Bulletin Board

                                               
                                                                             February 17 2009

 

Thanks David, those of you who know and have worked with David know what a leader he is, and has been for the British Chamber over the past few years.

I have asked Keith Allan, the British Consul General here in Miami, to say a few words.

Thank you Keith and thank you Jill for sharing David with the Chamber, which you have done very stoicly over the past 5 years and more.  

The great thing about working with David is that he makes decisions. Not always the right decisions, but he's made more right than wrong and as he rightly said we are in a much stronger position financially with a clear business focus, and I'm excited to be taking on the presidency because of the foundations that David has put in place.

One of David's achievements has been to double our trustee members, and I would like to acknowledge those trustee members who are present tonight.

 

Richard Goldstein, Carlos Junco and Charles Shields from Bilzin Sumberg LLP

Michael, Diaz, Brant Hadaway, Carlos Gonzalez from Diaz, Reus LLP

Carol Potter & David Munn from FTI Consulting

Dan Zabludowski from Henshaw & Culbertson LLP

Albert Metz & Estelle Gae from the Raleigh Hotel

Tania Cruz from Squires Sanders Dempsey LLP

John Harriman from The Standard Chartered Private Bank

Megan Kelly from Swire Properties

 

I would like to thank you all publicly for your support of the British Chamber and for all that you do to make us a success.  Thank You.

That being said we are not full and I would welcome any one else here who wishes to join this elite group ? just have a word in my ear.
 

I would also like to thank our outgoing chairman Mark Lee, who has been involved with the BACC for his work.

I would now like to introduce you to my Executive Board for the coming year Nic Watkins from Gray Watkins LLP a past President of the Chamber is our secretary, John Crawford, who is the financial controller of Intercontinental Hotel Group, Latin America is our treasurer and I am very pleased to say that David Munn is our new Executive Director.  I can't get away from that man.

Enough about him, whilst I have your attention, I would like to say a few words about the coming year's activities & let you know what my priorities are.

The raison d'etre of any Chamber is to help its' members grow their business and meet new customers. The British Chamber has another function which is to build strong relationships in South Florida between British interests and the larger community.

I have four simple goals for the coming year:

1) Create more value for our members so that your membership to our
    chamber helps you grow your business, and keeps you informed, and
    in that way grow our membership.

2) Have a low cost website that serves the communication and
    promotional needs of the Chamber and its members.
    www.baccmiami.com will do just that.

3) Be more active in the community representing British business
    interests, and your interests.

We now have a very close working relationship with Keith Allen & the UKTI team, the BACC exists to provide an effective and responsive forum to promote exchange of business & information, between South Floridian, UK and Latin American companies with British interests, and we consider ourselves an extension to their office here, to assist any British company or individual who is looking to relocate in South Florida: you, BACC members can provide all their needs, real estate, banking, legal requirements, corporate recruitment, training needs - the list goes on. Conversely, we assist South Florida companies doing or wishing to do business in the UK,  through our members business associates and our knowledge of the British business environment.

Through our boardroom breakfasts and regular networking events we give you the opportunity to meet, and seek new business and new information. Your small financial investment in membership will be richly rewarded if you invest in the time to get to know your fellow members. What we do is provide the forum and through our guest speakers, the knowledge to help you do business.

Finally, we do everything with a little bit of British style and these are best highlighted at our three signature social events of the year that David mentioned: The Queens Birthday in June, Ascot Day in August     and the 22^nd Annual Christmas Luncheon in December.

As the new BACC President, I am really looking forward to a great year ahead. Both the USA and the UK are facing very tough times and its at times like these when we need to bring a smile and a little fun to our working lives, and that is what we will be doing in the coming year.

If you have any ideas or suggestions, please come and talk to me.

Enjoy the rest of the evening, and thank you for coming. 


Neal Stebbing

 *** photos *** outgoing president's review *** new president's speech ***