The U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council, the American Chambers of Commerce MENA, and the American Chamber of Commerce Abu Dhabi are pleased to invite you to an export promotion evening reception on April 10th, 2013, from 6:00pm-8:00pm at the Homer Building, 601 13th Street, NW, Washington, D.C.
This reception will feature keynote remarks by:
Jose W. Fernandez
Assistant Secretary of Economic and Business Affairs
U.S. Department of State
and
Fred R. Hochberg
Chairman and President
Export-Import Bank of the United States
Please RSVP your attendance to Ms. Cristina Martinez at cmartinez@usuaebusiness.org or +1 (202) 863-7287. Please provide her with your name, title, company, and e-mail address.
Jose W. Fernandez
Assistant Secretary for Economic and Business Affairs
U.S. Department of State
Mr. Fernandez serves as the Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs. He leads the Bureau that is responsible for overseeing work on international trade and investment policy; international finance, development, and debt policy; economic sanctions and combating terrorist financing; international energy security policy; international telecommunications and transportation policies; and support for U.S. businesses and the private sector overseas.
Nominated by President Obama on August 6, 2009, Mr. Fernandez was sworn in as Assistant Secretary on December 1, 2009. Mr. Fernandez came to the State Department after having served as a partner in the New York office of Latham & Watkins, and Global Chair of the firm’s Latin America practice. For nearly three decades, his practice has focused on Latin America, Europe and Africa, advising clients on international mergers and acquisitions, financings, trade and other matters as the economies of these regions have evolved.
Mr. Fernandez was named one of the “World’s Leading Lawyers” by Chambers Global for his M&A and corporate expertise, an “Expert” in International Financial Law Review’s “Guide to the World’s Leading Project Finance Lawyers”, and one of the “World’s Leading Privatization Lawyers” by Euromoney Publications. He is recognized as a leading Corporate Finance attorney in the Latin American market in the Chambers Global 2008 legal guide and a leading Latin America attorney in the Chambers U.S. 2008 legal guide. He was featured by Hispanic Business Magazine in its “100 Influentials List” for 2006 and 2007.
A lifelong supporter of education, the arts and commercial engagement, prior to his appointment at the State Department Mr. Fernandez served on the Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College and on the Board of Directors of Accion International and the Council of the Americas. He has been chair both of the American Bar Association’s Inter-American Law Committee and the Committee on Inter-American Affairs of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and co-chair of the Cross Border M&A and Joint Ventures Committee of the New York State Bar Association. He recently headed the Latin American and Caribbean division of the ABA’s Rule of Law Initiative. He has also served on the boards of NPR-station WBGO-FM, Ballet Hispanico of New York and the Middle East Institute. He was a co-founder of TeatroStageFest, a 2-week Latino theater festival in New York City, and was appointed a Commissioner of New York’s Latin Media and Entertainment Commission. Mr. Fernandez is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations.
Mr. Fernandez graduated magna cum laude with high honors from Dartmouth College earning a bachelors degree in history, and also received an honorary degree from the college. He earned a J.D. from the Columbia University School of Law, where he received the Charles Evans Hughes Prize and a Parker School Certificate of International Law with Honors.
Fred R. Hochberg
Chairman and President
Export-Import Bank of the United States
Fred P. Hochberg is Chairman and President of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) and one of the highest ranking business leaders in the Obama Administration.
Under his leadership in FY 2012, Ex-Im Bank for the fourth-straight year set export finance records in a number of key areas. Overall financing for the first time exceeded $35.7 billion and supported $50 billion in exports and approximately 255,000 export-related American jobs at more than 3,400 U.S. companies. Small business financing rose over 70 percent from $3.3 billion in FY 2008 to $6.1 billion in FY 2012. There was an increase of 16.5 percent in authorizations for minority- and woman-owned businesses.
During Hochberg’s tenure, the Bank has increased its focus on customers, both foreign buyers and U.S. exporters. It is seeking new markets for U.S. goods and services in emerging economies with growing infrastructure needs, including Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Turkey, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Nigeria and South Africa. Hochberg has also worked to expand the global footprint of key domestic industries in which U.S. exporters have a comparative advantage. These include renewable energy, construction and farm machinery, medical technology, agriculture, and avionics. In addition, he has streamlined processes, cut transaction times and introduced innovative new financial products.
As head of Ex-Im Bank, Chairman Hochberg plays an essential role in President Obama’s plan to double U.S. exports by the end of 2014.
From 2004 to 2008, Hochberg was dean of Milano, The New School for Management and Urban Policy in New York, N.Y. From 1998 through 2001, he served as deputy, then acting administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA), where he quadrupled lending to minority- and women-owned small businesses.
Prior to his service at SBA, Hochberg was the long-time President and Chief Operating Officer of the Lillian Vernon Corporation, where he led the transformation of a small, family mail order company into an international, publicly traded direct marketing corporation.
Hochberg is a past board member of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Citizens Budget Commission, and FINCA International Micro Finance. He was also an appointed representative to the New York State Financial Control Board.
A native of the greater New York metropolitan area, Hochberg received his undergraduate degree from New York University and his MBA from Columbia University. Hochberg’s partner is writer Tom Healy.
