Speakers:

Roger Axtell is a leading expert on international business and one of America's most entertaining and informative speakers. A full time professional speaker since 1986, Roger Axtell has entertained and informed hundreds of audiences in the U.S. and overseas.  He is the author of eight books in his “Do’s & Taboos…” international business series.  Two of them are considered best-sellers, Do’s & Taboos Around the World, A Guide to International Behavior and Gestures: Do’s & Taboos of Body Language Around the World and have been translated into as many as 11 languages.

Others include, Do's & Taboos of International Trade: A Small Business Primer; Do's & Taboos of Hosting International Visitors; Do's & Taboos of Preparing for Your Trip Abroad; and Lingo: The Do's & Taboos of Using American/English Abroad. His latest book, Essential Do's and Taboos, was released in Fall 2007.

Roger was Vice-President, Worldwide Marketing for The Parker Pen Co. for 30 years, where he directed marketing operations in Europe, Africa, Latin America and around the world. Today, over 80% of Parker's business is done outside the United States. Roger Axtell has been featured in The New Yorker magazine and described as “an international Emily Post.” He has appeared on NBC’s Today show, The Merv Griffin Show, The Regis Philbin Show, three times on CNN’s International Hour and four separate appearances on Good Morning America. With a delightful sense of humor, Roger Axtell helps audiences understand the complex and sometimes humorous sides to doing business across borders.

Walter (Buddy) Baker has over 25 years of experience in international trade finance. In September 2005 he joined Atradius Trade Credit Insurance, where he is responsible for assisting exporters and banks with structuring financing for export receivables.  Headquartered in the Netherlands, Atradius is the second largest credit insurer in the world, covering over $500 billion in world trade each year.  Prior to Atradius, Buddy’s career was on the banking side, most recently including 10 years with ABN AMRO Bank as Global Head of Technical Trade Advisory/Compliance.

Buddy is a recognized expert in trade finance, a long-time member of the National Letter of Credit Committee, an adviser to the Institute for International Banking Law and Practice and to the Wolfsberg Group and a past Director of FCIB. He earned his undergraduate degree at Yale and his MBA at Northwestern.

Dr. Hans Belcsák is President of S.J. Rundt & Associates, Inc., headquartered in New York City. Born in Austria and educated for the most part in Innsbruck, he majored in commercial law and political economics and obtained the degree of Doctor of Jurisprudence. He is the publisher of Rundt's World Business Intelligence dealing with global, political and economic trends, Rundt's World Risk Analysis Program of Country Risk Assessments, and the Financial Executive's Country Risk Alert.

Richard Clark is the Director of Global Credit for the Industrial Technologies Sector of Ingersoll-Rand Co. He has 25 plus years experience in trade finance plus risk, working capital and contract management. Richard has traveled extensively throughout the Asian Pacific Region and has spoken at several FCIB conferences on related topics.  He is a long time member of FCIB, a past member of the Board of Directors and held the post of Chairman from 2004-2006.

Ted Cwynar is a seasoned professional who has spent over 35 years in credit management positions.  He is currently Director of Corporate Credit for United States Pipe & Foundry Co., LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mueller Water Products, Inc. in Atlanta, GA.  As Director of Corporate Credit, Ted is responsible for all credit operations for both domestic and international markets, as well as accounts receivable and treasure services.

Ted holds a B.S. Degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.  He is also a graduate of the NACM Graduate School of Credit and Financial Management, Dartmouth, earning the Executive Award in 1986, his Certified Credit Executive Award (CCE) in 2005 and his designation as Certified International Credit Professional (CICP) in 2004.  He currently serves on the Advisory Board of FCIB and is past Chairman of the NACM Southern Group-Birmingham, AL.  A long-time member of NACM and the Credit Research Foundation, Ted actively participates and contributes to surveys and other aspects involving the credit profession through his membership role.

Thomas K. Doaty is General Credit Manager of PPG Industries. Thomas began his career with PPG in 1977 as an accounting trainee at the East Point, GA coatings plant and then held various accounting/finance jobs at Circleville, Oak Creek, General Office, and Troy locations.  In 1998 he moved to general office as Director, Finance for Refinish and in 2001 was appointed Director, Finance/Business Development for architectural coatings.

In August 2006, he joined treasury as General Credit Manager for PPG on a global basis.

A native of Cleveland, OH, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Pennsylvania State University and a MBA from the University of Pittsburgh.  Thomas is also a certified public accountant.

Mary Duhig is Director for Aon Trade Credit. In her current position, Mary is responsible for marketing and structuring credit and political risk mitigation solutions for domestic and global companies.  Prior to joining Aon in 1999, Mary was Manager, Latin American Operations for Case Corporation.  While at Case, Mary managed a team of finance professionals who were responsible for structuring cross border and in-country financing facilities to support equipment sales.  Based in Chicago, Mary has extensive international and domestic financial experience with both capital equipment companies and banks. Mary has traveled extensively to the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Latin America to structure financing facilities. Ms. Duhig currently serves on the Advisory Board of FCIB (Finance Credit and International Business), an affiliate of the NACM National Association of Credit Managers. Mary earned her BA from Bradley University and her MBA from Loyola University.

Jacob Katsman is Chairman & CEO of GlobalTrade Corporation. Previously, he was CEO of CCEWeb Corp. Before that, Jacob was Director of Finance at Midland Metals, and managed trading companies in Asia, Canada, and Europe with B&B Trading International Corp. Jacob is a recognized expert on international trade. His book, How to Make Money Without Money: The Art of Transferable Letters of Credit and Assignments of Proceeds, is regarded as a standard guide to the practical use of letters of credit in trade finance. Since 1999, he has been the Managing Editor of L/C Monitor www.lcmonitor.com, a bi-monthly legal financial journal covering practical aspects of payment instruments in international trade. He is also Executive Director of the International Trade & Banking Institute www.itbi.net.

Joao Luiz A. Galvao is a Director and Head of Structured Trade and Export Finance for Latin America.  He is responsible for leading transactions across the range of trade related finance products in Latin America with an emphasis on the Brazilian market.  Joao has been at Deutsche Bank since October 2007 and is based in New York.  Prior to this, he worked six years at Safra National Bank of New York as Head of Corporate and Trade Finance where he focused on origination and structure of trade related transactions.  He was also based at the São Paulo location of Banco Safra for four years.

Joao has been a participating member of both The Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce and the Association of Trade & Forfaiting in the Americas (ATFA). He holds a degree in Business Administration from São Paulo’s Fundação Getúlio Vargas.

Angela Hodges, CICP is Latin America Credit Supervisor for Eastman Chemical Company, which manufactures and markets chemicals, fibers and plastics worldwide. She has responsibility for Eastman’s regional credit employees based in Mexico and Brazil, as well as the overall management of a $180 million accounts receivable portfolio, which represents sales to 400 active customers in 25 countries. Prior to joining Eastman Chemical, Angela spent almost 14 years with Alcoa Inter-America, Inc. where she managed their entire export region portfolio, including Latin America, Caribbean, Europe and Asia. Since graduating from Thunderbird School of Global Management, Angela's career has been focused entirely on international credit challenges. Angela has garnered almost 20 years of experience in credit management, all with Fortune 500 corporations. Angela has been an active FCIB member since 1997 and was in the very first CICP graduating class.

David Lafiosca is Manager, Global Treasury at Eli Lilly and Co. where he is responsible for the financing and credit management of Lilly’s global affiliates. David joined Lilly in 1999 and has held financial planning manager roles at both Lilly Corporate and Lilly Japan. Previously David spent six years with Daiichi Pharmaceutical. He earned his BA in Economics from Rutgers College and his Finance MBA from Kenan-Flagler Business School (UNC).

Robert Long joined ABN AMRO Bank’s Global Trade Services & Advisory Group as a Vice President in 1998.  He has been a frequent contributor to in-house training programs especially with respect to export products and supply chain finance. He was promoted to Director (Senior Vice President) in 2003.

He is an active member of  FCIB, has served two terms as a Board member and one term as Board Chair.  He frequently speaks to international credit and collection groups on international trade with emphasis on funds flows and credit/cash management issues.  He has been published and quoted in Business Credit, The Exporter, and other magazines and trade journals. 

Bob earned a BS in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Drexel University in Philadelphia. 

Eugene W. Perry is the Division Credit Manager, Crouse-Hinds Division, Cooper Industries. He has more than 30 years of experience in domestic and international credit operations. Prior to joining Cooper, he was the Manager of Credit at Pennzoil Company (now Shell Oil) and the International Credit Manager at GAF Corporation (now International Specialty Products), and served a two-year assignment in Europe. He is the author ofPractical Export Trade Finance, a reference for international credit and finance professionals. He has been an active member for over 30 years and currently on its Board of Directors.

Gayle Roenbaugh, CTP has 21 years of experience in international trade with both operations and sales. She started her trade banking career with First Chicago Bank, which became Bank One managing International Operations, then a national trade sales group. She joined Royal Bank of Scotland in early 2005 and began employment with HSBC USA in May of 2006. Gayle holds a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish & Business from the University of Wisconsin and is a Certified Treasury Professional and licensed Customs Broker. Gayle is a member of FCIB, The International Trade Association Of Greater Chicago and the Association Of Financial Professionals.

David Schmidt, a graduate of The University of Michigan, spent 17 years in corporate credit management, including stints at Dun & Bradstreet and Remington Rand.  Then, in 1994, he founded consulting firm A2 Resources where he specializes in process improvement and cash flow optimization, and has become the leading industry analyst covering credit and collection software technology.  As a thought leader in the credit and collection profession, David has published over 200 articles in a variety of trade and business publications including Business Credit, Collection Advisor and Business Finance Magazine.  He remains a contributing editor with monthly newsletter Credit Today and is co-author of the seminal text on automating collections, Power Collecting: Automation for Effective Asset Management, (1998, John Wiley & Sons, NYC).  David has also served as the lead analyst for several PayStream Advisors’ reports about Receivables & Collections Management (RCM) and Receivables Document Management (RDM) technologies. David has presented workshops and spoken at conferences throughout the country numerous times.

Tina Sorrels, CICP attended Indiana University-Purdue University extension in Indianapolis and also Mercer University of Atlanta. Over the past 30 years she has built a very successful career in international business. Currently she serves as Director of Credit at AJC International, Inc., in their home office located in Atlanta, GA. Through her years in international business she has managed various roles including global Logistics, Documentation, and Credit. Along with being Director of Credit, Mrs. Sorrels, holds the role of AJC Corporate Secretary and Chairman for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Hospital portion of the AJC Employees Community Involvement Committee. She obtained her Certificate of International Credit Professionals (CICP) designation in June 2004. Tina is also on the FCIB Board of Directors.

Tim Thomann founded Silverback Associates, which in global credit management solutions for major corporations. This includes establishing global credit organizations, developing corporate policies and procedures, trade finance solutions to reduce credit risk or provide financing, due diligence activities, SOX compliance and working capital management.  Tim has expertise of credit management in all regions of the world, specializing in the developing economies of Asia and Latin America. Tim’s most recent position was directing the credit and accounts receivable global operations for Celanese Corporation, formerly Hoechst Celanese.  He has held numerous positions of increasing responsibility in the Credit, Finance, Treasury and Accounting functions over his 30 year tenure with Celanese.  Over his career he worked in the chemical, specialty chemical, pharmaceutical, plastics and fiber businesses.  His most recent responsibilities included managing a USD 1.5 billion receivable portfolio and 55 employees located in five regional centers around the world.  He has held the positions of Executive Chairman, International Chairman and Vice Chairman of the National Chemical Credit Association (NCCA).  He also has been a long standing member of the Finance Credit and International Business (FCIB) and the National Association of Credit Management (NACM).  Tim is also a founding member of FCIB China and currently a member of FCIB China’s Advisory Board.  He has participated as a speaker and panel member at numerous conferences and credit forums.

Bill Uhrich has been the Director of Corporate Credit at Dresser, Inc. since June, 2003.  Prior to joining Dresser, Inc.,   Bill served as the Director of Credit and Accounts Receivable for Daltile Corporation for seven years.

Registration Fees:

CICP Points:

2 professional development points will be awarded to all Certified International Credit Professional (CICP) designation holders.

Education Credits:

The Education Department of the National Association of Credit Management^TM has reviewed the educational content of this advanced level program. Participants attending this program will earn .85 continuing education units (CEUs), all of which are valid for CCE recertification. The NACM Control Number is 16239.

The continuing education units have been awarded in accordance with the standards recommended by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training. The CEU is a nationally recognized unit designed to provide a record of an individual’s continuing education accomplishments. One continuing education unit (CEU) is awarded for each 10 contact hours of instruction.