Advisors

Raymond M. Cesca, Chicago, IL

Raymond Cesca is Founder, President, and CEO of GAEÁ, a market development, trade, and strategic planning organization that promotes the development of small to medium-sized agribusiness enterprises in developing countries. From 1995 to 1999 he was the Managing Director of McDonald's World Trade, responsible for reducing or eliminating barriers to trade among the 118 countries in which McDonald's operates. He held the position of Global Purchasing with McDonald's from 1992 to 1995 and was Director of International Purchasing Atlantic from 1987 to 1992. Prior to his work at McDonald's, Mr. Cesca spent 15 years with CPC International.

Mr. Cesca provides leadership to a number of boards and councils, including the Food and Agriculture Committee of the National Policy Association, the Food Products Committee for the Pacific Basin Economic Council, the agricultural policy-working group of the United States Council for International Business, the Board of FyBx, and as an advisor to RiseLink. He is the chairman of the Food and Agricultural Committee of the U.S. ASEAN Council, and co-chairman of the World Agricultural Forum. He also received the Corporate Conservation Leadership Award. Mr. Cesca has a bachelor's degree from St. Bonaventure University and an MBA from Columbia University, and attended the University of Southern California's School of Food Management and Stanford University's Decision Theory Forum.

Jeffrey L. Miller, Washington, DC

Mr. Miller, the President and Managing Director, joined AALC in November 2005. He is responsible for development, financing and management of various projects worldwide. Prior to joining AALC, Mr. Miller was Senior Vice President and Head of Export Finance at the Export-Import Bank of the United States. In this capacity, he served as the chief business officer of the Bank. Mr. Miller served Ex-Im Bank for 17 years in a number of capacities, including Vice President of Asset Management, and Deputy Vice President of Credit Administration. During his tenure, Mr. Miller negotiated bilateral agreements between the US and Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. He also negotiated credit facilities and financings between Ex-Im Bank and the Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Algeria. Prior to joining Ex-Im Bank, Mr. Miller was an Assistant Vice President with the Foreign Credit Insurance Association. Mr. Miller also held various managerial positions in the Marine Insurance industry early in his career. Mr. Miller graduated from Pace University 1976 and completed the Landeggar Program at Georgetown University in 1994. He is currently a Senior Fellow of the Council for Excellence in Government.

Prof. Michael R. Czinkota, Washington, DC

Michael Czinkota teaches marketing and international business at Georgetown University. He also served as chairman of the Foundation for International Business Education and Research, in Washington, D.C., and as the chairman of the National Center for Export-Import Studies. He has held professorial appointments at universities in Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Americas. Dr. Czinkota served in the U.S. government during the Reagan and Bush Administrations. As Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce he was responsible for trade analysis, support of international trade negotiations and retaliatory actions. He has also been head of the U.S. Delegation to the OECD Industry Committee in Paris and was senior advisor for Export Controls.

Dr. Czinkota's background includes twenty years of research and teaching in the academic world. He was listed as one of the three most published contributors to international business research in the world. He is the author of eight books, among them two standard college texts, International Marketing and International Business, both in their sixth edition. Dr. Czinkota serves on the Global Advisory Board of the American Marketing Association, the Global Council of the American Management Association, and on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Marketing Science. Dr. Czinkota serves on several corporate boards and has worked with corporations such as AT&T, IBM, GE, Nestle, and US WEST. He has advised the U.S. General Accounting Office, the Commerce Department, and the Executive Office of the President on Export Promotion and Trade Policy. He also serves as advisor to the United Nations' and World Trade Organization's Executive Forum on National Export Strategies.

Dr. Czinkota was born and raised in Germany and educated in Austria, Scotland, Spain, and the United States. He studied law and business administration at the University of Erlangen-Nurnberg and was awarded a two-year Fulbright Scholarship. He holds an MBA in international business and a Ph.D. in logistics from The Ohio State University.

Richard Beard, Salt Lake City, UT

Richard (Rick) Beard, President & CEO of Bank of American Fork, Utah’s largest community bank with 10 locations. Before becoming Bank of American Fork’s President in 2005, Mr. Beard had been involved with bank for more than eight years, serving as the Bank’s general legal counsel for much of that time. His financial background includes a substantial corporate finance practice dealing with both debt and equity as well as corporate governance. He has served as Chairman of the Securities Section of the Utah Bar. A corporate attorney for 26 years, Beard has practiced with both regional and national law firms. He is a member of the Utah and American Bar Associations. Beard previously served as a shareholder and member of the Board of Directors for Callister, Nebeker & McCullough in Salt Lake City, a firm that specializes in the practice of corporate and financial institutions law. He was Phi Beta Kappa and graduated summa cum laude with a BS from the University of Utah and where he also obtained his JD from while an Editor of Law Review.

David K. Diebold, Shanghai, China

Mr. Diebold has been active in China for over 20 years, ever since he was first involved as a senior United States government official in the implementation of the Sino-US Accord that established the framework for developing the United States' trade and investment relationship with People's Republic, in the early 1980s. He led the first official delegation of U.S. electronics executives ever to visit China, and has worked with hundreds of other companies since, through the various stages of China's commercial development. Drawing upon his earlier experience at the International Trade Administration, where he was responsible for all the industry offices of the U.S. Department of Commerce including Aerospace, Automotive Affairs, Basic Industries, Computers, Biotechnology, Capital Goods and International Construction, Consumer Goods, Pharmaceuticals, Science & Technology, Services, Software, Telecommunications, and Textiles & Apparel, he has worked across many industrial and service sectors. Mr. Diebold also served as a senior officer in the US Foreign & Commercial Service. He is a frequent speaker and writer on doing business in China. At the invitation of the Chinese government, he has lectured at the prestigious Central Party School of the CPC in Beijing, and at the invitation of the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Mr. Diebold has also served as an officer and director of a number of companies. He chaired the International Advisory Council of the American Management Association for many years, and was involved in the early development of its joint venture in China, based in Shanghai. The Diebold Fellowship program at MIT's Sloan School of Management is funded by his family. Mr. Diebold holds a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Cornell University.

Carey Fiertz, Salisbury, CT

Carey Fiertz is the President of Export Risk Management, which is a leading independent broker specializing in credit and political risk insurance. Founded in New York City in 1993, ERM relocated to Connecticut in 2001. It is generally recognized as one of the leading firms in the field, with clients ranging from entrepreneurs to multi-national manufacturers and financial institutions. ERM works with all credit and political risk underwriters active in the United States, notably including Ex-Im Bank. Its clients represented over 10% of Ex-Im Bank's premium volume in 2001. In April, 2001, ERM was awarded the Ex-Im Bank "Broker of the Year" designation in recognition of its contributions to small businesses across the country.

Mr. Fiertz has over 20 years' experience in international insurance and finance. A graduate of Dartmouth College with a degree in Economics, he began his career as an international property-casualty insurance underwriter for Chubb, American International Group (AIG), and Hartford. Switching career focus after 10 years, he joined the Foreign Credit Insurance Association (FCIA) in 1989 as a Senior Marketing Representative responsible for export credit insurance sales in parts of the Northeastern United States. Regularly ranked among FCIA's top sales staff, he subsequently served as a Marketing Officer for the Ex-Im bank. Carey was elected to a 3-year term on the Alumni Council of Dartmouth College in May, 2000.

George Fowler, Cleveland, OH

George Fowler is a Senior Vice President and Manager of National City Bank’s International Division, where he has substantially grown the bank’s international assets from a relatively insignificant amount to several billion dollars. Previously Founder, Chairman & CEO of Globespinner, Inc., an Internet startup company in Wayne, PA, Mr. Fowler worked as the Managing Director of Bank One Corporation in Washington, DC, directing structured trade, project finance, & emerging market equity investment funds. He also served as Senior Vice President & Managing Director of International Financial Institutions, Bank One International Corp. Between 1987-1994 Mr. Fowler managed Philadelphia National Bank/CoreStates Bank in the positions of Regional Manager - Americas Area and Deputy Regional Manager - Asia Pacific Area. Mr. Fowler also served as Manager of International Investments at Home Federal Savings & Loan in San Diego, CA. His various other positions included: Manager of Northern California Trade Services, Manager of Trade Finance in New York, Representative, Bangkok, Thailand, Regional Representative, Singapore, Asia Pacific Area, San Francisco for Wells Fargo Bank.He holds an MBA in Finance, from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, and a BS in Management from Lehigh University. Mr. Fowler was a US Naval Officer, Navy Supply Corps Officer, White House Social Aidea and served in the military in Mekong Delta - Vietnam.

Cihat Kilic, Ankara, Turkey

Upon completion of an M Sc degree in Hydraulics at CE Dept of Middle East Technical University, Turkey Mr. Kilic established his own construction company. During 1979-1981, Mr. Kilic worked in the Turkish Eximbank as an expert in the appraisal process for the investment projects of public sector. Since 1981 until today, Mr. Kilic has been with Yenigun Inc, and becoming its General Manager in 1992. He is currently a member of the Board of Yenigun. During his service, the Company has completed numerous military projects which consist of runways, fuel storage facilities, various high quality buildings for USA Army Corps of Engineers, hotels and resort facilities, residential housing complexes, as well as a few industrial projects such as bottling factory and hydrogen peroxide factory. He has taken Yenigun Inc. overseas by establishing offices in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in Kiev, Ukraine, in Moscow, Russia and in Poland. Currently, he is the Deputy Chairman of Yenigun responsible for business development.

David M. Mock, New York, NY

Mr. Mock co-founded GMS Partners, the predecessor of GMG Partners, a New York based venture capital group, in 1997. Prior to joining GMS/GMG Partners, Mr. Mock was a private investor pursuing an investment strategy similar to that of GMG. Mr. Mock has extensive operations and private investment experience with respect to technology companies. As a private investor Mr. Mock has co-founded and served as a principal in a variety of venture start-ups. These start-ups included business sectors such as natural resources, proprietary education, defense electronics, multi media software, computer hardware and a number of other information technologies. Some of these companies became public entities providing Mock with an extensive comprehension and working knowledge of security rules and regulations.

In 1988, through a public holding company, Mr. Mock acquired a 50% interest in an early-stage technology company, Megahertz Corporation, a designer and manufacturer of laptop computer modems. Between 1988 and 1995, Megahertz sales grew from less than $1 million to over $200 million. In 1995, the company was sold to U.S. Robotics for consideration of more than $400 million. Mr. Mock is chairman of the Board of Directors of Captus Networks and is a Board advisor to Alloptic, Forum Systems, 5by5 Networks and Imperial Technology. During the period of March 1998 to November 2000, Mock served as a Board advisor to Phobos Corporation, which was sold to SonicWALL for approximately $270 million.

In addition to his professional responsibilities, Mr. Mock is actively involved with several environmental and economic organizations focused on sustainable economics and protecting wild lands of the American West. Mr. Mock holds a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Utah (1976).

Kazuyuki Mori, Tokyo, Japan

Mr. Mori is currently the Senior Vice President of JERI, and has almost 30 years of international financial experience. After graduating from Kyoto University he joined Japan Development Bank, one of that nation's premier financial institutions involved in financing infrastructure projects within Japan. After becoming a loan officer, he obtained an MBA from Stanford University and steadily increased his responsibilities at Japan Development Bank. While living in the U.S., he became the Bank's senior executive on direct investment from the U.S. Returning to Japan he went on to head up the Bank's International Department. Most recently he has been Director General, International Cooperation Department where he has worked with a number of countries in Asia setting up their own development banks. He has written extensively on the subject of finance and co-authored a number of reports and books, including Inside Washington & Tokyo and From Europe to Tokyo, which served as guidebooks on government money available to businesses doing business in Europe and Japan.

Richard "Chip" Thomas, Philadelphia, PA

Mr. Thomas' is the Genereal Manager of the American Export Training Institue. His interest in international affairs and cultures began in high school where he finished his junior and senior year at a private school in Zimbabwe. He received a B.A. from S. Illinois University and completed a Masters Degree from the American Graduate School of International Management. After his undergraduate degree he spent several years with the Peace Corp. and U.S. Information Agency (USIA) in Colombia. After his graduate degree he spent 20 years in international banking, specializing in trade finance. Most recently he worked at Mellon Bank. In 1995, he left to co-found the American Export Training Institute (AETI) with Alan Beard at Delphos International. In 1998, AETI became a division of Export Risk Management, a leading independent broker specializing in credit and political risk insurance.

AETI has become the foremost resource for international trade transactions in the U.S. It has become the sole trade finance training outsource for many of the U.S. major banks, including Bank One, National City Bank, Bank of America, among others. Major corporations such as AT&T, Chrysler, Exxon, Mack Trucks, Motorola, Oki, Rhone-Poulenc, Sun Microsystems, and Tyco have participated in AETI in-house and bank sponsored seminars. More than 5,000 senior professionals in over 2,800 companies have been trained.

Atul Wad, Chicago, IL

Dr. Wad has over twenty five years of experience in environmentally sustainable project and business development  in developing countries/ emerging markets in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean as a consultant, entrepreneur and academic. He specializes in the different aspects of designing and implementing sustainable value added technology based ventures that build upon the competitive resources of these countries and that produce social and environmental returns in addition to private. He has been involved in starting or building such ventures in various sectors, including natural fibers, essential oils, aquaculture, flavor concentrates and food processing. He has been active in developing support systems for sustainable technology based ventures (incubators), advising such companies in technology strategy, management, marketing, corporate governance, community engagement,  trade and strategic alliance formation, assisting in raising financing at various stages in the growth of these companies, providing policy analysis to governmental and international agencies in the technology and trade areas, and conducting policy research on the issues involved in sustainable business development in emerging markets. He has also taught, lectured and published in this field. He has consulted to a number of international development organizations, including the United Nations, and to several private corporations.

Dr. Wad is currently an Advisor to the Center for Global Citizenship at the Kellogg School of Management and the Program of African Studies at Northwestern University and he holds a Ph.D and M.S. from J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University , Evanston , IL . (Organizational Behavior and International Business, 1978) and a Bachelor of Technology Degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT (Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, 1973).

Export Risk Management (“ERM”)

Term financing for all SMEs may not be necessary and would not be prudent.  There are situations where vendor financing will suffice and with appropriate credit insurance from ExIm Bank, for example, U.S. vendors can extend terms to overseas buyers.   Based on a long standing relationship with ERM, a ten-year-old US insurance brokerage, which recently won ExIm Bank’s broker of the year award, Interlink can complement the term financing provided by other DFIs.   ERM works with private insurers as well, placing private sector contract insurance in very difficult markets such as Iraq.  Export Risk Management is the owner of The American Export Training Institute. 

The American Export Training Institute (“AETI”)

Was co-founded by one of Interlink’ principals and has become the premier trade finance training service to the US banking industry.  AETI’s clients include BofA, Bank One, National City Bank, PNC, Zions Bank, among others.  Training can be tailored to the specific audience or pre packaged courses can be taught on trade finance in all its permutations.  Currently, Thomson Publishing, the world’s largest publisher of economic data, is publishing a book written by Interlink and AETI on trade finance that will be an easy to understand primer on the subject (scheduled publishing in Q3 of 2005).  This will complement existing publications by Thomson that principals have spearheaded and contributed to:  Inside the World’s Export Credit Agencies and Inside the World’s Development Finance Institutions.

Twenty-Four Hour Trading

TFHT is a Canadian company, based in Mississauga , Ontario , focused on business opportunities between North America and Central Europe .  TFHT was formed 6 years ago to leverage North American resources with emerging markets professionals and participate in import-export trade activities. Recently TFHT has affiliated with Interlink to specialize in financial advisory services and foreign investments, using government and commercial financial institutions, strategically participating in two primary market segments:

Environment projects

These projects are aimed at solving the great challenges Central European countries such as Poland face when dealing with the highly variable degrees of pollution

Utility projects

Twenty Four Hours Trading seeks out opportunities in the privatization of state-owned utilities such as the electric, gas and water supplies. They are constantly monitoring the new and emerging laws which govern this area.