Our Speakers
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Over the last year we have invited several individuals to speak to our Chapter. We are very grateful to all of them for taking the time to come to campus and share their experiences with us. Whenever possible, we have tried to include two speakers (an outside professional and an alumnus) and one topic in our meetings. Below you will find a brief overview of our speakers and some of what we learned from them. Please remember to check back regularly for more information on our speakers as this page will be updated often: Nicholas
A. Castaldo - Former President of Pollo Tropical Mr. Castaldo has recently retired from the distinguished position as Pollo Tropical's President. He led a successful turnaround of the company, and during his tenure, Pollo Tropical doubled in sales and cash flow and ranked as the number one concept in average store sales and profit in its market segment. His career spans over twenty-five years in consumer products and service businesses including chain restaurants, banking, health and beauty aides, and retailing. We enjoyed an hour long lecture, during which Mr. Castaldo told of about the varied experiences of his career and shared tips and lessons he has picked up during its 25 year span. He recommended starting one's career with larger corporations and moving into medium and smaller firms later in one's career when ready to handle executive positions. One of the key pieces of advice offered was to leverage one's skills when choosing firms or segments in which to seek employment. My Castaldo did this by selling his marketing background to the food industry which was not rich in marketing talent at the time. In essence by showcasing his talent in an environment that was thirsty for them it was easier to shine than in an environment where everyone was marketing savvy. Everyone that attended the meeting came
away with valuable lessons and had the chance to interact with
Mr. Castaldo and ask him many questions. He proved a willing participant
and did not leave until all were answered. Mark S. Gallegos
- Arencibia, Gallegos and Associates, LLC Mark is a partner in the law firm Arencibia,
Gallegos, and Associates, LLC. He's an established attorney in
the areas of international finance transaction and securities
law with extensive experience and connections throughout Latin
America. He is a member of various Latin organizations and has
represented many of them when dealing with various government
agencies. Mark offered some key pieces of advice:
Richard
Ness - Zimmerman Advertising Richard Nez was one of our most interesting speakers because he talked to us about a topic most of us had very little knowledge of, advertising. He spoke about figures and statistics that summarized what commercials cost and the technology that is used to produce them. He discussed the buying and selling of television and radio spots and how a single company can dominate the market through innovation. Zimmerman
for example, can produce and sell one type of commercials for a
client like Maroone starting Dan Marino then, take the same concept
to other markets and sell it to different dealerships with different
celebrities. His company also created the Z-Track software which
tracks advertising results through incoming calls. Through this
sophisticated system they are able to collect so much information
from the phone number that people call at the end of a commercial
that the dealership can correlate airtime with call time and sales
figures.
At an international level Richard shared his experience of filming and directing television commercials abroad, assembling and hiring a crew overseas and the cultural differences of what is acceptable on TV and print advertising. One of his experiences took him through the jungles of Central America surrounded by armed guards to protect their equipment. Then in Brazil, he filmed a steamy commercial (the type not suitable for US audiences) for a local soft drink manufacturer. His knowledge and anecdotes definitely gave us an interesting glimpse into the industry. Ben
Stoddart - Focus International Ben,
a fellow alumnus, worked in the Telecom industry a whole decade
before deciding to go into business himself. He worked for Marconi
(UK), Argus (Canada), and Telular (USA). By the time he started
Focus International he had a solid industry background, was focused
on the Latin American market, and had command of the Spanish language
a combination that has proved essential for his success. Ben was
very passionate about entrepreneurship and provided some important
pointers for those of us thinking of taking a step towards independence:
Omer
Zeyrek, Ph.D. - National Property Inspections Omer,
who is a construction engineer, wanted nothing more than to be
a business owner and his own boss. However, he was weary of the
risks associated with an unassisted entrepreneurial attempt. As
a result, he decided to research the opportunities of a franchise
and decided to start one with a protected territory in Miami.
He made some points for the franchise's case:
Hilda
M. Vega - South Florida Professional Healthcare Consulting Hilda
is a Registered Nurse (RN) that had a job as a senior nurse in
a hospital. She was tired of the hectic schedule and decided to
go into business for herself using her extensive, industry specific
knowledge of the healthcare industry. She is a now a consultant
as well as an expert witness for plaintiffs suing the healthcare
industry or the defending insurance companies, HMOs and other
health care providers. She had some strong messages to convey:
Henrique
Bombonato - Bombona-Tech, Inc. Henrique was our first alumnus speaker. He was driven into import / export because he could not get some of the electrical components he needed for his engineering business in Brazil. He started importing parts and later, due to increasing demand by his colleagues moved to the US and started exporting components to Brazil for their firms. Henrique taught us some important lessons:
Murat
Tarhan - Parker Davis HVAC Systems, Inc. Murat Tarhan spoke to us about the importance and unique challenges of international logistics. He told us of simple things like the limited numbers of electrical jacks available at a port in Russia which would cause perishables to go bad if a vig (bribe) was not paid to local longshoremen. He also told us the story of getting a railroad extended in Bulgaria in order to ship Russian chemicals onto a waiting barge. He also taught us about financing international transactions and the risk of extending credit across national borders. Murat started his own import/export business in Turkey and had clients in Russia that kept buying his goods at nice markups. They soon began buying on credit but when he tried to collect a part of the $80,000 they owed him, no one would answer the phone. He traveled to Russia only to find the factory closed and the client sitting in an empty trailer. When Murat asked for his money, the man put a gun on the table and said he could not pay at that time…Murat went bankrupt. Cash up front and letters of credit are the way to go…
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