta opic nebo ve staré anglické knajpě, kde do úst proudí pinty piva a ven zase nenávist ke všemu odlišnému a cizímu. Nakonec právě veterán britského filmového realismu Ken Loach zažehl pochodně citu v notně okoralých čelistních srdcích.Všechny díly podcastu Čelisti můžete pohodlně poslouchat v mobilní aplikaci mujRozhlas pro Android a iOS nebo na webu mujRozhlas.cz.

Turški cineast Nuri Bilge Ceylan v Suhih travah pred slikovito zimsko pokrajino vzhodne Anatolije raziskuje kompleksnost človeških hrepenenj, novi film Luce Guadagnina z naslovom Izzivalci pa je postavljen v svet profesionalnega tenisa in režiserja tudi tokrat zanimajo zapletena ljubezenska razmerja. V kine je prišel deseti film iz franšize Planet opic, prihodnji torek se začenja filmski festival v Cannesu, kjer bodo na ogled težko pričakovani novi filmi Francisa Forda Coppole, Yorgosa Lanthimosa, Alija Abbasija, pa tudi Georgea Millerja, Slovenska kinoteka pa je te dni v znamenju Tedna italijanskega filma.

Aleš, Vít a Tomáš se ve studiu sešli mimo jiné proto, aby probrali, zda lze snáze najít něco podobného civilizaci v postapokalyptickém světě snímku Království Planeta opic nebo ve staré anglické knajpě, kde do úst proudí pinty piva a ven zase nenávist ke všemu odlišnému a cizímu. Nakonec právě veterán britského filmového realismu Ken Loach zažehl pochodně citu v notně okoralých čelistních srdcích.

Labská Florencie, Benátky za Alpami. Město krásy a umění. Saská kurfiřtská metropole: Drážďany. Dodnes se sem jezdí především do muzeí všeho druhu.

Labská Florencie, Benátky za Alpami. Město krásy a umění. Saská kurfiřtská metropole: Drážďany. Dodnes se sem jezdí především do muzeí všeho druhu.Všechny díly podcastu Ranní úvaha můžete pohodlně poslouchat v mobilní aplikaci mujRozhlas pro Android a iOS nebo na webu mujRozhlas.cz.

Poslechněte si:01:04 Matematika jako vášeň16:22 Objev uhlí na Ostravsku23:07 Listopad v zrcadle pranostik32:20 Existují tlusté opice?41:04 Život na senzitivních jílechHovoří matematik Mirko Rokyta nebo biolog Jaroslav Petr. Rubriku Stalo se tento den připravil Ing. František Houdek. Z knihy Geostorky Petra Brože čte Jan Meduna.Všechny díly podcastu Meteor můžete pohodlně poslouchat v mobilní aplikaci mujRozhlas pro Android a iOS nebo na webu mujRozhlas.cz.

In this episode, we have the opportunity to discuss with Marcia Wiss, corporate lawyer specialized in international project finance and former general counsel of OPIC (now USDFC). We discuss with her the current rules of the road for international investments in developping countries. Including through the lens of rising environnemental concerns regarding these investments and new practices currently spreading : political risk insurances, international minimum standards etc. We also look at the global landcaspe of american foreign assistance institutions and the specific activities conducted by OPIC (now USDFC) to foster economic development through facilitating long-term virtuous investments.

Poslechněte si:00:57 Květen v zrcadle pranostik12:48 Proč geologové ochutnávají vrty?27:48 Objevná plavba do Austrálie33:28 Navozují si opice schválně závrať?40:17 Umělá vodaHovoří geolog Günter Kletetschka nebo biolog Jaroslav Petr. Rubriku Stalo se tento den připravil Ing. František Houdek. Z knihy Zbyňka Hrkala O lidech a vodě čte Jiří Schwarz.Všechny díly podcastu Meteor můžete pohodlně poslouchat v mobilní aplikaci mujRozhlas pro Android a iOS nebo na webu mujRozhlas.cz.

Poslechněte si:01:15 Jak vznikají ledové povodně?08:17 Co přinesl Galileův Hvězdný posel14:05 Poletí česká družice k Měsíci?24:52 Bude konečně mast na padání vlasů?35:05 Dokáží makaci lovit ryby?42:12 Kolik existuje druhů lišek?Hovoří meteorolog Martin Novák, geofyzik Petr Brož nebo fyziolog František Vyskočil. Rubriku Stalo se tento den připravil Ing. František Houdek. Z knihy O liškách a lidech čte Anna Theimerová.Všechny díly podcastu Meteor můžete pohodlně poslouchat v mobilní aplikaci mujRozhlas pro Android a iOS nebo na webu mujRozhlas.cz.

As President Biden enters the third year of his presidency, his only obvious foreign policy success lies in Ukraine, where U.S. and NATO support has proved decisive in stopping -- at least so far -- Russia's war of aggression. Mr. Biden has framed his foreign policy by saying the U.S. is in a global contest pitting democracies versus autocracies. Is that a Biden Doctrine? In this episode, we examine the history of presidential doctrines, and The Washington Times' reporters Guy Taylor and Ben Wolfgang talk about the foreign policy challenges that lie ahead for the Biden administration as 2023 unfolds.

Današnji evangelij govori o prihodu Kralja kraljev. Janez Krstnik nam naroča, naj pripravimo pot Gospodu. Ko je Janez Krstnik pripravljal ljudi na sprejem Kralja kraljev, ni mislil, da morajo ljudje pospraviti svoje domove. Govoril jim je, naj pripravijo svoja srca z obžalovanjem grehov in s spreobrnjenjem, to je z oklenitvijo Boga.Beseda spreobrniti se v Novi zavezi ponovi 49-krat. Prva beseda, ki jo Janez Krstnik izreče v puščavi, ni dober dan, ampak: »Spreobrnite se« (Mt 3,2). Nekateri lovci so iznašli poseben način za lov opic. V škatlo iz trde lepenke vrežejo luknjo in vanjo položijo okusen oreh. Luknja je ravno prav velika, da gre lahko opica s svojo roko vanjo, a premajhna, da bi tudi ven potegnila svojo roko, ko bo v njej držala oreh.Opica ima tako dve možnosti. Lahko spusti oreh in potegne prazno roko ali pa obdrži oreh in ostane v pasti. Opice običajno ne spustijo oreha. (Drobne zgodbe z biserom, 125.) Opica bi samo izpustila oreh in zbežala v svobodo. Zgodba poudari pomen novega načina razmišljanja in obnašanja. Da bi izvlekel svojo roko iz škatle, moram drugače razmišljati. Moram se spreobrniti, to pomeni, da se moram naučiti novih stvari in pozabiti stare. Premisliti moram o stvareh, ki sem jih počel do zdaj, in jih spremeniti, da bom lahko svojo roko izvlekel iz škatle, ne glede, kaj pomeni zame škatla. Rasti moram v krepostih. Zapustiti moramo stvari, da bi dosegli svobodo, čeprav velikokrat nočemo izpustiti stvari in postanemo ujetniki samega sebe. Držimo se starih navad in mišljenja, ki pa nam ne prinašajo več uspeha. Branimo se sprememb, ker nam je prijetneje ostati pri starih, ustaljenih, pa tudi slabih navadah. Einstein je zapisal, da ne moremo rešiti problemov tako, da bomo enako razmišljali, kot smo razmišljali, ko smo se s težavami začeli soočati, pa jih nismo mogli rešiti na tisti način. V adventnem času se lahko ustavimo ob tej misli: Gospod, pomagaj mi sprejeti stvari, ki jih ne morem spremeniti, daj mi poguma, da bom spremenil stvari, ki jih moram spremeniti, in modrost, da bi znal razločevati med obojim.

Gabriela Mařáková Železná se už desítky let věnuje chovu zvířat, poradenství a v posledních letech i lektorství. Zaměřuje se na domácí mazlíčky, ale vlastně spíš na jejich páníčky. Způsob, jakým se chováme ke svým zvířatům, o nás podle ní hodně vypovídá. A chceme-li zlepšit vztah mezi majitelem a zvířetem, musíme se zaměřit na člověka.Všechny díly podcastu Dopolední host můžete pohodlně poslouchat v mobilní aplikaci mujRozhlas pro Android a iOS nebo na webu mujRozhlas.cz.

En el Parque Nacional hay alrededor de 400 indígenas de la Opic que esperan una respuesta tanto de la Alcaldía como del Gobierno nacional. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Weil in regelmäßigen Abständen hochbetagte Rentern in Ladengeschäfte fahren, gibt es jetzt eine neue Forderung der Intiative OPIC, zu deutsch Old People in Cars. Was die genau fordern, hört ihr in der aktuellen Folge.

Edgar Rice Burroughs se narodil 1. září 1875 se v Chicagu. Po absolvování vojenské akademie sloužil u jezdectva. Od jezdectva byl propuštěn kvůli zdravotním problémům. Vystřídal řadu zaměstnání. Živil se jako pasák krav či zlatokop a teprve po třicítce zkusil štěstí coby autor dobrodružného románu. Jeho série o Tarzanovi, chlapci vychovaném opicemi v africkém pralese, mu přinesla mimořádný úspěch i peníze. Tarzan se dočkal také mnoha filmových zpracování.

Edgar Rice Burroughs se narodil 1. září 1875 se v Chicagu. Po absolvování vojenské akademie sloužil u jezdectva. Od jezdectva byl propuštěn kvůli zdravotním problémům. Vystřídal řadu zaměstnání. Živil se jako pasák krav či zlatokop a teprve po třicítce zkusil štěstí coby autor dobrodružného románu. Jeho série o Tarzanovi, chlapci vychovaném opicemi v africkém pralese, mu přinesla mimořádný úspěch i peníze. Tarzan se dočkal také mnoha filmových zpracování.Všechny díly podcastu Příběhy z kalendáře můžete pohodlně poslouchat v mobilní aplikaci mujRozhlas pro Android a iOS nebo na webu mujRozhlas.cz.

Vašek Matějovský + Dan Žlebek budou už zase brzy v pr.... :) Proč? Protože Bubísek. @fajnradio

The US DFC is a relatively new Development Finance Institution since it evolved from its predecessor, OPIC.  This has meant a greater emphasis on climate, a wider range of financial instruments at their disposal (such as equity and TA) and presents new opportunities for project developers.  Nadia Khawar, Director for Business Development in the Office of Structured Finance and Insurance at DFC, shares how DFC operates, where it is keen to invest and how they can work with Canadian projects in emerging markets.

Co jsem přečetla od začátku roku 2022 a s radostí doporučím dál:Dcera sněhuOstrov ztracených vzpomínekPříběhy vašeho životaNo filterOsiřelecKodaňská Píseň písníPlaneta opicTerapieZtracena v bílém šumu

Dr. Sarah Sun Liew for U.S. Senator CA DBA (Doctor Business Admin), Postdoctoral Ph.D. sales marketing & nonprofit management, and second postdoctoral Ph.D. in biblical preaching discusses Abortion, Guns and Climate Change in this episode of Today America and The World.

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), now the DFC, was a U.S. development finance institution. This government agency assisted private businesses that wanted to invest abroad. OPIC also offers political risk insurance for private businesses and equity funds, such as Hunter Biden's Rosemont Seneca, to pursue a business interest in countries that have turmoil like Ukraine. Insurance is a widely used tool for money laundering, and insuring businesses for losses due to political factors, in countries that already have political conflicts, is an easy way to guarantee revenue, avoid taxes, and hide the connections a business may have to U.S elected officials. We also discuss the hypocrisy of wealthy people saying they need to pay more in taxes. Why not pay the full amount of taxes on your income instead of taking any deductions? Below are links for information on OPIC, OPIC funding, and OPIC insurance. It is easy to see how this is abused by politicians and their friends and family. #HunterBiden #JoeBiden #OPIC #RosemontSeneca #Ukraine #Russia #WWIII #China  OPIC Explained: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/overseas-private-investment-corporation.asp OPIC in-depth along with senate conversations: https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5QafKPNz4k4tHQFNfIP4otH8grXgcHJ0JyXX8Pi9JytaLPF2bwdIKt3YvTFdFt45suTWUIZ0av7anHU2flTA3Bmj44D2GgtbomprADcvotiaaxVXXAlv1upk2mADQwLHTkdPO4qFjZDPFVhsxVS7hH6kksNQphL6-smLofXJkf296oKaGJShMlSjiP7BVyLZEXX25ZCTUi4VqH3AD9o_a8CFnf-yqHo_46vYSv7XNuIHzYhRfcLIE9w0kKjhtV0VaJXbC1mIl91y1ciXZh_Jj797RBWNReQ Rosemont Seneca Statements for Devon Archer showing OPIC conflicts and involvement with Hunter Biden: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6003585-Rosemont-Seneca-Bohai-Bank-Records-Listing.html    

Poslechněte si:01:25 Proč je těžké předpovídat ranní mrazíky?08:51 Přelomový počítač Apple Macintosh 14:44 Dokáže výr velký ulovit ježka?25:32 Rýmované trojúhelníky32:50 Umí orangutani malovat?40:33 Jak se včely orientují?Všechny díly podcastu Meteor můžete pohodlně poslouchat v mobilní aplikaci mujRozhlas pro Android a iOS nebo na webu mujRozhlas.cz.

Community leader Manumalo "Malo" Ala'ilima, Dr. Raphael and Doctor Samoa talk about the Oregon Pacific Islander survey results.

Earl Young, a gold metal Olympian and cancer survivor, shares about the importance of becoming a bone marrow donor. It's easy, painless, and could save a life.Earl Young has served in the role of Advisor, Corporate Officer and Director, of companies in the United States and abroad. He has business experience with Fortune 5000 companies and Investment Banking firms in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver and London. Mr. Young has worked with Presidents, Cabinet Ministers and Ambassadors of many of the World Bank approved countries of sub-Sahara and has led negotiations with OPIC, World Bank and USAID in their behalf and that of public and private corporations. Working with U.S. Senators and Congressmen, Mr. Young has secured representation for funding in the U.S. Appropriations Bills of 2007 and 2008.Mr. Young serves as a Director of Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) www.africacncl.org, a Washington D.C. based organization with a corporate membership that represents over 90% of all United States private sector investment in Africa. CCA is dedicated to enhancing trade and investment between the United States and the 54 nations of Africa. Additionally, he has served as a member of the CCA HIV/AIDS Task Force. He serves on the Board of Directors of Diamond Fields Resources Inc. an international mineral exploration company with headquarters in Vancouver, B.C., with properties in Namibia, Madagascar, and Saudi Arabia. He is a past Director of Madagascar Resources an Australian based heavy mineral exploration and mining company.Mr. Young is a member of the Abilene Christian University Council and a Director of the American Studies Institute Advisory Board of Harding University in Searcy Arkansas, Past President of the U.S. Madagascar Business Council and was President of the Madagascar Health and Education Foundation.As President and CEO of Madagascar World Voice (MWV), a philanthropic organization, Mr. Young assisted World Christian Broadcasting (WCB) with the building of a shortwave radio station in Mahajunga, Madagascar. WCB has been broadcasting into the former USSR, Pacific Rim and China for over 30 years, in English, Russian and Chinese. The combined stations have now added Spanish and Portuguese now broadcast to the 3 billion shortwave receivers around the world.A world class athlete at the age of 19, Mr. Young was a member of the 1960 United States Olympic Track and Field Team winning a Gold Medal in the 1600 meter relay while setting a new Olympic and World Record. Mr. Young represented the United States on the 1963 Pan American Team winning two Gold Medals and also ran on numerous international teams establishing 4 World Records an Olympic Record and 3 American Records. He is an All-American in Track and Field and was on the cover of Sports Illustrated in June of 1961. He is a member of the Texas High School Coaches Hall of Fame and served as President of the Texas Chapter of Olympians. Mr. Young has served as a Board Member of the U.S. Olympic Alumni Association and was the founding Chairman of the Olympians for Olympians Relief Fund.On September 16, 2010 Mr. Young was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia and was the recipient of a Bone Marrow Transplant on January 21, 2011.Earl Young's Team www.earlyoungsteam.com was founded April 2015 with the objective of increasing awareness and registering Donors of stem cells or bone marrow to save lives of those diagnosed with blood cancer. Over 16,000 Donors have been registered through this Foundation and 47 people have been given a chance at extended lives through transplants from matching Donors. Mr. Young has spoken on numerous University Campuses in conjunction with Drives and last year was Featured Speaker at the National Student Nurses Association Summer Conference.To learn more, contact Earl at Earl@EarlYoungsTeam.com.Finish Your Racehttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/finish-your-race/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/earl-young-shares-how-registering-to-be-a-bone-marrow-donor-could-save-a-life

✅ Това е историята на Петър Петрушев, който променя селото, в което е роден. То се нарича Слокощица е и е на 2 километра от Кюстендил. Тук Петър създава ресторант със здравословна кухня с местни продукти, който води в селото хора не само от региона, не само от цяла България, но и от съседни държави. Добавя и хотел, в който всяка стая е различна – Ренесанс, Флунстоун или пък… Франк Синатра. Но най-важното е, че всичко в комплекса е зелено”- от разделното събиране на боклука, с което увлич цялото село, през зелените покриви и … козичките до джакузи, изградено изцяло от рециклирани материали. Ще разберете и за пътуващата му кухня, която учи децата да готвят на открито и да възраждат традициите в почти изоставените села из Осоговската планина. Последните нововъведения Петър реализира по време на локдауна, благодарение на средствата, получени по програмата ОПИК, които в неговия случай са достатъчни поради факта, че в счетоводно отношение винаги всичко е било перфектно и прозрачно. Така вместо да почива, той на спокойствие добавя още, все по-зелени, елементи. ✅ Настоящият проект е финансиран с подкрепа от Европейската комисия. Настоящата публикация отразява единствено становищата на авторите и Комисията не носи отговорност за начина, по който би могла да бъде използвана съдържащата се тук информация. ✅ This is the story of Petar Petrushev, a man who changed the village in which he was born. Its name is Slokoshtitsa and it is located 2 km from the town of Kyustendil (Western Bulgaria). Here Petar has created a restaurant with healthy cuisine based on local products which brings to the village visitors not only from the nearby region, not only from all over Bulgaria, but also from Bulgaria's neighbouring countries. He has also added to his undertaking a hotel where each room is different – one can be accommodated in a room called Renaissance, Flintstone or Frank Sinatra. But what strikes guests the most is that everything in the entire complex is green, from the separate garbage collection, which has given an example to follow to the whole village, through the green roofs and… rambling goats to an open-air hot tub built entirely of recycled materials. In this podcast you will also find out about Petar's travelling kitchen which teaches children how to cook outdoors and revive the old traditions in the almost fully deserted villages in Bulgaria's Osogovo Mountain. Peter has done all the latest innovations during the lockdown, thanks to the funds received under the OPIC program, which in his case are sufficient due to the fact that in his accounting everything has always been perfect and transparent. Thus, instead of resting, he calmly adds more and more green elements. ✅ This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

The former OPIC, African Development Bank and Black Rhino Group official tells Katie & Rose why she's frustrated with energy and climate finance double standards for Africa, how she would advise President Biden on climate & Africa, & why it's unethical to argue Africa must stay poor to reduce climate change impacts. Plus: Katie tells Rose why she's Amped Up about Richard Branson's Global Cooling Prize.

9 věcí, které nevíte o legendární Planetě opic: Kolik má vlastně konců?

Ray Washburne is the owner of the Mi Cocina restaurants, Dallas Highland Park Village, and former President and CEO of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.  On this episode, Chris and Ray talk about Ray's career path in real estate and how he developed Highland Park Village in Dallas into nearly $380 million in annual sales. They also talk about Ray starting one of the most popular Tex Mex chains in Texas, his experience working under President Trump, OPIC, and much more. Enjoy!  Follow Chris on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/FortWorthChris Learn more about Chris Powers and Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital (02:27) - Ray’s Background and Career (04:14) - How did you get started in real estate? (05:16) - How do you find operating platforms that you want to back? (06:58) - How do you think about getting a deal done? (08:05) - How Chris and Ray Met (08:42) - How Ray Bought Highland Park Village (11:50) - Developing the Property (13:11) - How does it work bringing in super-luxury tenants? (15:10) - What does ‘Retail is Dead’ mean to you? Why is it wrong? (16:35) - How do the personal shoppers work in your spaces? (18:51) - What has Park House done for the center? (20:55) - Why is Dallas winning so much? (22:21) - Understanding the Consumer From a Property Management Perspective (26:00) - The Story of Mi Cocina and Where it is Today (30:40) - Why do brands not travel well? (32:04) - What’s the long-term vision for the brand? (33:20) - What was it like owning a restaurant in 2020? (38:01) - Are there places where you’re now saving money due to COVID? (40:43) - How important is it for a restaurant to have a signature drink or dish that people can rally behind? (43:26) - How do restaurants make money? (44:36) - Is there anything that you’re seeing that anticipates the next roaring 20’s? (46:53) - Thinking About National Competition (48:21) - Are most retailers located in major centers to make money or is it for marketing/branding? (49:12) - What was it like working for President Trump? (53:19) - Is there a time or interaction with him that you’ll never forget? (55:31) - Was the division between Trump and top Democrats just for show or was it real? (56:31) - What is OPIC and why should private business owners be thinking about it? (59:52) - How do you determine which companiescountries have the entrepreneurs to drive capital? (1:01:03) - The Chinese Belt & Road Initiative (1:01:48) - What’s the coolest project you worked on? (1:03:19) - Where is the world growing that we in America aren’t thinking about? (1:04:54) - How are we going to be competitive against China? (1:05:35) - What’s interesting to you going forward now that you’re out of government? (1:07:44) - What’s the pitch of Downtown vs. Uptown Dallas? (1:08:39) - Do you have a childhood experience that shaped the direction of your life? (1:09:52) - What’s one thing you believe that a lot of people do not? (1:11:09) - Can we keep a clean government? (1:11:33) - What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given? (1:12:02) -  If you owned the biggest billboard in DFW and you could put anything on it, what would it say? The FORT with Chris Powers is produced by Straight Up Podcasts

V dada rubrice Brambora s vejcem se tentokrát Ivana s Alešem dovolali herečce a moderátorce Naomi Adachi. Zastihli ji zrovna na nákupu, a proto hned v úvodu telefonického minirozhovoru prozradila zásadní informaci, že si byla pořídit toaletní papír. „Mně došel už před dvěma dny,“ vyléval si srdíčko Aleš, který zkrátka rád prozrazuje detaily ze svého soukromí. Ivanu spíš než Alešovy patálie s toaleťákem zajímalo, zda by podle česko-japonské influencerky měli psi nosit bundy.

Connect with Michael and BobThe Climb on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-climb-podcast/Bob Wierema: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-wierema/Michael Moore: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelpmoore/Connect with Greg Gordon and Richie GrethWebsite: https://www.gordonhighlander.com/Greg Gordon: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-gordon-aa55945/Richie Greth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-greth-992b9a3/[00:00:00] Greg Gordon: I felt the temptation to make kind of a monolithic statement. I just feel like I'm trying to like, be right about my statement and put it in a way that it works, you know? And I'm like, Oh wait, this is just, this is just really complicated. Brian Thompson is one of my project managers. He's the guy that I feel.Fortunate to get to work with he's wise and kind he's a deep spiritually. And so instead of making a statement, we just had a conversation and I want to grow. I feel like. I have biases and I don't really know where they are and sometimes I don't even want to see him. And when they're revealed, they're usually pretty ugly and I try to cover them up with the good deeds I do.Brian has just made it real safe for me to kind of open up. Yeah, we just had a wonderful conversation. I know that, I shared with him first, you know, I, I went in this whole thing, got started and it was years ago. I just, I just felt like all lives mattered. You know, that, that was part of my calling, but I just didn't really understand the context and what you mean.It was being shared and it had to be revealed to me. I had to learn. But it took me kind of realizing that I didn't get something about it. And I wanted to avoid the temptation of being right about my opinion. And I just was actively seeking and asking Michael Moore: on this episode of the climb, we tell the story of Gordon Highlander, which has become the largest industrial finish out contractor in the metroplex.We're joined by Greg Gordon and Richard Greth. Two really good friends of mine. This episode goes deep. We laugh a lot. We talk about golf, family, politics. This is one you're going to listen to more than once. Enjoy the climb.[00:02:00] welcome to the climb. I'm your cohost, Michael Moore joined by my Partner in crime, Bob Wierema and we couldn't be more excited today. You're going to get two for the price of one. As we've got two really good friends of mine, great business minds, and Greg Gordon and Richard Greth. Richie and I have known each other since 1995.When I was on my way up to the university of Colorado, I stopped off in Lubbock. And he was my best friend from high school, his roommate. And it's been a unbelievable friendship since then. And then through Richie, I got to meet Greg Gordon, founder of Gordon Highlander. And so gentlemen, thank you for joining us, Bob.Thanks for coming back from Mexico for this and with that, Greg, I'll turn it over to you. Give us a little background on yourself and then Richie, you can follow him. Greg Gordon: I think just the quick disclaimer for the audience. you know, when, when, when guys like us know each other this well, there's, there's just going to be a lot of inside jokes, probably that people won't get. but, happy to be here. Thanks for the wonderful introduction. You guys, Gordon Highlander is a commercial construction company. We started in 2007 with a passion for serving other people and a commitment to excellence. And so I am humbled to be a founder and leader. And, we have had a lot of success in growing our business and, and I'm sure we will get to talk about that a little bit more in the, in the webinar, or, Podcast, what are we calling it? Bob Wierema: Podcast, too many webinars these days. Richie Greth: Yeah. Greg Gordon: What's the future state of the office. Bob Wierema: Yeah, exactly. [00:04:00] Richard. Richie Greth: Yes. Well, my name is Richard Greth and, yeah, I'm, I'm very fortunate to know Michael and, in Gordo for. For quite some time, they've both been great fans to great friends and trusted advocates throughout this crazy journey of law.But yes, on my, I grew up in Midland, Texas. I've been living in Dallas since about 2000 graduate of The Texas tech university, you know, been in construction. My dad was a general contractor, so grew up around it swore I would never do it to the log cabin from awful after a college and got into it. It just never turned back and really blessed to be in.Such a great industry. And, one that I never thought would be considered an essential service. So, but it's been one hell of a ride and I'm just blessed and, sound like a victory speech at the Oscars, but I just, you know, so many people have helped me along the way. So she's very blessed. Michael Moore: Well, Bob, why I wanted to bring these two guys on.Hey, cause it's going to be a whole lot of fun. But when we think about our mission in telling stories and defining moments and crossroads, they get you somewhere. I just found it incredible that there can be this, this friendship that it can be thicker than blood. And these two guys. Knew each other, they were clients of each other.And then eventually over time as things play out, now they're working together. I want to highlight that. And maybe guys, you can talk about how that all came together. Richie Greth: Yeah, I can take the first part of that. It was, probably mid 2001 of mutual friend of ours named Meredith. Gladys basically had introduced us.I was a young project manager at Trammell Crow and Gordo was a project manager at commercial interior space guy was doing industrial TEI and that [00:06:00] was kind of Gordo's forte for the business he was working with. We started working together and doing a lot of jobs and quickly found out that, that we enjoyed each other's company and a shared like ideals and, you know, more than anything knew how to kind of execute some of the promises that were being made on the brokerage.And I mean, one of my favorite quotes from a mutual friend of ours, Chris Jackson, he, my first started Trammell Crow. He, I asked him what the. Internal relationship was with between the project manager and the broker. And he says, it's very simple. I sell the dream and you live the nightmare and, and no truer words were ever spoken and Gordo helped live that nightmare with me.And, it's been a great. Greg Gordon: Kind Richie Greth: of partnership ever since we've done tons of work together over the years, our lives have paralleled each other and some of the ups and downs and ins and outs, so to speak. And we could probably spend a podcast on those parallels, but at the end of the day, we, we've always kind of had the same focus and the same mindset, which has kept.Kind of our planets in orbit, so to speak and campus together. And, it's really been a great partnership. And, you know, when Gordo went out on his own, I was fortunate enough. a bunch of his good friends were kind of racing to be the first one to give. Gordon Highlander, their first job and Gordo finally admitted during a recent round to another person who was trying to claim that, that, that I truly was the one who gave Gordon Highlander, their first job, you know, I've been invested in when Gordon Highlander since day one, just because of my love for my friend, Greg.And, you know, I've been to parties, you know, I mean, a bunch of the guys are probably new 50% of the staff before I even started, just because of my involvement and, just through different activities, et cetera. So Greg Gordon: that's a little bit Richie Greth: of a brief synopsis of how Greg and I came together and, you know, it's funny.He had, he had mentioned a few [00:08:00] times and I had mentioned about. You know, working with Gordo and it's funny, I think over a couple rounds ago and planets aligning and, it just worked out right. It's funny. I was at a point working for myself that the Greg, we were talking about needing, wanting to grow his business.And I'm probably a better promise or the executioner or executor's excuse me. So maybe that's 40 and slipped there. Anyway, Greg Gordon: Richie, don't take out all our competition. Richie Greth: Exactly. But anyway, so it's just been a blessing. I mean, getting to work with one of your best friends and, and for an organization like that, it's just been an incredible Greg Gordon: blessing.I love what you guys are doing. there's this famous quote, Eugene Peterson wrote, an interpretation of the Bible called the message and Eugene says. That storytelling is the language of the heart Richie. And I have shared our lives together in a, in a lot of different ways and friendship and, and the client contractor relationship and the partner relationship, and really just in brotherhood and, and, I will tell you that.I knew I had Richie support before I started Gordon Highlander. And there was this story that was being formed and it wasn't just mine. It was all the people that really were the ambassadors for the, for the business. And for me, And I think there's real mad. I think that people intellectually can wrap their mind around that, but really leaders actually do it.And we just have been really lucky with attracting the greatest people to the organization. I will tell you professionally, I think Richie joining Gordon Highlander is probably one of the [00:10:00] fastest. Literally, I can tell you it was G Oh seven one Oh one was the number of the first job that Gordon Islander over dead and Richie gave it to us.And then for us to figure out how he could become a part of our story, any RD was just in a different way, how to weave those together and how rich. How incredibly rich that story is it's, it's really unique. I think what Michael didn't say is that Richie is a unicorn. That's my term for someone that's really hard to find the key, go do anything they wanted to in the world.He could go do anything he wanted to. And the fact that he came to join Gordon Highlander is just, it's incredible. Bob Wierema: What I love is that you two actually like each other, unlike Michael and I Michael Moore: sure. Never spoken Bob Wierema: it's so cool to hear. I mean, you can see it in your guys, you know, inheriting your voices and the friendship that you have.And that's, it's so great to see. So maybe, maybe to one of the things I was thinking about when you were talking was, so you started the company in 2007, at what point? Richie, did you join the business? And like, how did that all kind of come about? At what point were you guys ready to start together? Richie Greth: Well, you know, it's funny.My, my official relationship with Gordon Highlander has just been a little over a year. my unofficial relationship with Gordon Highlander, like I said, has been from the, from the beginning, always trying to promote his brand, from the positions that, that I was in, et cetera. And then I'm trying to.You know, just different things. Like I said, going to his different functions, et cetera, but really, I think it's kind of a funny anniversary, but very appropriate for April 1st, 2019 is when I started, Michael Moore: I thought you would have said April [00:12:00] 20th. Richie Greth: Yeah. Well that was the end of my probation. Greg Gordon: You know, I think we probably remember it differently.I will tell you that. W I remember us Cedar crest golf course. I was really struggling and I was just dealing with some personal issues and I had some pain and I was unpacking that for Richie. And then Richie kind of said, you know, I'm struggling a little bit too. Like, I don't really love my home office.I've always been an athlete. I've always been a part of the team and I really. And then all of what Gordon Highlanders done. And I was like, dude, let's just get a business card, then we'll put your name on it. Like, well, fuck, we'll figure this out. You know, like, I don't know, like let's go on business, you know, and really we didn't know.And I will tell you that I have seen this theme in my life a lot, where in a way, God kind of puts things together. Or provides, I think I'm supposed to go a certain way and I get real focused on doing my part, but then God takes me in the other way. And then I ended up in a better spot than I ever thought I was going to be at, to begin with.And the funniest thing happened. I was pursuing a big tenant rep broker in JLL. The next week. And I was in the early stages of learning my relationship and he said, Gordo, I don't know, man. I just love you enough that I want to tell you. So, and I go what's that? He goes, dude, you need to, I have a business development person.If you're going to continue to grow Gordon Highlander. I like teed my ball up. I hit it and I just thought, thank you, man. I put a sign, you know, and I go, Hey, actually, I've been talking to this guy. I got somebody. And he [00:14:00] goes, no, I have the person that you need to talk to. I go once. And so he's like, yeah, you should talk to Emily.And so well, I started talking to Emily at the same time. I'm telling Emily about Richie and Emily's real confused about what the hell? yeah. It's, it's crazy. I have two sets of twins. You guys have two sets of twin boys. I managed to do that with two different women. And I refer to Richie and Emily is my third sentence wins.They started on the same day. Michael Moore: That's amazing. Greg Gordon: Yeah. Michael Moore: You know that, that defines it right there. I mean, that doesn't happen by accident and Gordo. I appreciate your. Your thoughts around your faith in that, and that, you know, we're all on a path. It's just our job to stay on it and pay attention to those signs along the way.And it's all gonna work out just because I'm a huge history guy backing up a little bit. Give us kind of the four, one, one on the name. You know, you being a third generation builder, like give us the background on Gordon Highlander. Cause it's a good one. Greg Gordon: Yeah, thank you so much for that. There's a, so I'm originally from the East coast, Baltimore, Maryland.my dad was the history teacher and ended up getting, his architecture degree. He worked for his father and my grandmother worked at the Maryland historical society and she had done a lot of research about our family lineage. So this would have been you guys in the seventies. Before the internet and probably a harder search to navigate than it is now.And so I was just born into this historical perspective when I was a little kid, I thought. I had an army in my family, [00:16:00] in the Gordon, Highlanders are regimented of the Scottish army. They were formed in the late 17 hundreds. And they're like the special forces to the United States army, a Winston Churchill, his famous quote about the Gordon Highlanders is that they're the greatest regiment that there ever was.And so they have. Rich history. I just learned about it as a kid. I thought there was an army in my family somehow. I didn't know how I was connected to it. And so this really cool thing happened when I felt the calling to step up my own. My dad was, is always been kind of Homebase and my strategic advisor and he was saying, son, we already have a brand.We were born into it. It's our family name and it has a tartan and it has its battle cry. Yeah. Yeah. It's all these things that a lot of, a lot of other companies, without a story or a history are trying to event, they're trying to invent it from scratch. And so it was just really cool. We, we pulled a lot of the principles of the army.Sayings end of the business. We pulled the Gordon tartan down onto the business and we brought all those things that had proceeded me into the business naming. And so the other thing is I, I, I did choose to put my name on the business too, and I think that that's important. Bob Wierema: And you, you mentioned you had this calling to step out on your own and I can't pass that one up in the theme of this.So what was the calling? How did that come to you? What made you make that leap and say, okay, I'm ready to do this. Greg Gordon: Yeah, just this, this hunch, this real instinct, I was just young and learning. The business was really about relationships. And I work for someone that I have a lot of respect for. They were a great technician at what they did, but.The relationship management part of that business, I felt like I [00:18:00] was doing most of it and that people weren't really attached to the business or the brand. They were attached to my relationship and the trust that I had formed. And so I wanted ownership and I was tired of being an employee. I thought I knew what that meant, putting my money back into the business somehow to get equity.But I, I really didn't know. What that was all about. That was just kind of over my head at the time. And, and, and so I asked for ownership, but I felt like I knew that the answer would be no. And I was prepared to go at, already set up my company. And, it happened very fast. It happened faster than I even thought it was going to.We, we had an incredible first year and really, we haven't looked back. We've had a couple of years where. Revenue was flat, but profits were up and we just have continued to reinvest in the business. And, we're actually believe it or not. I hate to sound tone deaf because I know things are rough in the world right now, but we're, we could have as much as 400% growth in 2020 with less people.Michael Moore: And one really good to really good twin business development people. Greg Gordon: Wow. Exactly. Well, I will tell you, I'm a whoop on the, at the top of the chart. Woo. When it comes to Strength Finders, I'm like all influence and Richie's woo. Number two, number one. He's positivity. It's he's just such a wonderful guy to be around.I don't know how to explain it. It's just Richie brings out the best in everybody. He's just. He is amazing. And so there's no doubt that he is a key part of our success. Richie Greth: I'm going to give you about five minutes to stop that.No, I appreciate it. Gordo, man, you know, it's a, [00:20:00] you know, all the love goes right back to you. I mean, what you've been able to do over the last, you know, 13 or so years is, is unbelievable. And, and, and Gordo hit the key there. I mean, really understanding relationship and understanding that it's not about the job.It, it, you know, it's, it's not about what's in front of you. It's, what's down the road more than anything and, you know, thinking, and that's one of the things I've always been so impressed with Greg Gordon: him is. Richie Greth: Taking long term, more than, than short term. We're really trying to invest back into his business, bringing in experts to help strengthen his leadership team, et cetera.I mean, he's just the way he's approached his businesses has been ferocious and directed and the results are results are obvious. Michael Moore: Through friendship. I mean, especially spanning as long as all of ours does together. If you add them all up, I mean, I've known Bob for 14 years. You just get to really know the true people.Couple of things to reflect on that. One of my first fondest memories of Gordo and there were, there were other ones, but this one is just sticking out right now. Maybe it's cause I'm looking at him was, At Richie's wedding and we're at the reception and I look over and the only white boy dancing, harder, white boy and sweating more than me is Gordo.And I'm like, That guy's awesome. And my wife is going who's that guy, he is having a better time than we are. Like, let's go hang out with him. And it's just been this, this triangle of friendship, you know, that comes in and out. Everybody gets busy, people have kids and, but you can always come back to it.And then, you know, shortly after. I started at Lockton was in when Richie decided to join up with you. So we were due for a big catch up and it didn't even have to be in person. I could just tell in his tone of voice, like he was reenergized, [00:22:00] he was fired up. He was, he was missing that culture that you've created at Gordon Highlander.So I think it was just, it was just a matter of time before y'all joined up and it's going to be so much fun to see where it heads next. I Bob Wierema: will say, Michael, the first memory I can think about you is in Nashville, Texas, and I'm pretty sure you were drinking and had a few too many cocktails when we were down at that training program down there.Michael Moore: Oh yeah. Nashville, Tennessee. Get your geography. Right. But Greg Gordon: what Richie Greth: did I say, Nashville? Michael Moore: I Bob Wierema: don't know. It's all, it's all South Illinois, South of Chicago. What's it's all the same. Michael Moore: Kind of transitioned into something I want to hit on next. Cause you know, Bob's got a perspective being in Chicago, he works with a lot of construction firms and real estate.You know, I see a wide breadth of business from oil and gas to real estate to construction to you name it. We're a little more insulated maybe in, in North, Texas than say our. East coast brethren or West coast, but Bob and I have spent a lot of time on our podcast. Kind of talking about this concept of what's occurred in the last 90 to a hundred days has created an old economy and a new economy.And so from y'alls perspective in the construction world and finish out and, and just in life in faith and family, like maybe take a few minutes to comment on that. Richie Greth: I'll add more to expand on the business side, the one kind of life side that, you know, I love how kids do the things that they can say sometimes can really just cut through some of the BS.And I remember my, my daughter, Georgia, she asked me, she said, dad, what, Greg Gordon: what Richie Greth: was Krone like when you were a kid? You know, something about that just resonated with me where I just looked at and I said, [00:24:00] baby, this, this is all new to all of us. I mean, we are all learning on the fly here. We didn't have this kids.So, you know, I think it's, it's great perspective. Think that, you know, never before have we felt maybe more connected to. More people globally, because we're all going through kind of one thing at the same time, but yeah, this is, this is something, I mean, I remember as a kid, the trivia question was who won the 1918 Stanley cup, you know, and it was no one because they shut it down for the Spanish flu.I mean, it was such kind of a little weird snapshot in time and we're right in the middle of this weird snapshot in time. And, to kind of get with your. You know what you were talking about. Faith early. One of my favorite kind of anecdotes is, you know, how do you make God laugh? You tell him your plans.You know? I mean it's, and I think no time has ever been sure than right now, but I'll let go to take the other part Greg Gordon: of that. There's something crazy about being a builder where you take other people's vision and. Make it come to life. So I think we're training really well to deal with obstacles. And these are just really big obstacles that we're going to figure out.Fortunately for us, there's been this wonderful confluence of the way we've built our business and how the market has come together. And so those two are crossing each other right now. And that's, it's kinda like a double up, Oh my gosh, I'm drawing a blank on the. It's everyone does surfing now.Wakeboarding, sorry. Whoa. Double up. It's when they cross the boat back and they make the wave go twice as high as it normally does. Right. Right. So just right away, I was fortunate enough to get plugged into some. [00:26:00] Calls where there was 15,000 people around the world through CBRS global investment platform.And those guys have economists and people that are way smarter than me that surround their business. And the industrial asset class has been growing and doing really well. And there's just a lot of data. Now that points towards. Continued expansion because of crown of IRS and industry. True Buddhist. No, that, inventory used to be a bad word.You know, everything was always Justin. And so everyone personally got to see how that got interrupted. And no one wants to deal with that again. And so they're saying 3% more inventory equals 500 million square feet speed of additional industrial development. And, the onboarding of manufacturing, you know, Trump's been talking about it for a while about getting it back from China.And I don't know how well he's been doing with it, but coronavirus really adds to his cause I think people can really now realize and see like, Hey, I don't want my coronavirus tests to come. From China. I want it to be made right here in my backyard. And people were actually kind of getting their mind around why having manufacturing near the business hubs make sense.And then you multiply that with eCommerce. And so the most fascinating part of it is e-commerce for whatever groups that it didn't reach prior to coronavirus, I'm telling everyone it doesn't matter what sex would. What color, what ethnicity, what socioeconomic group e-commerce is now like the United States postal service it's here to stay and some economists are suggesting 2 billion square feet, 2 billion, B billion square feet.Dallas Fort [00:28:00] worth is 850 million. And so we're just in this. Cross hairs where we've built our business in Dallas, Fort worth Dallas is the largest industrial development community in the country. Gordon Highlander is the biggest interior finished out contractor and industrial finish out. And so that gives us a lot of credibility.We've had a lot of swings. We've got great people and great processes. And the Mark is just producing a ton of work for us right now. So we just feel super-duper fortunate. Bob Wierema: You see Michael Moore: looking outside of Bob Wierema: the Dallas Fort worth area. Are you looking Michael Moore: at Bob Wierema: geography? You think there's a good focus there to continue and grow in that area and expand.Greg Gordon: We have been talking about that for a long time. And I will tell you that for me, when I experience a lot of growth, my temptation that I watch my hands, it's like, Oh, a lot of money that this snow on my hands. If I don't direct them the right way, they're going to want to put their hands on things. And I want to live my life with my hands open, like this.And when you have extra profits, I think that creates clarity on how you would go attack other markets. And so we're in the early stages of considering where the needs are greatest, where are the various barriers of entry are the easiest and how we could focus on really profitable offerings that match up with what we feel like is the value that we bring.Richie Greth: And at the end of the day, we felt very blessed to be an industrial construction in Dallas, Fort worth. Greg Gordon: He had it. The other thing with growth is we want to continue to grow at all water, the garden. That's already planning and plant more gardens and other places not get my OPIC or get too [00:30:00] proud. We want to be humble servants.And we just feel like we have a lot to offer people. I will tell you too, on the personal side, I'm predicting kind of this collision where we've been highly effective with being able to run our business without opening our office. You guys that's on the backs. It's clearly on the backs of the subs and the superintendents that work for Warren Highlander.So we're kind of a house divided where. You know, more than half of our company is learning this wonderful efficiency from being able to work at home while the other half is on the frontline, actually doing all the work. Not that we're not doing the work too, but you know what I mean? You see what I'm trying to illustrate.It's very different. Richie Greth: It is going to be fascinating to come out the other side of this and almost to have the Freakonomics mindset, to see some of the changes that will happen. I mean, you know, it's a great question to ask people how they work from home and you, you know, I've talked out. You know, architect, friends of mine, who said, man, I've never had so much uninterrupted time in my life.And then other people that have said I'm going absolutely stir crazy. I, I, I just, can't, I'm missing talking to people. So, you know, the, the different opportunities and the asterisk that is going to be over this year, you know, that people can put, you know, in, in some instances is. That's going to be fascinating to look at 2022, 2023 and just see mindsets, attitudes, behavior, and just some of the data that comes out of this and see what changes that's.That's what I'm really curious about Greg Gordon: too. I think about how we started the business Richie about relationships and know how powerful the human connection is. And I think the [00:32:00] efficiencies are great because they're a way to deal with the obstacles, but I don't see them as being long lasting. Yeah. And I also, I worry, you know what?I'm kind of in my beautiful mind state and we're drawing on the board and the EEQ and the conversation is real high and we're really grinding and getting vulnerable and really challenging each other around strategy. I think you gotta have that and you can't, you can't do that. Quite the same over a zoom call.Richie Greth: Yeah. Greg Gordon: So I'm, I'm just real curious to see, I know the pressure is building around me. I just am ready for coronavirus to be over. I'm starting to feel like, well, the serious, like baby Greg is showing up in the marriage, like he's just tired of wearing a mask. Michael Moore: Yeah. Amen, Richie Greth: man. What an incredible time though, to have grown of our story, have the abilities to have this one on one interaction and our, our kids aren't stuck with, you know, three rocks and a stick, you know, I mean, it's, it's pretty incredible.The time and the opportunity that we have in the outlets. I mean, it's a, I was watching the original total recall the other day and seeing people and faces and, you know, the video conference calls. And it was just kind of funny seeing some of those older movies trying to project the future, but it is interesting that, you know, Greg Gordon: Thank Richie Greth: goodness for technology thanking us for still able to see, I mean, you've experienced in some of our meetings.I mean, having this tool to be able to see your client's reactions, to be able to, to have that conversation. I mean, over a phone is almost like email. You can interpret it, thought four or five different ways. Being able to see someone's face is an incredible [00:34:00] advantage. So I mean, the four of us getting to sit here and have a conversation almost like we're sitting around the same table together, not to get too prophetic, but you know, it's just, it's amazing.Bob Wierema: Michael. And I have noticed that too, with doing, doing even this podcast and some of the other connections we've made throughout doing this is, you know, the, a bit like what I've met. Yeah. The opportunity to have the conversation with, with you guys without kind of this opportunity. Well, maybe, maybe not, you know, would mix, I have pursued this that we've talked about doing for a year now.Yeah. I don't know. It's cool. Richie Greth: It's all right. Ma you know, necessity is the mother of all invention, right? Michael Moore: Exactly. You know, I think it's probably a common theme that we all share that. You know, whether it's, it's being the old bull sitting on the Hill now instead of the young one, Richie Greth: are Michael Moore: we see a, you know, you, you, you just, you, you get a, as you get a little bit older too, to analyze things and, you know, Greg, a conversation we were having a week or so ago, kind of leading up to this podcast, if you feel like sharing, I just, I loved how you.You saw this movement of, of, you know, civil unrest going on and hashtag black lives matter, just popping up everywhere. And you're like, you know what? I need to understand this better. So can you, can you share a little bit about how you went about diving into that? Greg Gordon: Yeah. You know, it's funny, we've been trying to build the brand during the coronavirus with webinars and podcasts, getting out there.I just want say, man, I just felt this temptation to make it and no, not that there's anything wrong with statements, but. When you make them on the social media outlets, you just get ripped apart. [00:36:00] And I felt the temptation to make kind of a monolithic statement. I just feel like I'm trying to like, be right about my statement and put it in a way that it works, you know?And I'm like, Oh wait, this is just. This is just really complicated. And so I don't know if you've seen it that went out last week, but, Brian Thompson is one of my project managers is the guy that I feel fortunate to get to work with he's wise and kind he's a deep spiritually. And so instead of making a statement, we just had a conversation.And I want to grow. I feel like I have biases and I don't really know where they are and sometimes I don't even want to see them. And when they're revealed, they're usually pretty ugly and I try to cover them up with the good deeds I do. Brian has just made it real safe for me to kind of open up and, yeah, we just had a wonderful conversation.I know that, I shared with him first, you know, I, I, when this whole thing got started and it was years ago, I just, I just felt like all lives mattered. You know, that, that was part of my calling, but I just didn't really understand the context and what you was being shared. And it had to be revealed to me.I had to learn, but it took me kind of realizing that I didn't get something about it. And I wanted to avoid the temptation of being right about my opinion. And I just was actively seeking and asking, and my wife helped me out. You know, she just said, babe, could you imagine if we were struggling? I know we've been there before and I came to you and I said, babe, you know, do you love me?Can you tell me that you love me? And you said, Oh babe, I love everybody. And so there wasn't until I humanized it, that I could understand it a little bit more, but [00:38:00] also too, I'm not, I don't know anything really about the organization and I'm not trying to make a global statement about protests or any of that stuff.Just the very simple concept in which it was formed and how to be allied out there and just reveal my ignorance and love my friend, Brian. Well, Michael Moore: And so, after the conversation, I mean, are there things now that you're routinely working on or thinking about, did it fundamentally change or did it just shed light on kind of an idea and a, an ideology that you already had, or give us a little more insight?Greg Gordon: One of the questions that I asked Brian is I said, where do you think our biases come from? And he just paused and he goes, Wow, because I don't really know it. I will tell you that. I want to be captivated by the wow. And not the, how I always want to jump to the how, but I never stay right there. You know, I've never, I never stay on the wow.And I go, I think it's the really good questions that get you stimulated that are the things that form you and that matter. And. It's not so much about the answers I don't know about you, but coronavirus has been one of the most humbling things for me because every time I think I could get it figured out, it sets me back two steps.It's like one step forward, two steps back. It feels like it's the most disorienting thing. And then there's this imaginary line where everyone kind of draws in judges. And Richie Greth: it's a great point. It's like our, a mutual friend Dan lap and said right. Asking the right questions. That's a great question. What are those biases come from?Bob Wierema: Oh, boy, you got, how did you guys know? [00:40:00] Richie Greth: Gordo introduced us to them. Greg Gordon: Richie dated him in high school.Okay. Richie Greth: And then Gordo's stolen from me. Michael Moore: Dan, Dan was doing one of his workshops, in, in Dallas. And I just thought, yeah, Gordon Highlanders, doing so much work around, expanding in their brand and knew that. That the twins and the BD department were really ramping up, getting out there and, and. Shaking the trees.And so I thought they would benefit from knowing Dan. Now, if there's a side romance going on, we'll have to ask Nan about that. But Richie Greth: yeah. You know, and I will tell you that's another great thing. you know, being in that workshop and getting to do that was a lot of fun. And I think, A great thing of Gordo's character is he's never afraid to ask questions.And I remember, Dan and it was great, you know, it was great presentation and I thought he had some excellent things to say, and we were actually had him signed up to come down here, but. Chronic kind of sideline that, but, you know, he had a deal called the elite mindset, which you're aware of. I remember Gordo questioning the word elite and I, you know, at first I kind of crawled my toes a little bit and I was like, Oh no.And then I was like, I love it. You know, I go, the guy's just, he's not taking status quo. And I think that's a great example of Gordo. Just always asking questions and from whether it's. You know, getting involved in an investment deal and want to know exactly how, you know, what a cap rate is to, what do you mean by elite mindset?And it's been a great, it's been a great example for me to follow, to always ask questions and not just, you know, if something ruffles your feathers a little bit or makes you pause, poke at it for it. Greg Gordon: I Michael Moore: think, Bob Wierema: I think what's great about that is one of the things that's always resonated with me that actually [00:42:00] by executive yeah.Coach tells me all the time he's he says seek to understand, not to be understood. So ask more questions, do more listening than trying to make your point and like the Gordo's point of earlier and just having that ability to. Ask the questions and understand and put your bias aside or what you may have been taught in the past.And just ask questions to understand, instead of stating your point and sticking from there. It's, it's interesting how the conversations go and the relationships get built. Richie Greth: Right, man, Michael Moore: you know, along that same go, go ahead and go to. Greg Gordon: It's like a God gave you two ears and one mouth Bob Wierema: exactly. Michael Moore: To, to echo that Gordo.I mean my executive coach, we talk a lot about identity and reputation, and I think in our twenties and thirties, you know, where we're real focused and maybe even a little bit worried about our reputation, like that's what you're trying to build, but in reality, It's your identity. I mean, that's been there the whole time.And so if you just truly focus on. You and who you are and being the best you, your reputation, and you don't worry about it. It's going to be there because you're being yourself. Bob Wierema: Michael. I just do want to point out real quick that I am still in my thirties just to rub that in with you a little bit. Greg Gordon: Well, Michael Moore: we'll always be older than you, Bob.Greg Gordon: Really early Michael Moore: two sets of twins will do that Greg Gordon: to you. Richie Greth: I have a car that's in its thirties.Greg Gordon: we, I would love to share our mission statement with you guys. Michael Moore: Please do, Greg Gordon: to build a legacy of helping others reach their God, given potential. You know, I'm doing coaching right now to, Zig Ziglar coaching. And Zig, you [00:44:00] know, he's got, he's got all these nuggets, man. He's just got tons and tons of nuggets, but he.I just think very few people map actually can take all those beautiful things in their mind and disability Strait them in ways that are really easy to understand. And Zig says that legacy is where success and significance come together. And so, I don't know, Michael, your years were identity and reputation.And I feel like I I'm experiencing success. I want to be able to navigate that without becoming a part of it. I'm really interested in significance now. And I think that's part of what happens as you age or you're humbled that wisdom sets in and you realize you don't know it all. Yeah. I just think the, the why or the significance to that's the thing that I think Richie and I get to live out for everybody, just this idea of how important relationships are and what they mean, what they look like.I Richie Greth: do have a funny story real quick about Zig Ziglar. And, it pops in my head when, and Gordo talking about it. But one time we were playing golf in Dallas and we happened to run into leach. Ravinia. And Lee was he's a, if you've ever run into him or ever had a one on Greg Gordon: one, he, he Richie Greth: loves to talk and he loves to tell stories and he just started, he just pulled up and started talking about someone's stock socks and went into a couple stories and was just talking and Gordo interjected with a funny story about Zig Ziglar, talking about, cooking in a pan and, And it was really funny and leach Ravinia looked at Gordon and he says, yeah, I sit next to her on a plane one time.And a Zig Ziglar told me it helped me with my golf game. And I says, well, what do you shoot? He says, well, high eighties. I go, you can't help me with my golf [00:46:00] game.Greg Gordon: Okay. Richie Greth: So I thought that was pretty funny. I'm a huge fan of Zig Ziglar, but I thought that was. Funny how different people take different advice. Michael Moore: Well, you just never know who you're going to walk up on the tee box and play with. Remember when we played with Mark Cuban's mom. Richie Greth: That's right. And we, we, we didn't even believe her.Michael and I, this would have been 2002, maybe. 2002, 2000 2003, the great Stevens park and Kessler Dallas area. Michael and I are on number one T and it's just a twosome about three o'clock and we're ready for the fairway to clear. And we see this little old lady pushing a push cart, like, Oh God, please hurry, please.Fairly clear. And she comes hobbling up and says your mom. And we're like, yeah, sure. So. That's the third hole. She starts, she goes, you boys basketball fans. And we says, yes, we are. She's a little, my son is Mark. And I started thinking, what basketball player his name was? Mark. And it was Mark Cuban's mom.And, it was pretty funny at Steven's park right there. And we didn't believe her until she hopped in the Cadillac at the turn. Then we thought, well, maybe it is her. I'll be darn sure it was her. Michael Moore: And I'm pretty sure her, her nine whole front was a better score than ours, but Greg Gordon: we had more fun, way more. Bob Wierema: I'm just trying to understand how much golf you've been playing.I think most of the stories have been surrounded with golf so far, Richie Greth: man. Greg Gordon: know Richie Greth: not to tell another one, but another one of my favorites is, early on in Gordo and I's friendship. Gordo's dad who he referred to. Incredible guy. He was a leader, Trammell Crow when I was there and he had come down to visit a friend of his and we played at a golf course.It's not even there anymore. Great Southwest. And, in Arlington and about the third [00:48:00] hole Gordo's dad looked at me and said, boy, I will fire your ass. If you worked for me, the way you play golf, you obviously don't work.Greg Gordon: That was actually, my dad was coming down from Chicago. He ran the Midwest for Trammell Crow, then. Oh, okay. I love Chicago, man. It's one of my favorite cities Bob Wierema: we just want, we just want it to get back to normal here. I, I love it as well. And it's, it's hard scene with everything that you don't talking about when we were talking earlier to seeing the way the city is right now, everything's shut down.It's sad. Greg Gordon: Yeah. Michael Moore: It's a tough spot. We're in one other, a theme we like to hit on in this podcast guys is, you know, there's, we're kind of talking, this almost sounds like a. Something Zig Ziglar would say, it's, it's not what you know, it's who, you know, but I heard another one the other day that it's, it's not what you know, it's who knows you.And so, as you think about our audience of this podcast and letting people know who you are and what you stand for and what Gordon Highlander is and where it's headed, what would you want to tell him? Greg Gordon: That's a softball, right? Michael Moore: Lobbing Greg Gordon: it up, baby lob that went up to us, huh? Well, I will tell you, you know, the dress for success.I like to tell people now dress from success. Words Michael Moore: matter Greg Gordon: words matter, man. And what order you put them in? Do you know? Oh my gosh. That's so awesome. Well, hopefully the audience has listened if you haven't, you should go back because there's a lot of good nuggets in here, but if you're just catching this part, keep it up as out for Gordon Highlander.I don't know. I think there's big things on the horizon for us. I think we can be a national force. I'm excited about having a growth mindset. Just trying to help everyone in the organization, get to where they're supposed to be and [00:50:00] get the organization where it's supposed to be. So if you're in Dallas, Fort worth, we love you.We're not going anywhere. If you're in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and you need a good general contractor really close by. If there's a lot of industrial development in your future. We're more than just contractors. We understand the whole constellation around the deal, what it, what it, what it means to buy the land and build the building.We just think that because we know. What our customer goes through. That really helps us be the best general contractor out there. Who, again, if you want to play golf at Dallas national, you call RichieMichael Moore: that's Greg Gordon: perfect. Richie Greth: It's amazing to play golf and call it air quotes work Michael Moore: well with, with, with Jeff Bezos being one of our. Biggest podcast supporters will tell them to keep sending the work to Gordo. Greg Gordon: Yeah. Yeah. We signed an NDA, but we're not building his $10 billion clock or watch in the middle of the mountain over there or whatever the hell he's doing.But Richie Greth: thousand year clock, Greg Gordon: someone told me about that today. I don't even understand, but we'll build the warehouse all day long.What about you guys? How would you, how would you want your audience to know what you provide? How would you tell Gordon Highlander Michael Moore: from the standpoint of our podcast or how we make a living doing the podcast? Greg Gordon: Does the podcast point to your business or Michael Moore: no, that's not why we're doing this. I mean, it going back to.You know, the world essentially stopping for a minute and everybody resetting that's when Bob and I really started spending a lot of time on the phone, just looking for a creative outlet [00:52:00] and realizing that in our very own neighborhoods, whether it's in Chicago or Fort worth families, we're getting together again in the backyards and telling stories.And it was like, where did that go? I mean, Richie's been down to. My family's ranches. I don't even know how many times in the amount of stories that he's heard from my dad and my grandfather and times that I've spent with his dad. I mean, it's just that passage of knowledge is something that that's going away and we felt just motivated.Just say, no, stop that we're not letting it go away. We're going to get great people on our podcast with really interesting backgrounds. Defining moments and crossroads, and just bring those stories to life again. Greg Gordon: Do you know Donald Miller or D do you follow Story Brand at all? Michael Moore: I'm familiar with it, but I don't know it.Greg Gordon: I think we should invite him to Dallas national. All right. Let's all get our, our, desires together and let's, let's get someone on this podcast. It's out of our reach. Bob Wierema: Michael. And I've been talking about that. That's the goal. There's a couple, there's a couple ones out there that, you know, you, you think about it, it's like trying to get that reach out.And I said, I joked around with my buddies the other day about, they said, well, what are you going to do with this? Like, who are you trying to get on? I said, well, we've been wanting to hear all these. Stories, but we always kind of joke about, like I love talking to people like you guys cause it's relatable people.Right. And I said, but like at the end of the day, I said, the guy who like I've always loved and followed is Joe Rogan. I said, I'll hang it up. When I get Joe Rogan on the podcast, this he's the master of this. Right. Richie Greth: But that would be great. That would be great. Greg Gordon: Well, would it be cheating? We paid him. Bob Wierema: I don't think, I don't think we could do it enough after that big Spotify contract.Richie Greth: Right. Is he on cameo, Virginia?[00:54:00] Michael Moore: It needs a little pro bono work in his life now, you know, to give back, Bob Wierema: I mean, he's a big outdoors man. Like me. Maybe you can talk a little bow hunting on there, you know, just the Chicago boy that likes to bow hunt. I mean, come on. Greg Gordon: Wow. Michael Moore: Elk meat recipes. I mean, the guy's just, he's a Greg Gordon: beast. Dude. And he doesn't, Richie Greth: that's gotta be a narrow demographic from Chicago.Bob Wierema: There, there are not a lot. And, you know, you talk about, you know, these like funny stories. So when I met, when I met my now fiancé, if you could have only seen the face, the look on her face when I said yes, so I like to go hunting. She's like, well, what does that mean? I said, well, I. I bow hunt. She's like, well, what do you shoot?Michael Moore: It's Greg Gordon: like Bob Wierema: elk and deer. And she was just like, who is sky? Like what, what event is this in Chicago? I mean, you just don't have it here at all. There's, there's not a lot of people that are outdoors men here. And I live six blocks from my office right in the smack, a middle of downtown. And it's just been a huge passion of mine since I was a little kid.And you know, it's always be a part of my life. Richie Greth: Well, you need to get down to a, when the Miguelito's ranches, Sandy or Cedar Creek and go, go do some pig hunting nits. There there's some special places down there. Bob Wierema: And that's always interesting. I always look out for those invites and my phone never seems to fricking ring Michael Moore: well, you know, she's going to kind of see how this podcast goes and if it's successful, you know, we'll have a reunion down there.No, you never go. The invite is always out there. You know that, but go back to your question. I mean, I think, you know, what we want people to know is that this is just something we're doing from our hearts and we believe in it, it's important to us. We're having so much fun doing it, you know, and as it relates to what we do, I mean, a big part of, of Bob and I's job is, is the InsureTech [00:56:00] movement out there.I mean, you see the lemonade stock. Flying through the roof. You know, there's a lot of, of things that are trying to commoditize the insurance market. And, you know, our strong belief is that it's still a relationship people business. And so we're all about relationships we care Greg Gordon: and Michael Moore: this podcast, I mean, you've, you've gotta be in the moment for, you know, we're going on an hour plus now of really listening and being able to find that next question and to keep.The conversation going and taking it to maybe, you know, we've had several that have, we had one guy that got all teared up. I mean, you just don't know where the conversation's going to go, but if you're in the moment paying attention and giving a shit, it produces some amazing content. Richie Greth: For the record. I'm, I'm impressed.Gordo. Hasn't teared up. And I know he, I know he mentioned that, but that's part of his, you know, what tendencies, but, you know, I just gotta say, I love what you guys are doing. I love the storytelling aspect ever since you told me about it and hearing what you sent over. I think it's awesome. I mean, you know, storytellers and that.It's becoming a little bit of a loss brand then, and, and the lost touch with, with connecting with people. I mean, many years ago, I mean the most revered people in the tribe or the storytellers, you know, I mean, the people who gave the oral history and were able to relate, you know, the old, moral, the stories, et cetera.I think it's great what you guys were doing and very thankful to be a part of it. Michael Moore: I'm laughing because Bob Wierema: you talk about storytelling. Might this tell my dad the other day he goes, Oh yeah, that makes sense for you to go. He's like, you've been full of shit your whole life. Of course, you're going to do a plot.Yes. He's like, you got plenty of stories to share. Greg Gordon: Right? The other, the other connection that Richie and I [00:58:00] have is we love, I think one of the things that just marks really high up there. Our ability to laugh, learn our sense of humor and just having a good time together. And I see this connection, man. I don't know I'm going to do a good job my case here, but I think of joke telling is storytelling in a way.Absolutely. We kind of set up this story and then you like the way it are pulling the tablecloth out from underneath the table, you just let it, everyone know that it was actually rearranged a different way, and then you let them realize it, you know, And so Richie and I, I mean, dude, the other day, he, I think my dad called him to tell him a joke or he called my dad to tell my dad a joke.And then my dad told Richie that I never answer his phone calls anymore. So we made Richie call in on a three-way from Richie's phone and I answered the phone. And then I see my dad and tell him this.And then he was just like, I'll just leave it right there. Click you, hang out. Hey, hangs up the phone. And so, Yeah. I think our love of storytelling is it seems like it might be genetic. I haven't met Michael's dad, but I've heard lots and lots of stories. I think it's cool. If your dad can pants, you say that you were full of shit.That means. And he's probably a good storyteller too. Bob Wierema: He is, Greg Gordon: he definitely is. Richie's dad is a little bit like Lee Trevino. Like he comes right out with the story too. He's got them flying out. No Richie Greth: filter, no filter. The Bob Wierema: funny thing is I said to my dad the other day, I said, man, if you've gotten older though, like there's some stories here that were here and I'm not sure if they're real anymore.And he's telling one the other day and my [01:00:00] mom's looking at him. And she's like, I've never heard this story in 30 something years, you know? And she's like, I don't know where this is coming from. Richie Greth: You know, one thing my dad has a, has a propensity to do now is to merge like two or three Greg Gordon: stores. Richie Greth: And so it's like a hodgepodge it's like, you can just put it in my cocktail and hit the blender button.It's hilarious. Michael Moore: Well, I think that's just a sign of having so many good times. They just start all blending together. You Greg Gordon: know, Michael Moore: he's lived an amazing life. Well guys, you know, we're, we're coming on up over a little bit of an hour here. I can't. Thank you guys enough. And. We'd love to have you guys on again, see where Gordon Highlander creates total global domination.You know, again, Gordo, thank you for sharing the, the quote about storytelling is the language of the heart. Cause that's what this is all about, and we appreciate y'all telling your story today. Richie Greth: So is this first intermission or is this over? Michael Moore: We got Bob Wierema: to fill up our drinks. Greg Gordon: Yeah, it's actually my second set of twins an all day long Waterslide birthday party today.Wow. And so I am going to go change into my bathing suit. Well, Bob Wierema: there you go. Greg Gordon: I'll show you guys. I think this is the modern work attire, right? It's a dress shirt. Bob Wierema: Oh yeah. Greg Gordon: It was shorts. Bob Wierema: I thought you were going to show us the bathing suit. Greg Gordon: Yeah. Richie Greth: I just have dental flaws below the waist. There Michael Moore: you go.Newscasters have been doing it for years. Greg Gordon: Well, we appreciate you guys. I dunno, Michael, I'm happy for your success and. Great to meet you. Rich. Absolute love you [01:02:00] Richie Greth: guys. That was a blast. Michael Moore: Absolutely. Bob Wierema: Ton of fun. I'll hit you guys up for that Dallas Nashville invite. Don't worry. Probably coming here in August.Richie Greth: Okay, come on. Second half of August. We're shut down. First half and second half Bob Wierema: I'll play it. I'll plan it. I'll plan it a mic. Richie Greth: Yeah, you get to watch Bryson hit 400 yard drives on the practice. Tee. It's kind of fun. Bob Wierema: We'll make it happenfor sure.Michael Moore: We're all in. Thank you guys so much. Bob Wierema: You guys take care.Michael Moore: Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the climb. If you enjoyed the episode. Please consider subscribing. And if you know someone who you would think would enjoy the podcast, feel free to share this with them. Thanks again. And we'll see you on the next episode. . 

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Host Benjamin Gedan is joined by Kristie Pellecchia, OPIC's senior adviser for Latin America, to discuss her high-profile trip to Argentina, Paraguay and Colombia; OPIC's support for female entrepreneurs; and OPIC's strategy for drawing U.S. investment to a region in the face of rising Chinese engagement.

Jedna z nejvíc palčivých otázek současné pandemie koronaviru se ptá na to, jestli se lidé vyléčení z onemocnění covid-19 mohou virem nakazit znovu, anebo jsou vůči němu už imunní.

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Engineering Influence welcomed ACEC Board Chair Mitch Simpler back to the show for his quarterly Chairman's Corner podcast.  In this episode, Mitch looks back on a successful year for ACEC and gives his thoughts on what 2020 could bring for ACEC and the engineering industry.  Transcript:Host: Welcome to Engineering Influence, a podcast by the American Council of Engineering Companies. We're very pleased today to welcome back to the show, our board chair, Mitch, Simpler for his quarterly chairman's corner podcast. And now that we're in the second week of a new year and a new decade, it's a good time to look back a bit on 2019 on what was a very busy and successful year for ACEC and maybe you know, a little bit of look forward to what the new year might bring. So Mitch, welcome back to the show.Mitch Simpler: Well, thank you for having me back and Happy New Year to you and to all the listeners.Host: Yes. Happy New Year.Mitch Simpler: And you know, my wife gets very depressed at the end of the year and I tell her, I said, this is an opportunity. It's, it's, you've gotta look for it as these are opportunities and challenges not to be to be depressing, but to be enlightening and energizing. So here we are.Speaker 2: Happy new year. Yeah. And really when I came on in May of last year with ACEC, it was right at the conference in, in Washington and my introduction of course to ACEC but then also you, you assumed the role officially is as board chair a lot's happened since. What are your big takeaways from the year for the industry and from the association?Mitch Simpler: Well, and so let's just talk about the year in general. It was, it's been a very unique year because as you know, we had a, a, a previous president, CEO had retired after 20 years. So as I came on board as the chair and when I was actually chair elect, we brought in a whole new management team for ACC national, which has been both the a blessing and a bit of a curse. The curse is that there was not a lot of intellectual an institutional knowledge that was carried forward. And that's actually part of the blessing. We did not have a lot of baggage, but the short version is having a new staff starting with Linda Bauer Darr - she brought in as a CEO, new president, but then we brought in a new CEO, CFO and, and new legislative representation a lot of, a lot of people that needed to get brought up to speed as to who we are and what we do.Mitch Simpler: And then on top of that for reasons that I'll make clear later, I hope is the fact that we determined that we needed to upgrade and actually replace our strategic plan. So we've really had a lot of major challenges for the team, both the volunteer leadership, which was new. That would be me and Manish, the good news is we were able to adjust the bylaws that allow the previous chair to stay on executive committee to help smooth the transition out. And then having Charlie G on board who is now the chair-elect gave us a really clear set of guidance and guiding principle leaders that can help transition the organization into the future. But some, some real big challenges. And I think all had been met with enthusiasm and the team has done a terrific job to to move the needles across the board for ACEC, both on membership relationship building between the member offices and national opening up the national doors so that the states and the member firms really get a better understanding of who ACEC is, what our role is and what our responsibilities are and what we do for them.Host: Yeah, I kind of felt that change coming in. Of course, I didn't have a lot of the institutional knowledge you know, coming in to ACEC, but I noticed that you had, that feeling of change was afoot and you had pieces being moved on the table, but really no sense of disruption. That energy, that enthusiasm was evident when I came on board. And of course, you know, Linda's been a real force in that moving this forward and kind of expanding our scope and looking bigger and trying to raise the profile of the industry. But I noticed that seemed to be kind of universal, you know - let's move this forward, and let's keep things going. So it's been an interesting ride that this level of enthusiasm hasn't waned at all. And has kind of opened new doors. Of course. You know, one of the perfect examples of that I think was the first time that we really as a large team went to a FIDIC conference of course this time in Mexico City where we had policy. Of course I came down to do podcasts. You, you were there and you were presented at the, at, at the conferences. Well as did Linda. And that was a new experience. You know, what did you think of that?Mitch Simpler: I t was my first FIDIC conference for reasons that I don't recall. I was not able to make the previous, it is sort of, it's customary for the incoming chair as well as the chair to attend the FIDIC conferences. FIDIC for those listeners who aren't familiar with it. It is essentially the international version of ACEC and ACEC U.S. is one of 102 member countries that are members of FIDIC. So aside from the fact that it was my first FIDIC convention I have to tell you, it was truly exciting this year since the conference took place in Mexico City. It was my first time there. It was challenging because I don't speak Spanish and neither did many of the people there.Mitch Simpler: Thank goodness is many of them speak English so that, that really made it well. But, but it's really an opportunity for ACEC to collaborate with over 102 other countries that all represent the FIDIC organization and it really you communicate on a truly global scale. And it was also important for us to be there this year because the new president of FIDIC is Bill Howard who is from CD Smith, CDM Smith, I guess it is who was sworn as a new president's two year term. So the now the leadership of FIDIC is an American. Now - Bill has served on their board for a number of years. People who remember Greg Thompolis - a former chair of ACEC national - also was president of FIDIC several years ago. So ACC has played and will continue to play a major role on the FIDIC front. But it was interesting as a member of ACEC to go down there and listen to the issues that they struggle with, many of which are the same issues that we struggle with at ACEC.Mitch Simpler: They have the - and that's the issue of commoditization of engineering. Quality based selection. You know, how, how do you, how do you pick the right team for the right reasons. And so these are all the same missions that ACEC has FIDIC has, they have one additional challenge, which is, and we have sorta been blessed in the U S and we're kind of a bit of an a bubble but issues of corruption and, and intellectual property theft and all kinds of things that we have sort of dismissed over the years here. Because we have a much more open society. Those issues are still very prevalent at the international level. And FIDIC's challenge has been to try to open that up and and make the international market as clear and open a place for business as it is here in the U.S. And so they have their own challenges.Mitch Simpler: The fact that we have significant American representation in FIDIC both at the leadership level as well as on the FIDIC's probably single biggest claim to fame is the fact that they have prepared a number of international contracts for design professionals. These contracts have become sort of the gold standard now. And many of the documents that we use as part of ACEC out of the EJDC have come out of a basis from the FIDIC format. So very interesting. Met some amazing people down there. We were able to as ACEC also I guess I'll say reopen or reinvigorate our eyes invigorates the communication between our counterparts here in North America as well as those in South America and particularly Central America and Mexico. There's a number of things that we think that we have more in common than in difference. They look to the U.S., FIDIC does as well as our South American counterparts. Look to the U.S. as true leaders from a technology design practice and best business practices. You know, where the, where the where the sort of the envy of most of the world and they are looking to us to help them raise their standards. And and we certainly made it very clear that we're open for business and would be willing and, and would love to help.Host: I remember the enthusiasm of our Mexican counterparts and talking to us and, and reestablishing those ties and it was, it was, it, you know, very optimistic. We share so many common interests both economically and then also in the need for infrastructure investment. You can see how those markets can mutually benefit each other. And it's good for ACEC to be able to open that door back open for collaboration.Mitch Simpler: Yeah. And it was, it was refreshing the, the fact that the Mexican counterpart for ACEC, that whole team came up to Chicago for our fall meeting and and continued the conversation. So this is, it's very encouraging and and I look forward to see how it how it develops.Host: Absolutely. it was a valuable conference. And it was, it was especially interesting the subject that you presented on was technology. And how that's kind of changing the way that the industry is working and the way that the new cadre of engineers coming up through the ranks and in the university and, and the younger professionals are able to use technology to do things that were, you know, time consuming and inconceivable, you know, only, you know, a decade or so more go. And then how that technology is, is, you know, how it's being spread across the world. Because one of the things about FIDIC is that they include Western Europe, of course, North America Asia, but then also some developing areas of the world that don't have access to that same level of technology. And the point you made about corruption and the issues of IP and really just doing business in an above board way.Host: You know, it's interesting to hear the stories from people in, you know, Europe and Asia. Then also hearing the perspectives from countries like Kenya and, and some others where, where they want to have the same access, but they just don't because their economies are still developing. They don't have the access to the same technologies, the same legal provisions that American firms have. And then the other side of the coin is American firms that might want to be doing business in those regions. What do they have to be cognizant of and aware of? And it was really interesting to have that exchange and being able to be part of that firsthand. So it was extremely good conference.Mitch Simpler: Yeah, I agree. And, and, and for us to get a better perspective on the globe, the global business of what ACEC represents. And as you said, Europe has a definite approach and they are embracing technology, but there are a lot of countries which just simply cannot. And they turn to us as, as true technology leaders, what can we do to help them leverage whatever aptitudes they have to be better, better designers and better producers. And I think that using the FIDIC forum is a terrific way for that information exchange to take place. And it does and it was really just really exciting.Host: Yeah, absolutely. And another big issue or topic of focus for us, of course, something that you alluded to a little bit earlier and has been kind of a a driving force throughout the year has been the development of that new strategic plan, which was adopted in Chicago officially. But that's, you know, the adoption is only the public part of it. There has been a lot of work behind the scenes that have been going on for a long time, which you have been deeply involved in. And it's going to set the stage for how ACEC moves forward and grows as an association and represents the dynamic and changing industry. You know, what, what's your and of course right now we're in the implementation phases of that plan which, which was still ongoing. What are your main thoughts about the plan itself? You know, how it came about and where we are really with, with, you know, the implementation phase right now?Mitch Simpler: Yeah. Well, no, it's a good question and, and that certainly let me digress real quick. So here I take over as chair. We decide that we're going to have, we're going to have a new budget, a three year budget. We have a new team of our paid professional staff starting with Linda and, and then decide, why we're at it, why don't we do a new strategic plan? You've got nothing else to do on your plate. So what the heck - and I'm being a little facetious. It was a lot. It was a lot of moving parts but, but certainly the strategic plan adoption the new strategic plan adoption I think has been a real success story. Manish Kothari was chair of ACEC before me and when I served as chair elect, I also served on the planning cabinet.Mitch Simpler: Manish challenged us on the planning cabinet to decide whether the current strategic plan needed to be updated or replaced. The planning cabinet unanimously recommended to replace the current plan as it was, the plan had really become more operational than it was strategic. And that's when the fun really began. We put together an incredible team of diverse leaders from a member firms both across the country and in different markets sectors, male and female. We had, we tried to get as diverse a group as we possibly get. The result from that process was that we developed a brand new strategic plan and that was, as you said, it was presented to the board of directors at the fall conference in Chicago. And the plan was unanimously adopted by the board. It was presented by one of the, one of our members as well as our, our strategic planning chairman, Mr. Greg Kelly.Mitch Simpler: The plan has been branded as being both bold and audacious and as a refreshing change, I guess from the previous plans. But a real hurdle as you pointed out was the fact that we now need to roll this plan out with real operational and implementation worthy goals. And that's where the fun really began. So part of the process that we're involved in now and we were going to be presenting the next stage at the EXCOM meeting in January is to put together the both the implementation details as well as the performance metrics that we're going to be able to use to measure the success of our collective performance on execution of the plan. So that's really where we are. My hope is to be able to present certainly this a pretty fleshed out skeleton of the implementation plan to the full board at the spring meeting in DC.Host: And being part of that, you know, the really the, the, I guess the think tank portion of it where we have all the, you know, a diverse kind of set of individuals and in groups within planning cabinet, then also internal staff talking about these goals and objectives. You know, it's, it's going to be interesting to see how it, how it all comes together because without going into detail, there are some themes and some ideas that are rising to the surface that are going to be, I think incorporated into the implementation and it's going to be some exciting, exciting things ahead. So yeah, it's been a very interesting time watching this evolve and develop from the plan, getting it approved. And now moving into this more, you know, more actionable stage of putting meat on the bones as far as, you know, those, those steps to actually get this in from paper into the reality of implementation.Host: But it's critically important. I think that having this kind of a guiding strategic document really helps crystallize this idea that ACEC can really become the preeminent entity that's really in the popular thought space, both in public debate on the Hill, but then also talking to a larger audiences, the American people other industries about the importance of, of engineering. And this is the kind of document that allows ACEC to kind of get that accomplished. And it's going to be interesting to see how it, how it all develops. And yeah, spring's going to be very interesting to see what is going to be presented in Washington, DC.Mitch Simpler: And I agree on everything you've just stated, but to me the, one of the key elements of the strategic plan and it's mentioned throughout is the role to become thought leaders and our role as, as the the harbinger of thought leadership in the engineering industry. And that's certainly one of our strategic goals across all of the, the various components of the plan. But it's becoming the true thought leadership developing thought leadership, executing thought leadership and being the resource for thought leadership in the engineering community. And we've been doing it and now we've tried to make it a little more, I'll use my term official that that's our strategic goal. And and it is, as you say, very, very exciting. It was a huge lift and I, and I will tell you between the volunteers and the staff, it has been an incredible process. And then my hats are off to all of you who participated because it is a it's a real challenge. To do it right it takes an incredible amount of time and patience and dedication and that has been measured across the board from everyone who's been involved. And I thank all each and every one of them for doing it - you includedHost: Well, thank you. And it's, I'll tell you the thought leadership piece is something that we're looking at and trying to figure out how best to package and create kind of a platform for thought leadership. But it all really comes down to the people listening to this podcast, our members. You know, we have the great benefit of having some extremely hefty talent out there people who are leading in their fields and are experts and our ability to communicate a thought leadership really bubbles up from the members that we have. So, you know, if there's anyone out there who has an idea or as a who or is, you know, hey, I've been thinking about this one issue that I really think we can talk about, or I can, I can talk about, reach out to us, because we'd love to get that in a place where people can see it.Host: And our best position from ACEC is to be that amplifier of our, the voices of our membership. So anybody out there with an idea, something that they're an expert on, something that they want to talk about, let us know, because we'd like to help you with that. I'm gonna put in that little plug there because you know, we're, you know, in DC you know, we're, we're, we are staffers. We're, we're communicators. We're lobbyists, you know, association people we're not day to day engineers. And, and our talent is, is really with the States and with our membership. So don't be shy, contact us. So I, you know, really the big tent pole items for 2019 something that we haven't really had the opportunity to talk to you about before on the, on the show.Host: But it was really interesting was your trip to Asia as part of a commerce delegation to Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam with Secretary Wilbur Ross, Commerce Secretary Ross to talk about American business and what can be done to bring open markets of course in Asia. And then also to create opportunities for U.S. Firms. You were part of that, you had meetings with presidents ambassadors and high level staff in those countries. What were your main takeaways? What were your thoughts on, on the success of that trip?Mitch Simpler: Well, you know I'll kind of back it up a little bit. Much like the FIDIC meeting, the meeting in, in the trade mission to Southeast Asia was very exciting and incredibly challenging. First, the members of the trade mission in addition to Wilbur Ross and his team from the commerce department was the import export bank, the overseas private investment corporation, otherwise known as OPIC, the U.S. Agency for International Development, otherwise known as USAID, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, USTDA and the Department of State. Those are the government's side of the trade mission. And on the private side we had firms that represent gas companies, Boeing, Citibank, Lockheed Martin, but more specifically ACEC and Manish Kothari and I - Manish being the previous chair of ACEC, my immediate predecessor and I were the only two professionals representing professional design firms on the and the trade delegation. And it was really a unique opportunity for us and the fact that we were representing 7,000 member firms and that that little detail was not lost on anyone on the mission that we actually had more a team behind us.Mitch Simpler: In addition to the 700,000 members that represent the firms ACEC was really very, very well positioned and we were, as you pointed out, we were able to meet with key ministry level members as well as the presidents and premiers from Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand. Our simple message was that we all, the members of ACEC are open for business with each and every one of these countries. Provided we can be assured that we will be paid in full and in a reasonable period of time that our intellectual property will be honored and respected, which has been sort of the biggest problem with billing work, particularly in Southeast Asia is that you can do design work and next thing you know, your design is popping up everywhere and you're not involved because they have essentially taken your IP, your intellectual property. We - Manish and I, were convinced that our message was heard and well received by all the members of leadership within these countries who also recognize that ACEC represents the best of the best design firms on a global scale.Mitch Simpler: And if you want us to be able to work on your projects in those countries, they need to be clear and open about how we're working, how we get paid and, and how our intellectual properties will be respected. And that message was made very loud and clear and very well received. And our hope both through the commerce department as well as through the individual firms that are doing actively doing work over there now that we will be able to continue the conversation and and get more firms actively involved. They are all doing incredibly well from a, from an economic development standpoint. And it certainly would behove any and every American firm to get involved to the extent that they are able, because it is, it is a booming economy and will soon be, it's right now that the Asian countries represent the third largest market segment and third largest economy. And we need to be more actively involved. My hope is that we will.Host: Yeah, I think it's, it's, you know, there's a great, and again, you know, ACEC being part of that trip you know, with how many companies and professionals that we represent and that, that, that massive force behind that name. It's also important to kind of point out that as far as it, as the, as the trade mission went, we were the only professional trade association that was part of the trip. Everybody else was part of a company or....Mitch Simpler: Yes, they were there with a very pointed mission to sell their specific product. And we were selling an idea and I'll tell you, it was, it was very well received. And by the way, including the companies that were there saying, you know, we need to talk to you guys about help design facilities for us over here because they all want to look. It's a huge economic booming area. Right now one of the big issues was the fact that there is an average of $40 billion trade deficit in favor of those countries against the U.S. and getting us companies to invest and building projects in Southeast Asia, but using U.S. firms and us products was really part of the mission statement. And I, and I, that was not lost on anyone there, including the companies that accompanied us to Southeast Asia using American companies to do their design and build and construction and using American products and the whole thing. It was, there was, it was a home run.Host: I mean when it was Tesla, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, I mean some and some of the larger players in the oil and gas, natural gas fields. I mean, and also creating those inroads with those companies that are going to be making those investments. And then from a national security and more strategic position is that, you know, the big, of course name on the block there is China and there's a, there's, you know, with, with the belt and road initiatives that China's doing and their investments in the region that those countries are looking for other partners in the landscape.Mitch Simpler: They are looking for alternatives, because I think the gloss has worn off the belt and road concept and they're now beginning to realize that that's not a good spot for them to be in. Because China has really started tightening, no pun intended, tightening their belt on those countries and they're saying, look, we need alternatives. We need, we need better solutions from outside of China. And we were there to help.Mitch Simpler: By the way, having both the city there as well as USAID and the Import-Export bank gave them funding opportunities that they would have otherwise not had.Host: I can tell you from you know, the reciprocity side. I mean, after you came back in short order, before the end of the year, we had about two or three meetings inside our DC office with representatives from the region and including Vietnam who were very interested in talking to us because like you said, you know, we are the gold standard. We have that knowledge base. We have that just that ability to improve of course their own practices and to influence how they are shaping the rules and regulations that govern the work that's done in the region. But then also having that ability to create and build the best infrastructure possible for a market that is just growing by leaps and bounds. And, and for any company out there that's listening any CEO who's saying, you know, it might be interesting to get involved in international work with a country in the region you know, reach out to us because Dan Hilton on our team did a very good job of, of helping to provide the background, of course, to help you guys get out there and make it a successful meeting.Host: But, you know, we are tied in with still USAID, the Export-Import bank those government entities we have a very good relationship with them and we can help firms out there that earth that are looking at getting involved in those markets. And we can be that door opener. We can be that convener to help make those relationships happen. So if you're interested in it, please reach out because you have a lot, you know your membership in ACEC goes beyond just you know, what you see day to day. There's a lot of work going on to on the international front. So, you know, take advantage of that.Mitch Simpler: Absolutely agree. As I said, very exciting. Clearly an opportunity and a number of our member firms are already actively involved in Southeast Asia and this is really an opportunity for other firms now to be able to piggyback on the successes that have already taken place.Host: Yeah. so that's, that's it was a busy year both domestically and internationally, a lot of things are going to be going into 2020 that, that were started of course in 2019. The strategic plan being one I guess what's your outlook? I mean, not just from ACEC, but also as a leader and an executive in the industry. You know, what's 2020 looking like from your seat in the C suite?Mitch Simpler: Well, from my lips to God's ears I'm, I'll use the term cautiously optimistic. You know, I think everyone is, is feeling the success over the last several years, but particularly for 19, we would love for it to continue. But those of us who've been in business long enough, and this is my 43rd year with JBB and 33 years as a partner I've seen economic booms and I've seen economic busts. And just when you think when things are going good and they're going to be sustained, you know, the floor drops out. So I'll use my term cautiously optimistic for 2020. We certainly have, we as a firm we as a region have a, just a real boom going on in the Northeast construction boom in the, in the engineering industry is is feeling it in a very good way.Mitch Simpler: We have reasonable expectations that this will certainly continue through 2020. We know, obviously this is an election year and that's when, you know, funny things happen and somebody says the wrong thing at the right time and next, now the market takes a tank. So my term cautiously optimistic is just that for that reason, I've ever reason to believe that it will continue going. Certainly in a matter of similar, not necessarily, I'm not sure it will continue at this a fevered pitch, but, but certainly continue at reasonable growth. And the reports that I've gotten back through my network as chair certainly through my fellow CEOs is that this, I think this cautious optimism is, is pretty much spread out across the country. And it's, that's good news. Anything we can do to continue that process we should be doing. Absolutely. Tell me what that is. I'll be happy to do it.Host: Well, it's going to be an interesting year. I, without question, when ever you have it you know an election year like this, it's always going to be very interesting. And we're going to be very active in it from our position to help the candidates understand the importance of the engineering industry to see all the policies that are out there that benefit us from, from, you know, issues related to workforce, immigration resiliency, climate change, things like that, that, you know, we have a part to play. And we have a voice and we want to have that voice included in the policy debate. And that's going to be up to us to make sure that happens.Mitch Simpler: Right. And this is the what's the right word? A a not so honest plug for the PAC, but this is where the PAC becomes so critical. And then the good news is I was, I got my, my notice that the PAC has exceeded $1 million again for 2019 and congratulations to all of those who contributed. It is an absolute, probably the single best arrow we in our quiver for the success of ACEC members and our advocacy program is the PAC. And this year will be the year that it was ever going to be something worthwhile to have. It's a PAC during this presidential election. And so kudos to all of those who, who contributed kudos to ACEC for being able to continue to grow the PAC and use it in our advocacy and amount of, to which it was intended. And that's, this year will be that test year. It's, it's disappointing that for the last four years, we've not been able to get an infrastructure bill passed. But, but we certainly have every reason to believe that this year could be that year.Host: And again, as it happened with the 2016 election, infrastructure was more than just a back burner issue. It did come to the forefront. Hopefully that happens again. And, and the PAC enables us to keep that conversation going and to introduce, of course, our industry to more Members of Congress. Of course, the significant number of freshmen that are in Congress right now who are going to be up for reelection you know, they're going to want to know what's happening. And the PAC, the townhouse that we have of course in Washington right now, which Dave Bender is overseeing being able to have people in and to have those meetings, it's critically important. So yes, thank you for all who have donated. And the PAC is a, is a potent weapon. And, and, and it's, it's said a lot about in DC that, that, you know having one of that size is the kind of thing that separates you from a crowd and, and has you and your message taken a lot more seriously. So breaking that million Mark is, is a, is a big landmark that really sets us up for for a good 2020.Mitch Simpler: All right. Fingers crossed.Host: Yeah. Fingers crossed.Host: Exactly. I guess that that kind of you know, I think that's a good note to, to kinda end on. It's a cautiously optimistic for 2020. Anything else that you want to add before we sign off?Mitch Simpler: No, other than it's been a real pleasure to work both with Jeff, with you and the entire ACEC team at national and you guys make us all look good, but it is not lost on any one of us. That it is you, the, the staff that make ACEC the success story that it is. And thank you all. And I wish everyone a very happy, healthy and safe new year. And I will see you actually on Wednesday.Host: Yes, absolutely. And thank you for that. And we will see you for our EXCOMM training and the year is kicking off with a fast pace and a very packed January. So we really look forward to an exciting year ahead and talking to you in the future. And thank you very much for taking the time, Mitch, and Happy New Year.

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With everything else going on in the news, you might have missed the emergence of a new independent federal agency. It's called the United States International Development Finance Corporation, or DFC. It a combination of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and parts of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Karl Fickenscher, deputy assistant administrator for USAID's Bureau for Economic Growth, Education, and Environment, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to sort it all out.

Over the past two years, the Trump administration has been grappling with how to handle the transition to the next generation of mobile broadband technology. With spending expected to run into hundreds of billions of dollars, the administration views it as an ultra-high-stakes competition between U.S. and Chinese companies, with enormous implications both for technology and for national security. Top officials from a raft of departments have been meeting to hash out the best approach.  But there’s been one person at some of the discussions who has a different background: He’s Donald Trump Jr.’s hunting buddy. Over the past two decades, the two have trained their sights on duck, pheasant and white-tailed deer on multiple continents. (An email from another Trump Jr. pal characterized one of their joint duck-hunting trips to Mexico years ago as “muy aggresivo.”)  Tommy Hicks Jr., 41, isn’t a government official; he’s a wealthy private investor. And he has been a part of discussions related to China and technology with top officials from the Treasury Department, National Security Council, Commerce Department and others, according to emails and documents obtained by ProPublica. In one email, Hicks refers to a meeting at “Langley,” an apparent reference to the CIA’s headquarters.   Hicks’ financial interests, if any, in the matters he has discussed aren’t clear. The interests are much more apparent when it comes to at least one of his associates. Hicks used his connections to arrange for a hedge fund manager friend, Kyle Bass — who has  $143 million in investments that will pay off if China’s economy tanks — to present his views on the Chinese economy to high-level government officials at an interagency meeting at the Treasury Department, according to the documents. Hicks is hardly the first private-sector power broker to emerge in a presidential administration, but he may represent a new subspecies: The Friend of the President’s Kid. In fact, Hicks’ influence and career overwhelmingly hinge on two people: Trump Jr., his friend of about two decades, and, first and foremost, Hicks’ father. In a roughly 20-year career, Hicks has spent 17 of them working for investment funds and sports teams owned by his wealthy financier dad, Thomas Hicks Sr., and the other three working for a client of his father. The generally privileged life of the younger Hicks has been speckled with occasional instances of misbehavior, one of them serious. At age 18, he pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault, reduced from an original charge of felony aggravated assault, after he and two others were arrested in the beating of a fellow high school student at a party. (The victim was also kicked in the face during the assault, according to people familiar with the case. He told police that one of the three assailants — he didn’t say which — asked him, “What is your name, faggot?”) The criminal conviction did not prevent Hicks from being admitted to the University of Texas, where his father was an alumnus, a member of the Board of Regents and soon thereafter the first chairman of the University of Texas Investment Management Company, which manages the school’s endowment and other assets. As an adult, friends say, Hicks’ carousing ways and occasional belligerent outbursts led some in his circle to bestow a heavily ironic nickname: “Senator Hicks.” His tenure as a director of the soccer team his father owned in Liverpool, England, a decade ago ended right after an email he sent to a heckling fan — “Blow me fuckface. Go to Hell. I’m sick of you.” — surfaced publicly. Friends say Hicks has matured, particularly since he married and had three daughters. He has risen quickly in recent years. Hicks leveraged his Dallas financial network to become a top Trump campaign fundraiser in 2016 and a vice chairman of the inaugural finance committee; in January, he was named co-chairman of the Republican National Committee. His friends say he is motivated by patriotism.  Hicks also played a behind-the-scenes role, according to two people familiar with the matter and an account by a Turkish journalist, in the freeing last year of Andrew Brunson, an American pastor who was detained for two years by the Turkish government on what the U.S. government viewed as phony charges of spying and helping terrorists. Even before becoming the second highest-ranking GOP official, Hicks was a frequent White House guest. He liked to have lunch in the White House mess with his half sister, who worked for a time in the communications operation. (The family is not related to Hope Hicks, the former White House communications director.) Hicks would then stroll the halls, according to a former senior administration official, dropping in to offices for impromptu chats with various officials, including Jared Kushner. Those sorts of connections have given Hicks a convening power, the ability to call together multiple officials. “He basically opened the door for having a conversation with people who I didn’t know but needed to know,” said Robert Spalding, a former senior director for strategic planning at the National Security Council during the Trump administration.  The efforts, detailed in hundreds of pages of government emails and other documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, show that Hicks had access to the highest levels of government to influence policymaking in ways that could lead to painful economic outcomes for the Chinese — and a potentially lucrative result for Hicks’ hedge fund friend, Bass. “When somebody comes in like this, a hedge fund manager who has an interest in the viability of China’s economy, you’re giving them an opportunity to influence policy,” said Virginia Canter, a former ethics lawyer at the Treasury Department who now serves as chief ethics counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group. (CREW has sued Donald Trump for accepting emoluments from foreign governments.) “The question is why?”  Hicks’ unusual role as a nongovernment employee who opened doors on behalf of both industry and others, Canter said, put him in a gray zone of ethics and lobbying regulations. “He’s acting in a lobbyist role when he may fall outside the lobbyist disclosure rules, and it’s not clear how he benefits financially,” she said. “So the question is: What’s he getting out of it? What are his friends getting out of it? And is the government processing it in a way that ensures the public benefits?” Bass presented his views on China’s banking system in the office of Heath Tarbert, an assistant secretary at Treasury in charge of international markets and investment policy and a powerful intergovernmental committee that reviews foreign investments in the U.S. for national security concerns. Among the officials at the meeting with Tarbert were Bill Hinman, the director of the division of corporation finance at the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Ray Washburne, a wealthy Dallas restaurant owner and family friend of Hicks’ who was nominated by Trump to head the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. Hicks and Bass, both Dallas residents and longtime denizens of the financial community there, have invested together since at least 2011, according to securities filings and court records. They’ve owned shares of a publicly traded communications-technology manufacturer. And they were among the biggest creditors to the bankrupt law enforcement contracting company run by Chris Kyle, the ex-Navy SEAL portrayed by Bradley Cooper in “American Sniper.” The managing director of a new investment fund started by Hicks had previously advised Bass on the successful stock-shorting of a Texas real estate lender, according to corporate filings and court papers from a lawsuit in state court in Dallas. But it’s not clear if Hicks or his family have an investment in Bass’ China-related funds. Reached twice on his cellphone, Hicks declined to be interviewed by ProPublica. In the second call, in June, Hicks didn’t dispute that he and his family have invested in Bass’ funds. But when asked to detail their business relationship, he cut the conversation short. “I’ve got to run. Let me see if I can get back to you,” Hicks said before hanging up. He didn’t call back. Weeks later, after ProPublica followed up with questions to the RNC, a spokesman responded by emailing a “statement attributed to Tommy Hicks.” It read: “As a businessman, I passionately supported causes I believed in and, if appropriate, would sometimes meet with government officials to promote them. There is nothing wrong with that. I have taken every precaution during my time as Co-Chair of the RNC to ensure there is no conflict of interest between my job here and any personal businesses.” (The spokesperson also emailed a statement on behalf of the RNC: “Tommy has done an outstanding job working on behalf of President Trump and his agenda.”) Bass, who made his name and fortune by betting against subprime mortgages before the crash and is known for large bets that economies or certain macro trends will turn downward, declined to comment. “I’m not interested in talking with you about my friends or any meetings I have or haven’t had privately with anyone,” he wrote in an email. In a subsequent message, Bass wrote that any suggestion “that we had corrupt intentions in meeting with Treasury officials... is categorically false and defamatory and could negatively affect our business.”  An administration official briefed on the Bass meeting at the Treasury downplayed it as “strictly a listening session.” He said Bass did not ask the attendees to take any actions, nor did the attendees divulge anything about U.S.-China policy. Government ethics officers vetted the federal employees for any conflicts and found none, the official said. He acknowledged that the review didn’t include an examination of any financial relationship between Hicks and Bass. Spalding said the conversation centered primarily on Bass’ analysis of publicly available records on the Chinese financial system. “I think the thing that I’ve discovered over the past years is that the information in the private sector is better than anything we have in government,” Spalding said of Bass’ presentation. “You have to reach out to where the expertise is. In our country, that’s where the talent is.” An SEC spokeswoman declined to comment. Washburne, now out of government, didn’t respond to emails seeking comment. Bass has become a vocal advocate for an aggressive U.S. policy toward China. On Twitter and on cable business channels he’s denounced everything from the country’s Communist Party government to its business practices. Securities filings show Bass raised $143 million from about 81 investors in two funds — investments that would benefit if China’s currency were devalued or the country faced credit or banking crises. In April, in a letter to his investors, Bass wrote that his company, Hayman Capital Management, was positioned for coming problems in Hong Kong and was set up to “maintain a massive asymmetry to a negative outcome in Hong Kong and/or China.” Hicks’ work on the 5G initiative was extensive. Over just a few months in late 2017 and 2018,  records show, he was part of an informal group led by then NSC official Spalding, that advocated for a strategy in which the federal government would plan out a national policy for 5G. One memo described their goal as the “equivalent of the Eisenhower National Highway System — a single, inherently protected, information transportation superhighway.”  The group conducted multiple meetings and briefings. For example, Hicks, Spalding and others traveled to Samsung Electronics’ Dallas-area offices for one meeting in January 2018. That same month Hicks attended a 5G meeting that he’d arranged with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Commerce plays a key role in the future of 5G since a division within the agency manages government spectrum and another maintains a list of companies the government believes are, or will become, national security threats. Companies that end up on that list can be effectively shut out from global deal-making. The meeting with Ross focused heavily on the threat of China, said Ira Greenstein, who served as a White House aide and was part of Spalding’s 5G crew. Hicks was one of a dozen nongovernment employees, including executives from Wells Fargo, Nokia, Ericsson and Google, that Spalding sent reading materials to ahead of a 5G discussion in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Copied on the email were top Commerce Department officials, a Booz Allen Hamilton contractor and a senior adviser for cybersecurity and IT modernization at the White House Office of Science and Technology. On the agenda? “Mid Band vs High Band” spectrum, “security,” “supply chain,” “financing” and other critical issues. Hicks wasn’t just a passive observer. On Jan. 2, 2018, the managing director of OPIC, which provides financial backing to American companies expanding into foreign markets, emailed Spalding and others to say that the CEO of a satellite company called OneWeb had a plan to provide worldwide 5G coverage by 2027. Hicks fired back a note from his iPhone. “2027 is too late,” he wrote. “Let’s discuss as a smaller group tomorrow.” Spalding was forced out of the West Wing in early 2018 after a draft 20-page briefing memo he authored proposing a government-organized national 5G network was leaked, then panned as an attempt to nationalize the wireless broadband industry. Trump has not pursued such an initiative, ultimately deferring to wireless carriers to bid on publicly maintained spectrum and develop their own networks as has traditionally been the case. Still, the administration has made significant efforts to counter Chinese influence in 5G and related technologies, which are said to be critical for industries such as driverless cars, artificial intelligence, machine learning and much more. In May the Commerce Department barred Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei from doing business in the U.S. for national security reasons. And the top Department of Defense official in charge of acquisitions also recently announced the creation of a government-approved private marketplace to pair American private equity firms with U.S. technology companies producing products with national security applications to keep Chinese money out of 5G. It isn’t clear what influence, if any, Hicks had in those decisions. But his profile is only rising. In April, he led a Republican delegation to Taiwan alongside a U.S. government delegation. Hicks met with the country’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, who has lately been positioning her country’s corporations as safer providers of 5G equipment than those in China. Tsai thanked the U.S. for selling arms to Taiwan. She asked Hicks to convey her regards to the Trumps.

La Corporación de Inversión Privada en el Exterior de los Estados Unidos lanzarán en el país la Iniciativa 2X, sobre negocios, para empoderar a las mujeres dominicanas. Te compartimos los detalles en esta entrega. Víctor Bautista nos comparte el ranking de las marcas más mencionadas del mercado de valores y conversamos con Harold Vázquez sobre la historia de la economía moderna.

La Corporación de Inversión Privada en el Exterior de los Estados Unidos lanzarán en el país la Iniciativa 2X, sobre negocios, para empoderar a las mujeres dominicanas. Te compartimos los detalles en esta entrega. Víctor Bautista nos comparte el ranking de las marcas más mencionadas del mercado de valores y conversamos con Harold Vázquez sobre la historia de la economía moderna.

La Corporación de Inversión Privada en el Exterior de los Estados Unidos lanzarán en el país la Iniciativa 2X, sobre negocios, para empoderar a las mujeres dominicanas. Te compartimos los detalles en esta entrega. Víctor Bautista nos comparte el ranking de las marcas más mencionadas del mercado de valores y conversamos con Harold Vázquez sobre la historia de la economía moderna.

La Corporación de Inversión Privada en el Exterior de los Estados Unidos lanzarán en el país la Iniciativa 2X, sobre negocios, para empoderar a las mujeres dominicanas. Te compartimos los detalles en esta entrega. Víctor Bautista nos comparte el ranking de las marcas más mencionadas del mercado de valores y conversamos con Harold Vázquez sobre la historia de la economía moderna.

The world’s fastest growing emerging market is not a country or a region; it is the world’s women. In April 2019, Ivanka Trump (Advisor to the President) and David Bohigian (Acting President and CEO of OPIC) announced OPIC's 2X Africa Women's Investment Initiative, launched under OPIC's broader 2X Women's Initiative. OPIC aims to unlock the full economic potential of women in Africa by catalyzing $1 billion, directly investing $350 million, to businesses and funds owned or led by women, or providing a good or service that intentionally empowers women on the continent. The Center for Strategic and International Studies hosts a discussion on OPIC's 2X Women's Initiative.

What's the world's fastest growing emerging market? Women. Katie Kaufman, Managing Director for Global Women's Issues at OPIC (Overseas Private Investment Corporation), joins hosts Sandi Hunt and Katherine Klein to discuss how they are aiming to mobilize $3 billion to invest in women in developing countries. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this interview learn about how the government is taking action to improve emerging economies. David Bohigian is the Acting President and CEO of OPIC the Overseas Private Investment Corporation that provides direct loans and and partners with private equity investment fund managers to help American businesses and ultimately improve emerging economies. They do this by managing risk, allocating political insurance to ensure job growth and revenue streams that will not be affected by political interruption. They operate in over 160 countries around the world with more than 1/4 of those investments come from Sub-Saharan Africa. At the time of this interview David was the Executive VP of OPIC (congratulations to David). See the live interview by visiting our podcast page here. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Paddy Power buys Adjarabet, OPIC supports Poti v Anaklia, court says Machalikashvili shooting was ok, Swiss say Russia negotiations on cargo finished, Abkhazia opened, South Ossetia still not, Otsneba says they didn’t technically break any laws on court appointments, new … Continue reading →

People in power tell us constantly that China is a threat but... Why? In this episode, we explore the big picture reasons why China poses a threat to those in power in the United States and what our Congress is doing to combat that threat. Spoiler alert: There's a another U.S. military build-up involved. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Click here to contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Click here to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536 Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes CD116: TPP - The Environment Chapter CD115: TPP - Access to Medicine CD114: Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Investment Chapter CD095: Secret International Regulations (TPA & TPP) CD060: Fast Track for TPP CD053: TPP - The Leaked Chapter CD052: The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Bills/Laws H.R. 5105: BUILD Act of 2018 Became law as a part of H.R. 302: FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 BUILD Act text from FAA law Purposes for which support may be provided The new bank “may designate private, nonprofit organizations as eligible to receive support… to promote development of economic freedom and private sectors” and “to complement the work of the United States Agency for International Development and other donors to improve the overall business enabling environment, financing the creation and expansion of the private business sector.”  Powers of the new development bank The bank “shall have such other powers as may be necessary and incident to carrying out the functions of the Corporation” S. 2736: Asia Reassurance Initiative Act of 2018 Sec. 101: Policy “Promotes American prosperity and economic interests by advancing economic growth and development of a rules-based Indo-Pacific economic community”  Sec 102: Diplomatic Strategy To support the “Association of Southeast Asian Nations”, “Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation”, and the “East Asia Summit” #1: Emphasize our commitment to “freedom of navigation under international law”  #7 : "Develop and grow the economy through private sector partnerships between the United States and Indo-Pacific partners" #8: “To pursue multilateral and bilateral trade agreements … and build a network of partners in the Indo-Pacific committee to free markets”  #9: To work with Indo-Pacific countries to pursue infrastructure projects and “to maintain unimpeded commerce, open sea lines or air ways, and communications”  Sec. 201: Authorization of Appropriations Authorizes $1.5 billion for each fiscal year 2019 through 2023 to be divided among the State Dept., USAID, and the Defense Dept.  Congressional Budget Office: The total authorization is almost $8.6 billion The money is allowed to be used for “foreign military financing and international military education and training programs”  The money is allowed to be used “to help partner countries strengthen their democratic systems”  The money is allowed to be used to “encourage responsible natural resource management in partner countries, which is closely associated with economic growth”  Sec. 205: United States-ASEAN Strategic Partnership Sense of Congress expressing the value of “strategic economic initiatives, such as activities under the United States-ASEAN Trade and Investment Framework Arrangement and the United States-ASEAN Connect, which demonstrate a commitment to ASEAN and the ASEAN Economic Community and build upon economic relationships in the Indo-Pacific region." Sec. 209: Commitment to Taiwan “The President should conduct regular transfers of defense articles to Taiwan”  Sec 213 Freedom of Navigation and Overflight; Promotion of International Law “It is the sense of Congress that the President should develop a diplomatic strategy that includes working with United States allies and partners to conduct joint maritime training and freedom of navigation operations in the Indo-Pacific region, including the East China Sea and the South China Sea, in support of a rules-based international system benefitting all countries.”  Sec. 215: Cybersecurity Cooperation Authorizes $100 million for each year (2019-2023) to “enhance cooperation between the United States and Indo-Pacific nations for the purposes of combatting cybersecurity threats.”  Sec. 301: Findings; Sense of Congress Free trade agreements between the United States and three nations in the Indo-Pacific region have entered into force: Australia, Singapore, and the Republic of Korea  According to the National Security Strategy, the United States will “work with partners to build a network of stated dedicated to free markets and protected from forces that would subvert their sovereignty.”  Sec. 304: Trade Capacity Building and Trade Facilitation (a) “The President is encouraged to produce a robust and comprehensive trade capacity building and trade facilitation strategy, including leveling the playing field for American companies competing in the Indo-Pacific region.”  Authorization of Appropriations:“There are authorized to be appropriated such amounts as many be necessaryto carry out subsection (a)."  Sec. 305: Intellectual Property Protection The President “should” take “all appropriate action to deter and punish commercial cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property” and orders a report on the government’s efforts to do so.  Authorization of Appropriations: “There are authorized to be appropriated to the United States Trade Representative such amounts as may be necessary  to sponsor bilateral and multilateral activities designed to build capacity in the identified priority areas” in the report  Sec. 306: Energy Programs and Initiatives Orders the President to create a strategy, updated every 5 years, to “encourage” Indo-Pacific countries to “implement national power strategies and cooperation with United States energy companies and the Department of Energy national laboratories”  Authorization of Appropriations: $1 million per year from 2019 through 2023 Sense of Congress: “the United States should explore opportunities to partner with the private sector and multilateral institutions, such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, to promote universal access to reliable electricity in the Indo-Pacific region, including Myanmar (Burma)" Sec. 409: Authorization of Appropriations $210 million each year (2019-2023) to “promote democracy” and the money can be given to “universities, civil society, and multilateral institutions that are focusing on education awareness, training, and capacity building.” This money can be spent to “promote democracy” in China.  Sec. 411: Young Leaders People-to-People Initiatives Authorizes $25 million per year (2019-2023) to support the “Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative, the ASEAN Youth Volunteers program, and other people-to-people exchange programs that focus on building the capacity of democracy, human rights, and good governance activities in the Indo-Pacific region.”  Sec. 412: Savings Program “Nothing in this Act may be construed as authorizing the use of military force.”  HR 5515: John S. McCain National Defense Authorization for Fiscal Year 2019 Sec. 1252 Amends the NDAA for 2016, which authorized the South China Sea Initiative providing military equipment and training to Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, to change the name of the program to the “Indo-Pacific Maritime Security Initiative” and expands the authorization to include the Indian Ocean in addition to the South China Sea and the countries of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Adds India to the list of countries allowed to be paid for expenses, along with Brunei, Singapore, and Taiwan. Extends the expiration date from September 30, 2020 to December 31, 2025.  Sec. 1253 Changes the name of the military build-up authorized in NDAA 2018 from the “Indo-Asia-Pacific Stability Initiative” to the “Indo-Pacific Stability Initiative”. Changes the activities authorized to include an increase in “rotational and forward presence” of the US Armed Forces and adds the prepositioning of “munitions” in addition to equipment. Expands the options for funding by removing the requirement that funding come “only” from a section 1001 transfer authority. Requires a 5 year plan be submitted to Congress by the Secretary of Defense by March 1, 2019.  Public Law 115-91: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 Sec 1251  Authorized the “Indo-Asia-Pacific Stability Initiative” to “increase the presence and capabilities” of the United States Armed Forces in the region by building new infrastructure, “enhance the storage and pre-positioning in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region of equipment of the United States Forces”, and with military training and exercises with allies.    Sound Clip Sources Hearing: Democracy Promotion in a Challenging World Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, June 14, 2018. Transcript Watch on YouTube Witnesses: Carl Gershman - National Endowment for Democracy: President Daniel Twining - International Republican Institute: President Kenneth Wollack - National Democratic Institute: President Timestamps & Transcripts  1:43:38 Representative Michael McCaul (TX): I had a briefing yesterday in a classified setting on ZTE and Huawei, and their efforts to conduct espionage in this country. I’ve also seen them in Sri Lanka where they have burdened them with so much debt that they had to turn over a strategic port to the Chinese. We see the Chinese now in Djibouti for the first time, and we see them leveraging the continent of Africa into so much debt that they will be able to eventually take over these countries. They exploit them. They bring in their own workers—they don’t even hire the host countries’ workers—and they export their natural resources in what is this One Belt, One Road policy. 1:45:00 Carl Gershman: In March, The Economist magazine had a cover story on China, and the bottom line of the cover story was—and this is a direct quote—‘‘The West’s 25-year bet on China has failed.’’ The bet was that if China was brought into the World Trade Organization, was encouraged to grow economically, it would become a more liberal society and be part of the liberal world order. 1:46:26 Carl Gershman: It’s a problem with the Belt and Road Initiative, which is not just an economic expansion. This is intimately tied to China’s geopolitical and military strategy precisely to get strategic ports in Sri Lanka or in Maldives because countries fall into the debt trap and pay back by leasing their ports. 1:58:05 Representative Ted Yoho (FL): They’re a form of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and, as we all know, that’s communism. Our form of government empowers the people. Empowered people reach their full potential. China empowers the government where the people are suppressed for the benefit of the government. 2:00:10 Daniel Twining: It’s the surveillance architecture. This Orwellian total surveillance state they’re building with artificial intelligence and facial recognition and all this stuff. It’s very attractive, as you say, not to people but to leaders. 2:07:52 Representative Ted Poe (TX): Globally, what do you personally see is the number-one entity that is a threat to democracy worldwide? Is it China? Is it Russia? Is it North Korea? Is it ISIS? Is it Iran? Pick one. Pick the one you think is the threat. Carl Gershman: China. Rep. Poe: China. Gershman: China. Rep. Poe: Mr. Twining. Daniel Twining: China. Rep. Poe: Mr. Wollack. Kenneth Wollack: Russia. Rep. Poe: Russia. Russia and China. Hearing: The China Challenge, Part 1: Economic Coercion as Statecraft, Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity, July 24, 2018. Witnesses: Dan Blumenthal: Director of Asian Studies and Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute Ely Ratner: Vice President and Director of Studies at the Center for a New American Security Timestamps and Transcripts  33:49 Chairman Senator Cory Gardner (CO): This hearing will be the first hearing in a three-part series of hearings titled The China Challenge and will examine how the United States should respond to the challenge of a rising China that seeks to upend and supplant the U.S.-led liberal world order. 34:12 Chairman Senator Cory Gardner (CO): According to the National Security Strategy, for decades U.S. policy was rooted in the belief that support for China’s rise and for its integration into the post-war international order would liberalize China. Contrary to our hopes, China expanded its power at the expense of the sovereignty of others. According to the National Defense Strategy, the central challenge to U.S. prosperity and security is the reemergence of long-term strategic competition by what the National Security Strategy classifies as revisionist powers. It is increasingly clear that China and Russia want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model: gaining veto authority over other nations’ economic, diplomatic, and security decisions. 35:28 Chairman Senator Cory Gardner (CO): The question before us now is identifying the tools the United States has at its disposal to counter the disturbing developments posed by China’s less-than-peaceful rise. This is why Senator Markey and I and a bipartisan group of co-sponsors in the Senate joined in introducing the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act, or ARIA, on April 24. The legislation sets a comprehensive policy framework to demonstrate U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific region and the rules-based international order. ARIA provides a comprehensive set of national security and economic policies to advance U.S. interests and goals in the Indo-Pacific region, including providing substantive U.S. resource commitments for these goals. I’m joined in this legislation on the committee by Senator Kaine, Senator Coons, Senator Cardin, Senator Markey, by Senator Rubio, and Senator Young, as well as Senators Sullivan and Perdue and Graham. 38:12 Chairman Senator Cory Gardner (CO): Our first witness is Senator—is Dan Blumenthal—I almost gave you a demotion there, Dan—who serves as director of Asian studies and resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Mr. Blumenthal has both served in and advised the U.S. government on China issues for nearly two decades. From 2001 to 2004 he served as senior director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia at the Department of Defense. Additionally, from 2006, 2012 he served as a commissioner on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, including holding the position of vice chair in 2007. 38:54 Chairman Senator Cory Gardner (CO): Our second witness today is Ely Ratner, who serves as the vice president and director of Studies at the Center for a New American Security. Mr. Ratner served from 2015 to 2017 as the deputy national security advisor to Vice President Joe Biden, and from 2011 to 2012 in the Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs at the State Department. He also previously worked in the U.S. Senate as a professional staff member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and in the office of Senator Joe Biden. 42:01 Dan Blumenthal: I have to state that the era of reform and opening in China is over. It’s been long over. It’s been over, probably for 10 years. And China is back to being run by state-owned enterprises that are related to the party. The private sector is diminishing. That provides the Chinese state with a lot more control over economic coercive policies. 49:27 Ely Ratner: First, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee should hold hearings on the cost and benefits of rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Rejoining TPP is among the most important things we can do to advance our economic position in Asia and erode the effectiveness of China’s economic coercion. By contrast, U.S. withdrawal has done substantial damage to our standing in the region and is facilitating the development of a Chinese sphere of influence in Asia and beyond. Rejoining TPP would renew confidence in the credibility and commitment of the United States, help to re-route supply chains in the region, open new markets for U.S. companies, and ultimately reduce China’s economic leverage. 56:28 Senator Ed Markey (MA): And through its Belt and Road Initiative, BRI, China is burdening countries receiving infrastructure loans with debts so extreme that they begin to undermine their own very sovereignty. According to a recent New York Times report, this Belt and Road Initiative amounts to a debt trap for vulnerable countries around the world, fueling corruption and autocratic behavior in struggling democracies. 59:30 Senator Cory Gardner (CO): Mr. Blumenthal, you mentioned in your opening statement, you talked about the economic opening in China being over. Could you go into a little bit more detail of what you mean by that? Dan Blumenthal: So, the period of reform and opening, which Deng Xiaoping began in 1978 and allowed for the great growth of China, the great growth of the private sector, private-sector entrepreneurs and brought so many Chinese out of poverty and benefitted the world, ended, probably 10 years ago, the Chinese we now know. The Chinese have gone back to the state sector dominating, taking out room for entrepreneurs to grow. They’ve gone back to things like price controls. They’ve gone back to things like lending on the basis of non-market, non-profitable lending but rather through patronage from the party to state-owned enterprises. They certainly haven’t moved any further than they were 10, 12 years ago on market access, things that we’ve been pressing for. They haven’t stopped subsidizing. In fact, they’ve doubled down on subsidizing their state-owned enterprises, which is probably the single biggest cause of probably the WTO stalling as much as it has. And Xi Jinping is certainly not taking China down the road of another round of market reforms—quite the contrary. He’s a statist and favoring state-owned enterprises and the subsidization of state-owned enterprises over the private sector. 1:11:42 Ely Ratner: China is going to use its economic clout to try to achieve its geopolitical aims, which include dividing American alliances and eroding the influence of the United States in the region. So I think that was a very important episode. It was very revealing. I think we can talk about trying to incorporate China into a rules-based order. I don’t think that’s where we’re going to be in the next several years. I think what we have to do is pull up our socks, get more competitive, slow down Chinese momentum in its efforts to develop this sphere of influence. That’s a much more urgent task than a long-term goal of developing a rules-based order. 1:13:44 Senator Todd Young (IN): Mr. Ratner, thanks for your testimony. As I reviewed your written statement, you seem to be making a pretty simple argument with very serious implications. In short, you seem to be saying we’re in a high-stakes competition with China, that China does not accept this rules-based international order we had hoped to welcome them into back in 2000. The legitimacy of that order and the institutions that were stood up to oversee that order are not respected by China. China, instead, respects power. And we as a nation have insufficient leverage, it seems, to be able to affect the sort of change we want with respect to intellectual-property theft, joint-licensing requirements, dumping, and so many other things. What we lack—and this is language you employed—is a comprehensive strategy. Is that a fair summary of your viewpoint, Mr. Ratner? Ely Ratner: Yes, sir. 1:21:05 Ely Ratner: When it looked like the United States was going to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership and that agreement was going to pass, the Chinese were starting to ask questions quietly at senior levels, with American officials about what they would need to do down the road to improve their practices to join that agreement, and obviously, those conversations are no longer happening today. 1:22:30 Senator Jeff Merkley (OR): Mr. Ratner, under WTO, is China allowed to offer subsidies to its businesses? Ely Ratner: Senator, I’m not a trade lawyer, so I can’t get into the weeds of WTO law, but I think the answer is no, and there’re several other dimensions in which they’re not in compliance with the agreement. Sen. Merkley: Under the WTO, China is required to do an annual report of all of its subsidies to different enterprises. Does it do that report? Ratner: I believe not, Senator. Sen. Merkley: So, when it fails to do the report, we are, under the WTO, allowed to do a report on their subsidies. I did an amendment a few years ago that said if China doesn’t produce a report, our trade representative will be directed to produce our report. And before that amendment, the ink could dry on it, our trade rep under President Obama produced a list of 200 Chinese subsidies, subsidies we’re well aware of but rarely kind of articulated. So that’s—so we certainly have an understanding of massive Chinese subsidies that are not allowed under WTO. How about to offer loans at non-market rates? Ratner: I believe not, sir. Sen. Merkley: Or to provide land for free as a form of subsidy? Ratner: I think that’s right, as well as forced technology transfer and a number of other practices. Sen. Merkley: And how about being required—for our companies to be required to locate in a particular part of China where the infrastructure is inferior to other locations? Ratner: Correct. Sen. Merkley: A couple years ago, when I was a part of a delegation to China, we were at a meeting of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in which many of these practices were highlighted, but one company in particular stood up and said, and I won’t name the exact company because they probably didn’t want it too much publicized at the time, but they said they were basically told, we have to put our manufacturing center in this far-western city, far from the port infrastructure; we are told we cannot build any size of item that is in direct competition with the Chinese items; they were told they only could build larger versions that the Chinese weren’t yet building, or they would be shut down and shut out of the country. Is that type of activity by the Chinese legal under the WTO? Ratner: No, sir. Sen. Merkley: And what about requiring American companies to do joint-venture arrangements in order to be able to locate in China? Ratner: Also, not part of the agreement. Sen. Merkley: So, and you’re familiar with how these joint-venture agreements are often used as a way to drain U.S. technology? Ratner: Yes, sir. Sen. Merkley: So, what does one say to the American citizen who says, “China is violating all of these rules, and the WTO has no mechanism by which we appear to be able to hold them accountable. Why shouldn’t we work intensely to create an ability to hold China accountable to the structure of the WTO?” Ratner: I think that was the intention of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. 1:45:22 Senator Cory Gardner (CO): In recent writings in the Wall Street Journal, quotes from President Xi, China has its own ideas about how the world should be run, and as he put it, “to lead in the reform of global governance.” Another quote, or another statement, “in at least eight African countries, as well as some in Southeast Asia, Chinese officials are training their counterparts in how to manage political stability through propaganda and how to control media and the Internet,” and that the China model provides “a new option for other countries who want to speed up their development while preserving their independence.” And finally this: China has committed to train 10,000 political elites in Latin America by 2020. All of this speaks to the need for what you have described, Mr. Ratner, what you have described, Mr. Blumenthal, is U.S. leadership and U.S. response, whether it’s the BUILD Act, whether it’s legislation that Senator Young has described, the legislation that we have co-sponsored together—the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act. This is a time for U.S. leadership, and it’s a time to stand boldly for our values that have empowered the world to be a better place, that has lifted up hundreds of millions of people around the globe up and out of poverty through a system of rules and standards that don’t favor one country over another but that give people a chance to participate in global governance and that global rise. Hearing: The China Challenge, Part 2: Security and Military Developments, Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity, Septemer 5, 2018. Witnesses: Dr. Oriana Skylar Mastro: American Enterprise Institute Abraham Denmark: Director of the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Timestamps and Transcripts  27:50 Chairman Cory Gardner (CO): Our first witness is Dr. Oriana Skylar Mastro, who is the Jeane Kirkpatrick visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute where she focuses on Chinese military and security policy in the Asia Pacific. She is also assistant professor of Security Studies at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and serves in the United States Air Force Reserve as a political-military affairs strategist at Pacific air forces. Previously, Dr. Mastro was a fellow in the Asia-Pacific security program at the Center for a New American Security. 28:25 Chairman Cory Gardner (CO): Also joined on the panel by Abraham Denmark, who is director of the Asia program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Prior to joining the Wilson Center, Mr. Denmark served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, where he supported the secretary of defense and other U.S. senior government leaders in the formulation and implementation of national security strategies and defense policies toward the region. Mr. Denmark also previously worked as senior vice president for political and security affairs at the National Bureau of Asian Research, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security, and held several positions in the U.S. intelligence community. 42:40 Oriana Skylar Mastro: What China is doing is they’re exploiting gaps in the order. So, we talk about the U.S.-led international order and whether China is challenging it or not. But in reality, there’s many areas of the order that lacks certainty, or ambiguous, don’t have consensus. So I would label cybersecurity as one of these areas. And so what China does is it’s trying to build consensus or work on the periphery of the order. So, for example, when they did One Belt, One Road, and they initially moved to the central Asia, they weren’t challenging the United States, because the United States was not there. And so I would say that in addition to strengthening our relationship with traditional partners and allies, the United States needs to think more broadly about its relationships with countries around the globe. Also, in terms of the security initiative, I would recommend that we think more about demand not supply, in kind of business terms. You often, at least in my experience, you think about what the United States has to offer in terms of security assistance, and then we try to put together packages, whether it’s visits, port visits, or a rotation of a squadron or what have you, instead of looking at what those countries actually demand. And so we should move away from this model of increasing advertising and hoping that countries around the world will decide they want what we have to offer, and instead try to look at what they actually want and start supplying that. 1:05:45 Senator Ed Markey (MA): Should the United States abandon the rules-based international system, and what would the concessions be that we would try to extract in order to take such a step? Dr. Mastro. Oriana Skylar Mastro: So, sir, I don’t think we should abandon it. Instead, what I’m arguing for is an expansion of that system. I think that actually the international, is very limited. If you look at the definition, the party to that order, the amount of countries that actually might be involved in certain treaties, it’s not every country possible. For example, India has very different views on things like cybersecurity than the United States does. And so I think if we could manage to build consensus in these areas of uncertainty, we could actually shape China’s choices. And to that end, that gives the United States a lot of political power because the bottom line is one of the main differences between today and maybe 10 years ago is for the United States, the security benefits that we give to our partners, allies, in the region are no longer enough to outweigh the economic benefits that they get from interacting with China. And so we need a security-benefits-plus type of strategy in which we think also about the economic benefits, which is difficult under the current administration, given the trade policy, but also those political benefits by building new international institutions and building new norms and consensus around areas where that consensus has failed to date. 1:07:08 Chairman Cory Gardner (CO): Going back to the question I started to talk about, just the investments that China has made in South America, the investments China is making in Central America. If you look at investments in Panama, El Salvador, and at least apparently in El Salvador, as perhaps part of an agreement as it relates to the decision El Salvador made on Taiwan. Look at the sale of submarines to countries—Thailand—do we see that as continued opportunity for China’s military expansion? Will we see military basing affecting U.S. operations in Thailand? Will we see, perhaps, an opportunity for military entrance into Central America, into South America, China, basing, even, perhaps? Mr. Denmark. Abraham Denmark: Well, I think there’s a lot that remains to be seen. I don’t think there’s a definitive yes or no answer to that question, but I do expect that Djibouti be the first overseas base that China has established. I fully expect that that will not be the last. Where additional facilities may pop up remains to be seen. I personally would expect more facilities to be established along the trade routes from the Western Pacific, through the Indian Ocean, into the Middle East. I would expect to see more there than before I’d expect to see them in Latin America, primarily because of China’s economic interests, but it remains to be seen. 1:20:00 Senator Ed Markey (MA): In September of 2013, China began a concerted effort to build artificial islands in the South China Sea by crushing coral reefs into sand. It built land features where none previously existed. On top of that, China expanded small outposts into military bases capable of conducting operations. Admiral Philip Davidson, the commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, stated this year that China’s militarization of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea means “China is now capable of controlling the South China Sea in all scenarios, short of a war with the United States.” Ms. Mastro, what considerations or challenges do these bases pose for other claimants and the United States in peacetime, in the gray zone, or in conflict? In other words, what are the implications of China’s military bases in the South China Sea? Oriana Skylar Mastro: So, militarily, sir, they expand the range of Chinese capabilities. And so I think I made the point previously that it’s difficult for us to conceive of fighting a war with China using our bases in Korea and Japan, and that’s primarily because of the range of conventional precision-guided munitions that China has that can reach those bases and render them inoperable. In the South China Sea, which is about the size of the United States, China’s power-projection capabilities historically have been quite limited. And in the report, for example, one thing that was highlighted was the H-6K, when it has ______(01:37), now China can extend its range to 3,300 kilometers. But if you actually have bases there, coupled with carriers, then China’s able to sustain combat sorties, for example, for longer periods of time and at farther ranges than it was before. And this is what allows it to be able to control, as the quote suggested, large areas of the South China Sea, the air, and the sea. I would just mention on the gray-zone side, that China can engage in gray-zone activities only because the United States allows it to. There’s nothing that, as far as I understand it, there’s nothing that tells us that, for example, if China says, “Well, this is a Coast Guard,” that we can’t respond with the use of the U.S. Navy. We are too concerned about escalation, and China knows this. They don’t believe in miscalculation and in inadvertent escalation, and so they use this to their advantage. And we should start being very clear about what our redlines are and, obviously, being then able to follow through with that. 1:42:30 Senator Ed Markey (MA): I just have one final area of questioning, if I may, and that just goes back to the Belt and Road Initiative which has resulted in a very generous policy by China of loaning money to countries, which they then can’t pay back, which then results in China being able to extract huge long-term concessions from those countries. Sri Lanka, just a perfect example where they’ve now had to give up a 99-year lease to the Chinese company, which is partially owned by the Chinese government, 15,000 acres of land. And now it appears there are more countries that are deciding to reconsider how far in debt they want their countries or companies to be to a Chinese entity. But at the same time, President Xi, just in the last few days has announced a new $60 billion program—grants, loans—around the world, on top of the $60 billion program that they’ve had in the past that now has these consequences. So, what are the implications for the United States, for global security, of these Chinese strategies in country after country to gain access, or control over, ports in countries? And what would you recommend to the United States that we do to try to make sure that we minimize the ability of this Belt and Road program to build economic and security relationships with companies in a way almost giving them offers they can’t refuse so they become deeper indebted and more entangled into Chinese foreign policy objectives? 1:48:09 Abraham Denmark: The initiative announced several weeks ago by Secretary of State Pompeo in this vein to enhance U.S. engagement, economic engagement, in these areas I thought was a good indication of seeing the problem and trying to address it, not trying to copy the Chinese system, but playing to American strengths of the free market and American corporations. Hearing: The China Challenge, Part 3: Democracy, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law, Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity, December 4, 2018. Watch on C-SPAN Witnesses: Laura Stone: Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the US Department of State Scott Busby: Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Rights and Labor at the US Department of State Gloria Steele: Acting Assistant Administrator, Bureau for Asia at USAID Timestamps and Transcripts  01:23:05 Senator Ed Markey (MA): Around the world, all countries, including the United States, rely on the rules-based international order to underpin security and prosperity to help provide a level playing field, to provide the maximum opportunity for the greatest number of people, and to defend and protect certain fundamental rights. So it is of the utmost importance that we do everything in our power to ensure that this system remains. 01:30:00 Senator Cory Gardner (CO): Our first witness is Scott Busby, who serves as deputy assistant secretary of state at the Bureau of the Human Right, Democracy, and Labor. Previously, he served as director for human rights on the National Security Council in the White House from 2009 to 2011, where he managed a wide range of human rights and refugee issues. 01:36:20 Scott Busby: My bureau, DRL, is implementing $10 million of FY 2018 economic support funds to support human rights in China, just as we have done for the past several years. Nevertheless, such programs are increasingly challenged by the difficult operating environment in China, including the new and highly restrictive foreign NGO management law. 1:59:58 Senator Marco Rubio (FL): And then you see sort of what the global reaction has been to it, and there’s reason to be concerned that this post-World War II, pro-democracy, pro-human rights, global norms are being eroded and reshaped and that China is using its geopolitical heft and its economic power to push it in that direction. Meeting: Press availability at the 51st ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting and related meetings, August 4, 2018. Speaker: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Timestamps and Transcripts  1:15 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: "Throughout my ASEAN-centered engagements these past days I’ve conveyed President Trump’s commitment to this vital part of the world that continues to grow in importance. Security has been a major focus of our conversations. As part of our commitment to advancing regional security in the Indo-Pacific, the United States is excited to announce nearly $300 million in new funding to reinforce security cooperation throughout the entire region.” 4:50 - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: "As I said earlier this week, the United States practices partnership economics; we seek partnership, not dominance. Earlier this week at the Indo-Pacific Business Forum hosted by the United States Chamber of Commerce, I outlined the Trump administration’s economic strategy for advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific, and I talked about why U.S. businesses’ engagement in the region is crucial to our mission of promoting peace, stability, and prosperity. There is no better force for prosperity in the world than American businesses. When nations partner with American firms, they can have confidence they are working with the most scrupulous, well-run, and transparent companies in the world. As a down payment on a new era in American economic commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific, I announced at the forum $113 million in new U.S. Government resources to support foundational areas of the future: the digital economy, energy, and infrastructure. In addition, the Trump administration is working with Congress to encourage the passage of the BUILD Act. It recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives and now before the United States Senate. Under this bill, the government’s development finance capacity would more than double to $60 billion to support U.S. private investment in strategic opportunities abroad." Meeting: Beyond NAFTA and GATT, National Association Southern Center, April 20, 1994. Speaker: Arthur Dunkel - Director of the UN Wrote the “Dunkel Draft” in 1991, a 500 page general outline of what became the WTO 3 years later - it’s basically the WTO’s Constitution “Retired” from GATT in 1993, became a “trade consultant”, and served on the board of Nestle Is a registered WTO dispute panelist Transcript  Arthur Dunkel: If I look back at the last 25 years, what did we have? We had two worlds: The so-called Market Economy world and the sadly planned world; the sadly planned world disappeared. One of the main challenges of the Uruguay round has been to create a world wide system. I think we have to think of that. Secondly, why a world wide system? Because, basically, I consider that if governments cooperate in trade policy field, you reduce the risks of tension - political tension and even worse than that." Additional Reading Article: Disney sets out international leadership team post-Fox deal by Stewart Clarke, Variety, December 13, 2018. Article: IMF delays Sri Lanka's loan discussion on political crisis, Reuters, November 20, 2018. Annual Report: U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, USCC.gov, November 14, 2018. Article: Sri Lanka's political shake-up is a win for China by Bharath Gopalaswamy, Foreign Policy, October 29, 2018. Article: Sri Lanka to secure sixth tranche of $250 million IMF's EFF, Press Reader, Sunday Times (Sri Lanka) October 14, 2018. Article: The BUILD Act has passed: What's next? CSIS, October 12, 2018. Article: Power play: Addressing China's belt and road strategy by Daniel Kliman and Abigail Grace, CNAS, September 20, 2018. Article: Taiwan's monthly minimum wage to increase by 5% in 2019 by Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, September 6, 2018. Fact Sheet: U.S. security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, U.S. Department of State, August 4, 2018. Article: Treasury weakens donor disclosure requirements for some nonprofits by Michael Wyland, Nonprofit Quarterly, July 18, 2018. Article: China is doing the same things to Sri Lanka that Great Britain did to China after the opium wars by Panos Mourdoukoutas, Forbes, June 28, 2018. Article: Chinese firm pays $584 million to secure 99-year lease of Sri Lanka port by Reuters, GCaptain, June 26, 2018. Article: How China go Sri Lanka to cough up a port by Maria Abi-Habib, The New York Times, June 25, 2018. Article: China's use of cercive economic measures by Peter Harrell, Elizabeth Rosenberg, and Edoardo Saravalle, CNAS, June 11, 2018. Article: China's military escalation by The Editorial Board, WSJ, June 4, 2018. Article: China owns US debt, but how much? by Investopedia, April 6, 2018. Article: China's military facilities in South China Sea 'almost ready' by Raul Dancel, The Straits Times, February 6, 2018. Report: China's economic rise: History, trends, challenges, and implications for the United States by Wayne M. Morrison, Congressional Research Service, February 5, 2018. Article: U.S. leadership needed in the Asia-Pacific by James W. Fatheree, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, November 17, 2017. Article: China's new island-building ship raises the stakes in South China Sea by Dan Southerland, Radio Free Asia, November 10, 2017. Report: Taiwan: Issues for Congress, Congressional Research Service, October 30, 2017. Article: Inside the fight for OPIC reauthorization by Adva Saldinger, devex, February 21, 2017. News Release: Charles A Kupchan and Ely Ratner join CFR as Senior Fellows, Council on Foreign Relations, February 15, 2017. News Report: PG&E receives maximum sentence for 2010 San Bruno explosion by Kate Larsen, ABC 7 News, January 26, 2017. Article: Lockheed Martin scores $395M DHS security operations center contract by Billy Mitchell, Fed Scoop, September 9, 2016. Article: Terror in Little Saigon by A.C. Thompson, ProPublica, November 3, 2015. Article: Taiwan multinationals serving a broader role by Molly Reiner, Taiwan Business TOPICS, October 28, 2015. Article: China's island factory by Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, BBC News, September 9, 2014. Article: Why was the Dalai Lama hanging out with the right-wing American Enterprise Institute? by David Rose, Vanity Fair, February 26, 2014. Article: The secret foreign donor behind the American Enterprise Institute by Eli Clifton, The Nation, June 25, 2013. Article: Inside the secretive dark-money organization that's keeping the lights on for conservative groups by Walt Hickey, Business Insider, February 12, 2013. Article: How Beijing won Sri Lanka's civil war, Independent, May 23, 2010. Article: The one-year review: Obama's Asia policies by Daniel Blumenthal, Foreign Policy, November 3, 2009. Article: Former high-ranking Bush officials enjoy war profits by Tim Shorrock, Salon, May 29, 2008. Report: ChoicePoint sold to LexisNexis parent, Atlanta Business Chronicle, February 21, 2008. Article: Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study by Ian Sample, The Guardian, February 2, 2007. Article: The man who said to much by Michael Isikoff, Newsweek, September 3, 2006. Article: Put a tiger in your think tank, Mother Jones, May/June 2005 Article: What I didn't find in Africa by Joseph C. Wilson, The New York Times, July 6, 2003. Article: Armitage is ready to step into ring by Steven Mufson, The Washington Post, February 14, 2001. Article: Advocacy and lobbying without fear: what is allowed within a 501(c)(3) charitable organization by Thomas Raffa, Nonprofit Quarterly, September 21, 2000. Resources About Page: The CNA Coporation About Page: Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP About Page: The National Bureau of Asian Research About Page: Oriana Skylar Mastro AEI Scholar List: Dan Blumenthal AEI Scholar List: Oriana Skylar Mastro Alexander Hamilton Society: Our Principles American Enterprise Institute: Annual Report 2017 American Enterprise Institute: Board of Trustees American Enterprise Institute: Jeane Kirkpatrick Fellowship and Scholars Program American Enterprise Institute: Leadership American Enterprise Institute: Scholars Armitage International: Our Team Biography: Scott Busby, Deputy Asst. Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Cambridge University Press: Think Tanks, Public Policy, and the Politics of Expertise Center for New American Security: About CNAS Center for New American Security: Victoria Nuland, CEO CRS Report: U.S. Security Assistance and Security Cooperation Programs Center for Strategic & International Studies: Richard L. Armitage, Trustee Interactive Map: China Belt and Road Initiative IRS: Exemption Requirements - 501 (c)(3) Organizations LinkedIn Account: Oriana Skylar Mastro LinkedIn Account: Scott Busby LinkedIn Account: U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission Lockheed Martin: Board Members - Daniel F. Akerson OpenSecrets: American Enterprise Institute Park Hotels & Resorts: Board of Directors ManTech: Mission, Vision, and Values Report to Congress: U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, November 2018 Right Web: American Enterprise Institute Search Results: Paul | Weiss Professionals Security Cooperation Programs: Fiscal Year 2017 Handbook Special Emergency Authorities Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative SourceWatch: American Enterprise Institute Ties to the Koch Brothers SourceWatch Infographic: Donors Trust Infographic Tesla Investors: James Murdoch Biography Website: American Enterprise Institute Website: Chartwell Strategy Group Website: CNAS Website: U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission Website: Wilson Center Whitehouse Publication: National Security Strategy of the United States of America, December 2017 Wilson Center: Abraham Denmark Wilson Center: Corporate Council World Trade Organization: Overview and Future Direction, updated Nov 29, 2018 Community Suggestions See more Community Suggestions HERE. Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations Music Presented in This Episode Intro & Exit: Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio)

Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, took a stake last year in a startup whose co-chairman is a major Trump campaign fundraiser who has sought financial support from the federal government for his other business interests, according to records obtained by ProPublica. The fundraiser, Texas money manager Gentry Beach, and Trump Jr. attended college together, are godfather to one of each other’s sons and have collaborated on investments — and on the Trump presidential campaign. Since Trump’s election, Beach has attempted to obtain federal assistance for projects in Asia, the Caribbean and South America, and he has met or corresponded with top officials in the National Security Council, Interior Department and Overseas Private Investment Corporation. Beach and others at the startup, Eden Green Technology, have touted their connections to the first family to impress partners, suppliers and others, according to five current and former business associates. Richard Venn, an early backer of Eden Green, recalls the company’s founder mentioning “interest from the Trump family.” Another associate said Beach bragged about his ties to the Trumps in a business meeting. The investment is one of just a handful of known business ventures pursued by Trump Jr. since his father moved into the White House almost two years ago. In addition to being a top campaign surrogate and public booster, Trump Jr. serves as an executive vice president of his father’s company and one of just two trustees of the trust holding the president’s assets. Ethics experts have consistently criticized these arrangements, arguing that they invite those seeking to influence the government to do so by attempting to enrich the president or his family members with favorable business opportunities. Trump Jr. invested in the startup, a company that grows organic lettuce in a hydroponic greenhouse, last year, records show. Those records don’t state how much money — if any —  Trump paid for his 7,500 shares. But the shares would have been worth about $650,000 at the end of last year, based on a formula used by another shareholder in a recent court filing. Neither Trump Jr. nor the company have disclosed his investment publicly. Trump Jr. obtained the stake through a limited liability company called MSMDF Agriculture LLC, which was set up by a Trump Organization employee last fall.   The key ethical question, said Virginia Canter, chief ethics lawyer at the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, is whether Beach’s involvement with Eden Green, and Trump Jr.’s investment in it, are based on the business merits — or on the possibility of cashing in on connections to power. “Why is Trump Jr. being given this opportunity?” she asked. “It definitely has the appearance of trying to gain access by any means to curry favor with the administration.” The willingness of Eden Green to invoke the Trump name in its business dealings raises further ethical concerns, experts said, particularly if potential customers understand that they are giving contracts to a startup whose success could enrich the president’s son. Neither Trump Jr. nor his spokesman responded to messages seeking comment on his relationship with Beach and investment in Eden Green. A White House spokeswoman didn’t respond to emailed questions. Alan Garten, the Trump Organization’s top lawyer, said in a statement that Trump Jr.’s investment is a personal one. The entity through which it was made “is not owned or controlled by, or affiliated in any way with, The Trump Organization,” Garten said.   Last fall, Eden Green concluded a deal with Walmart. Today, the giant retailer sells the company’s lettuce, kale and other greens at about 100 stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth region. (Eden Green’s sole facility is a 44,023-square-foot greenhouse outside Fort Worth, where it grows the greens in 18-foot vertical tubes.) Walmart interacts with government regulators on an array of matters -- everything from labor practices and land use to securities filings -- but there is no indication that Walmart is aware of Trump Jr.’s connection to Eden Green. (Separately, Walmart contributed $150,000 to Trump’s inaugural committee. Beach was a finance vice chair of that committee, but a Beach spokesman says he has never met with Walmart executives.) Molly Blakeman, a Walmart spokeswoman, declined to comment on Eden Green or its investors. “We don’t talk about our relationships with our suppliers,” said Blakeman, who added that Walmart has “supported inaugural activities” in the past.    Andrew Kolvet, a spokesman for Beach and the other Eden Green executives, said it’s “categorically false” that the Trump name was invoked by Eden Green officials. Kolvet cited a corporate policy that forbids discussing investors “with any current or potential client.” He also said Trump Jr. isn’t involved with company operations and bought into Eden Green during “U.S. friends and family fundraising efforts.” A recent lawsuit asserts that Eden Green is in financial trouble. In October, the company’s largest shareholder, an entity controlled by a wealthy oil and gas family from Midland, Texas, filed suit in state court in Dallas, alleging “gross project mismanagement.” The suit accused Beach and six executives, all of them board members, of paying themselves extravagant salaries (allegedly $250,000 to $300,000 per year) and putting the company “on the precipice of failure.” A financial consultant hired to examine the company’s books asserted that Eden Green executives spent more than $19.4 million in the first nine months of 2018 — a daunting sum for a company that reported having raised a total of $22 million as of June — while generating $9,000 in revenues. In late November, less than a month after the suit was filed, it was settled on confidential terms. Kolvet disputed the compensation figures asserted in the litigation, saying that the company’s pay is “in accordance with industry standards.” He maintained that Eden Green’s prospects are good. As with many startups, he said, “things don’t go in a straight line.” Kolvet asserted that the company has plenty of operating cash.  Trump Jr., now 40, and Beach, now 43, met at the University of Pennsylvania two decades ago. Both are the sons of wealthy businessmen, one in real estate, one in oil and gas. Beach’s father has since been laid low: Last month he was sentenced to four months in federal detention, plus two years of supervised release, for bankruptcy fraud. Beach was a groomsman at Trump Jr.’s wedding (Trump Jr. and his wife recently separated). Beach and Trump Jr. like to hunt and once considered buying a hunting preserve in Mexico together. According to a 2010 deposition testimony by Trump Jr., they talked business during lunches at Rothmann’s steakhouse in New York. Both have struggled in business at times. In 2009, Trump Jr. and others (including one person who pleaded guilty to an unrelated criminal fraud charge in 2010) formed a company that would sell concrete panels for home constructions out of a warehouse in North Charleston, South Carolina. The business quickly became mired in lawsuits seeking payment for unpaid bills. Trump Jr. made the situation more precarious by personally guaranteeing a $3.7 million loan for the project. Days before the note was due, the Trump Organization purchased the debt, eventually taking over the warehouse and selling it all back to Trump Jr.’s original business partner, according to press accounts. For his part, Beach’s career path has also included some travails. He spent a year or so at Enron and then moved into finance. Beach worked for a hedge fund and remains locked in litigation with it more than a decade later. (He claims he wasn’t paid his full compensation; the fund claims he was “responsible for the destruction of millions of dollars of investor capital.”) Beach now runs a “family office focused on private equity investments” out of a Dallas office that Eden Green uses as its corporate address. Trump Jr. has at least twice before invested with Beach in deals that didn’t pan out. Trump Jr. put  $200,000 in a dry Texas oil well managed by Beach’s father, according to testimony by Trump Jr. He also lost an unknown sum in a failed African mining company affiliated with Beach’s uncle. But Trump Jr. stuck with his friend. The Associated Press reported this year that the two formed a company last October to pursue technology investments. Then there was Eden Green. By the time Trump invested last fall, the company had already run into problems. It first launched in 2013 in South Africa with an ambitious mission: to feed the world through a highly efficient indoor farming system deploying patented technology intended to yield 10 to 12 harvests a year, compared with two or three for conventional agriculture. There’s a market for vegetables grown in controlled greenhouse environments as big retailers increasingly push for cleaner, more reliable and locally grown alternatives. But the challenges are significant. Energy costs run high, and there are myriad difficulties associated with scaling up to an industrial-size system.    That’s what happened in Eden Green’s first iteration, according to a half dozen early backers and associates. The produce may have been sustainable — but the business model wasn’t. The CEO of its European unit wrote in an October 2017 email obtained by ProPublica that the company had “been bleeding money and resources for almost 2 years now.” In the fall of 2017, Eden Green’s founders cemented a deal to hand over majority control to a group of U.S. investors led by Beach, current and former business associates said. This was the company Trump Jr. bought into. He used an innocuous-sounding limited liability company, called MSMDF Agriculture LLC, to make the investment. ProPublica discovered MSMDF after the Trump Organization listed it in New York City filings among dozens of other entities it controlled. (Because the Trump Organization has contracts with the city to run the Wollman skating rink in Central Park and a golf course in the Bronx, the city requires the company to file disclosures.) The Trump Organization told ProPublica that MSMDF is not in fact owned by the Trump Organization but was included in the disclosure form because it’s controlled by Trump Jr., who was described in the form as MSMDF’s president, secretary and treasurer. MSMDF was formed by a Trump Organization employee in September 2017 in Delaware, according to incorporation papers. Eden Green Holdings UK, Ltd., an affiliate of the Texas-based company, then listed MSMDF among its roughly two dozen shareholders in a 2018 report filed with British regulators. The Trump Jr-Beach connection has been most visible in the political arena. Last year, for example, Trump Jr. publicly thanked Beach and their mutual friend Tommy Hicks Jr., another wealthy investor from Dallas, for their fundraising during the 2016 campaign. “We couldn’t have done it without you guys,” Trump Jr. said of his buddies to a crowd of Republican donors in March 2017. “It was just absolutely incredible.” In the foreword to a recent book, Trump Jr. reiterated the message, writing that a “rag tag army” — Trump Jr., Beach, Hicks and Charlie Kirk, the firebrand chief of the pro-Trump organization, Turning Point USA  — barnstormed the country in 2016, raising “over 150 million dollars in ninety days.” Since Trump’s election, Beach has met with top administration figures on multiple occasions. For example, according to the AP, he lobbied National Security Council officials to relax sanctions against Venezuela to create opportunities for U.S. companies. He attended a private lunch with Republican donors and Interior secretary Ryan Zinke. Beach has denied leveraging his ties to the first family. Last month, Beach told a TV interviewer in Croatia, where he said he was exploring a “truly spectacular” $100 million real estate development, “I don’t need anything from the government, thankfully, except normal police protection in my hometown.” But newly obtained emails show that Beach wanted government backing for his private business interests at the same time he was running Eden Green. In October 2017, Beach pitched Ray Washburne, who heads the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, a government agency that offers loans and guarantees to American companies looking to expand into emerging markets, according to emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. (Before joining OPIC, Washburne was a Dallas investor and a top fundraiser for Trump. He and Beach move in the same circles and have friends in common.) “The Dominican Republic could really use some US investment and support,” Beach wrote in one email to Washburne, describing his various projects there, which included “a power plant upgrade to an existing tin mine” as well as liquid natural gas infrastructure. He invited OPIC officials to travel with him to the Dominican Republic “If permitted, we would be happy to handle all transportation from DC to DR and back,” he wrote in a follow-up note. (Such a trip never occurred, according to an OPIC spokesperson.)   A month later, the emails show, Beach also lobbied on another project, arranging a call with his business partner and one of Washburne’s top deputies regarding an “India Oppty,” which appeared to involve an energy fund. Separately, Beach also introduced Washburne to the head of oil giant Exxon Mobil’s Africa operations, with whom Beach said he had gone shooting at Blenheim Palace in England, where the Churchill family resided for three centuries. And Beach connected another Washburne aide with a South African mining executive who Beach described as “one of my partners.” OPIC spokeswoman Amanda Burke said Beach has not submitted any formal applications for agency funding. “OPIC routinely meets with a variety of businesses and stakeholders,” she said, adding that formal applications trigger background and credit checks and “go through several levels of agency vetting and approval.” Asked whether having a Trump connection would disqualify a person from receiving OPIC support, Burke emailed that “in general, an individual’s personal or legal business interests would not disqualify them from applying. However, certain relationships may cause board members or other decision makers of OPIC to be conflicted out of the decision-making process on potential projects.”

Dr. James J. Zogby is the author of Arab Voices (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) and the founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a Washington, D.C.-based organization, which serves as the political and policy research arm of the Arab American community. Additionally, Dr. Zogby is Managing Director of Zogby Research Services, LLC (ZRS), specializing in research and communications. During his four decade long career, Zogby also co-founded and directed the Palestine Human Rights Campaign, The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and Save Lebanon, Inc. In 1993, he was asked by Vice President Al Gore to lead Builders for Peace, a private sector committee to promote U.S. business investment in the West Bank and Gaza. In this capacity, Zogby worked with a number of U.S. agencies to promote and support Palestinian economic development, including AID, OPIC, USTDA, and the Departments of State and Commerce. Dr. Zogby has been personally active in U.S. politics for many years, he currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and is Co-Chair of the DNC’s Resolutions Committee. A lecturer and scholar on Middle East issues, U.S.-Arab relations, and the history of the Arab American community, he has an extensive media profile in the United States and across the Arab World. Since 1992, Dr. Zogby has written Washington Watch, a weekly column on U.S. politics that is currently published in 14 Arab and South Asian countries. In addition to Arab Voices, he has authored a number of other books including What Ethnic Americans Really Think and What Arabs Think: Values, Beliefs and Concerns, based on polling he conducted together with his brother John Zogby. In 1975, Dr. Zogby received his doctorate from Temple University’s Department of Religion, where he studied under the Islamic scholar Dr. Ismail al-Faruqi. He was a National Endowment for the Humanities Post-Doctoral Fellow at Princeton University. He is the recipient of a number of honorary degrees and teaching fellowships.

On this episode, Dan is joined by David Bohigian, Executive Vice President of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the United States’ development finance institution. Mr. Bohigian has considerable experience in both the public and private sectors, working for Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund as well several key trade roles under President George W. Bush. In this episode, Dan and David discuss the changing role of OPIC and how the BUILD Act will modernize the institution. OPIC focuses on catalyzing private sector investment in some of the world’s most fragile and challenging environments. In 2017, OPIC invested $3.8 billion in new commitments, taking their global portfolio to 23.2 billion across 90 developing countries. Tune in to our podcast to hear more from Mr. Bohigian and to learn more about OPIC.  

Kathryn Kaufman (Katie) leads the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) 2x Global Women’s Initiative. She talked with She Said/She Said Podcast about the importance of facilitating and encouraging private sector growth in emerging markets that are transitioning from aid recipient to stronger more stable contributors. But it’s Katie’s leadership of the agency’s new 2x women’s […] The post OPIC’s 2x: The Multiplier Effect of Global Investment in Women (Episode #18) appeared first on She Said / She Said.

For as long as I have been a social sector professional, there has always been a desire to do more partnering with the “private sector.” And, by that I mean traditional, for profit or commercial enterprises like Coke, Toyota or Airbus. In fact, 14 years ago, the capstone project of my Masters degree at American University was, I’m not kidding, “The Role of The Private Sector in Conflict Resolution.” My point here is that this is not a new topic by any stretch. No matter how you’d like to approach it, the reason why we don’t see more traditional investment in parts of the world where its necessary to send aid or development assistance can be boiled down to one word: risk. Money, or more specifically the individuals who control money, large and small amounts alike, do not like to place that money at risk of being lost. Unfortunately, the places where social sector actors choose to align there sights for action can readily be characterized along a scale of increasing risk. But here’s the thing - the money, or again the individuals who control the money, are also constantly on the lookout for new opportunities that offer potentially high rates of return. And, funny enough, you guessed it, the places where those of us in the social sector live and work are also places that offer tremendous potential markets and high-return opportunities. So what’s an investor to do? Luckily, Joan Larrea has agreed to be my guest on today’s 154th Terms of Reference Podcast. Joan is the CEO of Convergence, an institution that connects, educates, and supports investors to execute blended finance transactions that increase private sector investment in emerging markets. Joan has 20 years of experience in emerging markets investing. She led the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation's efforts to partner with philanthropic and private investors, she was a managing director on the emerging markets team at Global Environment Fund and she began her career as an investment officer at International Finance Corporation. This episode is a fantastic conversation about how Convergence is attempting to breath life into investments that would otherwise be too risky for the traditional private sector. We not only discuss the three ways in which Convergence works, but we also touch on several of the deals they have helped bring to life. We also talk about the reasons why this type of investing can be so difficult for everyone involved and where that trepidation comes from.

OPIC and CDC are among the largest bilateral development finance institutions (DFIs). They are designed to use their funds to attract more private capital into developing markets through, for example, lending or insuring projects against political risk. CEOs Elizabeth Littlefield and Diana Noble discuss why the DFIs' business model is successful and how their institutions can do more. 

For anyone looking to integrate various coaching modalities there are questions of philosophy and questions of practice. In this interview with Rita Moss, Vice President of HR at OPIC, we learn how she has been able to put structures in place that have allowed for a strong coaching culture first to take root and eventually grow into an integral part of how the organization gets things done.

    Join me for this episode of CAPBuilder Talk where we will discuss National Small Business Week. My guest this evening will be  Dr. Lawrence Spinelli Acting Vice President, Department of Management and Administration Director of Outreach and Public Affairs Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and Terri Denison SBA Georgia District Director. We will discuss: Dr. Lawrence Spinelli - The Overseas Private Investment Corporation OPICOPIC - The Expanding Horizons WorkshopTerri Denison – SBA Georgia District DirectorSBA National Small Business Week Events

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation is the US Government’s Development Finance Institution. OPIC helps U.S. businesses gain footholds in emerging markets, catalyze revenues, and grow jobs by providing investors with financing, political risk insurance, and support for private equity funds. Mitchell Strauss, the Special Advisor for Socially Responsible Investment Finance, joins the podcast to discuss where OPIC … Continue reading OPIC Socially Responsible Investment Finance

Flory Wilson is the Director, International for GIIRS at B Lab.  She joined B Lab in April 2010, working on the core team that has launched the Global Impact Investing Rating System (GIIRS) Ratings & Analytics.  Flory chairs the Emerging Markets Standards Advisory Council that crafted the GIIRS rating methodology, and led a beta-test of the GIIRS assessment in early 2011 that involved over 200 companies and 25 leading impact investing funds in 30 different countries.   Flory also focuses on business development, working with emerging market based mission-driven enterprises, investment vehicles and impact investors who are using GIIRS Ratings & Analytics, and GIIRS' communications efforts. Furthermore, as the Director of Analytics at B-Lab - the non-profit behind B-Corps - Flory has oversight of the B Impact Assessment, which is the responsibility of B Lab's Standards Advisory Council, an independent committee of 20-22 members, each respected in the field for their wisdom and with deep industry or stakeholder expertise. The Standards Advisory Council is divided into two subgroups — one to oversee the content and weightings for the version of the B Impact Ratings System that is appropriate for companies and funds in developed markets; the other for the version that is appropriate for companies and funds in emerging markets. Previously, Flory was a Senior International Economist in the Office of Investment Policy at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) in Washington, D.C.  At OPIC, she focused on measuring the developmental, social and environmental impacts of private sector-led investment across OPIC's $12 billion portfolio. Prior to OPIC, Flory established a new protocol for tracking international remittances from the U.S. to developing countries as an economist in the Balance of Payments division at the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), Department of Commerce. Ms. Wilson holds a M.A. in international relations from Johns Hopkins Nitze School for Advanced International Standards (SAIS), with a concentration in economics, and graduated cum laude from Colgate University with a B.A. in History and EconomicsShe   What is the Global Impact Investing Rating System (GIIRS)? GIIRS Ratings are the gold standard for impact measurement in impact investing. GIIRS Ratings are rigorous, comprehensive, and comparable ratings of a company or a fund's social and environmental impact. How does GIIRS work? Find Companies & Funds - GIIRS rated companies and funds are highlighted in the search features of B Analytics as being best in class in terms of measurement practices.   Measure & Evaluate - Gain a holistic picture of a company's or fund's impact through a GIIRS rating, not just a component of their model or operations.   A GIIRS Rating is comprised of a Fund Manager Assessment Rating and two Investment Roll-Up Ratings: an Overall Impact Business Model (IBM) Rating and an Overall Operations Rating. The Investment Roll-Up Ratings are weighted averages of the portfolio companies' impact business model and operations ratings based on the amount invested in each company.   Criteria to Get a GIIRS Fund Rating Funds in Formation can become GIIRS rated by committing to being rated for the life of the fund. Until 25% of capital is deployed, initial GIIRS Fund Impact Rating Reports will only feature the fund manager's assessment score and each portfolio company will receive an individual company rating (no portfolio aggregation rating is generated).(1) Actively Investing Funds can receive a GIIRS Fund Impact Rating once 25% of capital(2) is deployed. A typical fund is required to have at least 75%(3) of their portfolio companies complete the rating process in order to receive a GIIRS fund rating. Fully Invested Funds can receive a GIIRS Fund Impact Rating using the standard fund rating methodology, though at least 80% of the total portfolio (in terms of capital deployed) must receive a company rating in order to receive a fund rating.   How can you use B-Analytics to research companies? Find Companies & Funds - Conduct research on the 1400+ individual companies and funds in B Analytics. Follow Trends - Track market trends in the impact investing space. Measure - Collect impact data on the companies and funds in your portfolio, platform, supply chain, or association. B Analytics offers you the flexibility to measure what matters to you. Benchmark - B Analytics houses the largest database of social and environmental performance data on private companies globally. Use B Analytics to benchmark your portfolio's impact and easily export data for reporting to stakeholders. Improve - Through B Analytics companies can access “do-it-yourself” consulting tools to improve their impact.   METHODOLOGY: GIIRS Ratings are the gold standard for impact measurement in impact investing. They are rigorous, comprehensive, and comparable ratings of a company or a fund's social and environmental impact. The GIIRS Rating is powered by the B Impact Assessment. It measures the overall impact of a business on all of its stakeholders. The B Impact Assessment has been accessed by over 15,000 users in 57 countries in 176 industries. Learn more about the B Impact Assessment. B IMPACT ASSESSMENT STRUCTURE: Impact Business Models: Specific models designed to create social and/or environmental impact through a company's products or services, target customers, value chain, ownership or operations. Operations: Impactful practices, policies and achievements related to a company's: Governance structure, Workers, Community, Environmental footprint. Each company receives an overall score and two ratings; one for its impact models and one for its operations.

October 22, 2014 - Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://onforb.es/1w68VC0. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. Infrastructure to support global impact investing is maturing, improving the viability of the model. The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the U.S. Federal Government’s development finance institution, and Global Partnerships, a nonprofit investing in Latin America for over twenty years, are two examples of mature players in the impact investing space. Elizabeth L. Littlefield, CEO and President of OPIC explains that, “Private capital is essential in development, and business can serve as a force for good in having a positive impact.” She adds, “OPIC has worked to create tools to address market gaps and support impact investors. These include established partnerships with private lenders, risk-mitigation for private investors to enter emerging sectors and regions, and innovative tagging to categorize our investments for impact.” Rick Beckett, CEO and President of Global Partnerships, said, “Over the past 20 years, GP has achieved a double bottom line of social and financial return, making over $130 million impact investments in over 70 partners, touching 2.6 million lives.” Global Partnerships leverages charitable dollars to fuel its investing, explains Beckett. “Philanthropy is key to our success. It funds the research on initiatives and catalyzes our learning and progress.” OPIC has partnered with Global Partnerships to address “large-scale global challenges,” according to Beckett. “Our partners deliver sustainable solutions to help their “clients” earn a stable income, save money and time, increase productivity, and have access to affordable health care.”

July 13, 2014 - Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://onforb.es/1xTJzFo. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. Much of the hype around crowdfunding has frustratingly proved to be so much hot air. The United Nations Global Compact and the U.S. State Department are working to change that by bringing crowdfunding forward to finance projects in the developing world, especially projects designed to address the social problems endemic there. U.S.-based crowdfunding site Gate Global Impact is partnering with the UN Global Compact to launch Gateway 2.0, a site that will allow members of the UN Global Compact’s Social Enterprise Hub to access capital of from $500,000 to $10 million. Rosedel Davies-Adewebi, project manager for social enterprise and impact investing at the UN Global Compact, explained that through this innovative partnership the UN Global Compact hopes to advance this form of equity crowdfunding as a new approach to impact investing, addressing gaps in the missing middle of finance and connect capital to impactful businesses addressing critical areas related to the UN-Post 2015 agenda. Similarly, the U.S. State Department will soon launch a partnership with the crowdfunding site RocketHub to accelerate social impact projects from 60 countries around the world. Molinari will be speaking at the Social Enterprise and Crowdfunding Conference, which I a organizing, on September 26, 2014 at Snowbird (secfc.co). More about the UN Global Compact: The UN Global Compact is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. Endorsed by chief executives, the Global Compact is a practical framework for the development, implementation, and disclosure of sustainability policies and practices, offering participants a wide spectrum of workstreams, management tools and resources — all designed to help advance sustainable business models and markets. To further promote the advancement of sustainable business models, the UN Global Compact has launched a workstream focused on the concepts of Social Enterprise and Impact investing. The aim of the workstream is to build an enabling environment for corporations within the Global Compact, investors and social enterprises that will facilitate the formation of partnerships designed to advance innovations addressing development challenges. Davies-Adewebi’s bio: Rosedel Davies-Adewebi is the Project Manager for the Social Enterprise and Impact Investing workstream of the United Nations Global Compact. The workstream is designed to build an enabling environment to support the formation of partnerships among social enterprises, corporations and investors . The partnerships have the aim to advance innovations addressing global development challenges. At the UN Global Compact, Rosedel is responsible for setting the strategic direction of the workstream and leading its operations globally. Rosedel has spent the last eight years developing programs and managing projects designed to connect social innovators with financing and technical assistance to scale impact. Prior to joining the UN Global Compact, she served as a consultant on impact measurement data to the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN). Rosedel’s other professional experience includes developing the investment strategy for a seed fund providing financing for maternal and child health innovations at the Tony Elumelu Foundation, a Lagos, Nigeria based foundation. The seed fund served as the foundation’s commitment to the United Nations Secretary General’s Every Woman, Every Child Campaign. In addition to this, she worked with Project Enterprise, a New York City based- micro-finance fund to grow their loan portfolio. For her work at Project Enterprise, she received the United Way’s Emerging Junior Leader Fellowship in 2007. She began her career in 2003 as a commercial banker for Wachovia and served on the team responsible for launching Wachovia’s first commercial operations in New York City. Rosedel received an MBA from the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business, where she was a recipient of the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management Scholarship and served as a fellow on the Frankel Commercialization Fund, a student-run pre-seed venture fund. She also holds bachelors’ degrees in Economics and International Relations from Boston University. Foster’s bio: Daniella M. Foster is a policy innovator and social entrepreneur. She has worked in government, business and the non-profit sectors. Ms. Foster serves as a Director of Public-Private Partnerships at the U.S. Department of State, where she leads the establishment of partnerships which commit skills and capital for social impact projects in over 165 countries. She previously served as the Chief of Staff for the Secretary of State’s Senior Advisor for Civil Society and Emerging Democracies, where she managed the work of the office to implement policy initiatives and partnerships designed to strengthen emerging democracies and civil society worldwide. She has spearheaded a variety of Presidential initiatives, including global public-private partnerships that help grow small and medium businesses, connect entrepreneurs from around the world, and develop job skills via mobile technology. A respected authority on strategic partnerships, Ms. Foster has worked in six continents, tripling growth in agreements with Fortune 500 companies and international organizations, and was named one of the Diplomatic Courier’s “Top 99 Under 33 Foreign Policy Leaders” and featured in Washington Life Magazine as one of Washington’s most influential leaders in 2013. She is passionate about social entrepreneurship and serves as the CEO and Co-founder of the Emergent Leaders Network (ELN), a non-profit that provides scholarships and mentoring to community college students. She currently serves on the advisory board for Noodle, the first and only life-long education related search company in the world. Ms. Foster holds a M.A. in Social and Public Policy from Georgetown University and a B.A. in Intercultural Communications and Business from Pepperdine University. Molinari’s bio: Vince Molinari has been recognized by Forbes as one of the “Top 10 Most Influential People in Crowdfunding.” The consummate visionary and serial entrepreneur, Vince has always been a driving force in creating new market infrastructure bringing efficiency, transparency and liquidity to the unstructured global alternative asset markets. Vince’s vision of opening the private market for investment can spearhead economic growth and job creation, leading him to be on of the early voices and champions of the recently passed JOBS Act. Vince’s most recent start-up is GATE Global Impact whose mission is based on a core belief that actionable knowledge drives investments, and that technology can close the gap between traditional and emerging alternative markets. GGI is fast becoming the leading electronic marketplace platform that is helping the world’s leading organizations tale impact investing to the next level. GGI enables investors to identify and transact in securities, which provide sustainable social and environmental benefits in addition to a financial return by bringing efficiency, transparency and liquidity to historically fragmented processes. GGI partners include the UN, OPIC, Microsoft, Yunus Social Business, Prudential and other leading financial and technology organizations. Vince is an active speaker on issues related to capital markets and early-stage companies, and regularly speaks at events around the world. He has been invited to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises, and regularly consults with both members of Congress and regulatory agencies on these issues. Vince is a founding board member of the Crowdfund Intermediary Regulatory Advocates (CFIRA), a self-regulating association that works with governmental and quasi-governmental entities to help establish crowdfunding industry standards and best practices. He is also a co-founder of the Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA), a leading trade organization for the Crowdfund industry and sits on the board of CF50 a global think tank of 50 of the leading minds from academia, policy and industry. Vince is also the founder of Global Access Holdings LLC, a financial media and analytics company, which identified a global trend line of illiquid securities and the potential market need for alternative asset trading platforms. Prior to Global Access Holdings, he was chairman and CEO of Burlington Capital Markets LLC, a financial services company specializing in institutional execution services and investment banking activities. In addition, he co-founded Inculab, a technology business incubator. Vince began his career at Lehman Brothers Inc., and has held senior positions at Janney Montgomery Scott Inc. and Ridgewood Capital Funding, LLC. He has been featured on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Lang and O’Leary Exchange” and been quoted and published in a wide range of business media including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Bloomberg News, Advance Trading and Securities Technology Monitor.