Power Networking Group
The Power Networking Group assists members in reaching out to external businesses, organizations, professional associations, and individuals to foster contacts and improve business leads in an efficient, effective and dynamic setting.
The core committee consists of approximately six to twelve members from diverse professions and industries who meet with other local and regional business associations to leverage contacts, resources, and develop professional relationships.
• Mission Statement • Calendar & Format • Members
Mission Statement
We believe this program will offer our members an opportunity to introduce themselves to each other, promoting collaboration, business opportunities and the exchange of expertise, information and leads.
The core committee will work to engage a wide variety of individuals from an array of disciplines and host a convivial and fruitful meeting. Other organizations, such as the local European Chambers of Commerce and professional associations, are contacted and invited for an evening of one-on-one discussions. We hope this Power Networking Event will be a worthwhile and quality experience for our members.
Calendar & Format
The format of each Power Networking Session is to allow the participants to engage in an intense session of networking, while maintaining an intimate and convivial atmosphere. The members of the Chambers pair up and engage in rapid one-on-one 5-minute sessions with the every representative of the other Chamber.
The session is accompanied by refreshments - typically a light appetizer and wine from France.
If your organization would like to partake in a Power Networking Session, please contact Morgan Desvignes at morgan@faccsf.com. In 2008, the French-American Chamber of Commerce organized 4 successful evenings with the German-American Business Association, Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce, British-American Business Council, and the Business Association Italy-America.
Members
- Theresa Gibbons, Vice-President, Union Bank Co-Chair
Theresa Gibbons currently works in Global & Wealth Markets, Vendor Risk Management & Information Security with Union Bank (fka Union Bank of California [UBOC]); a privately held investment, commercial, and retail, group of companies under the umbrella of Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi-UFJ of Japan.Formerly with UBOC, she worked as a Contracts Manager negotiating enterprise-wide licensing, software, hardware, consulting and other service contracts. This included advising the bank on sourcing, RFPs, RFIs, due diligence, regulatory compliance, negotiating and executing contracts, as well as ongoing vendor performance monitoring.
Previously Ms. Gibbons held compliance management positions with a national mortgage lending company and a local retail bank. Prior to this she negotiated global treasury service product-contracts for Bank of America and UCC Article 9 security/collateral agreements for asset securitizations, and indentures for the capital markets group.
After graduating from Seattle University School of Law, Ms. Gibbons clerked for a judge, was an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Washington, and was in private practice before joining Bank of America in the commercial loan group in Seattle. During her university studies, she attended her junior year abroad at l'Université Aix-Marseille III in Aix-en-Provence and before attending law school she studied for the year at l'Institute Catholique in Paris.
- Patrick Patterson,
- Alain Megias, Attorney, Baker & McKenzie
Alain J. Megias is an associate in the San Francisco office of Baker & McKenzie. Alain implements and manages the legal aspects of international projects involving restructuring, tax reorganization and internal and external financing. Alain has significant experience working with multinational companies, in particular in the Internet, software, semiconductor, and telecommunication sectors.
- John-Erick Forge, President, Europacifica
Twenty five years of international experience in the creation, management and reengineering of high technology organizations, ranging from small start-up to large public multinational, companies or divisions of such. Founder and first CEO of three successful companies, and CEO or COO of four other companies operating in various fields ranging from artificial intelligence development to online advertising marketing, communications, and advanced healthcare IT systems.
Dr. Forge is currently Senior Fellow at IG Partners, Vice President Strategy and International at Boma Systems, and President of Euro-Pacifica, an international consulting organization specializing on business development and project management between Europe and the US.
Dr. Forge was previously the first president of MGN Inc., the company that develops and supports the prime commercial websites of the LVMH group, including eluxury.com, sephora.com and DeBeers.com.
In 1993 Dr. Forge founded Kensoft, Inc. Among the customers Dr. Forge was involved with were very large organizations like SITA-Equant (Paris, France), Thomson-CSF (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). Smaller customers include Broadvision (Mexico City, Mexico), 3Net (Sacramento, California), HSDC (Oakland, California).
From 1981 to 1986, Dr. Forge was COO of ExperTelligence Inc., based in Santa Barbara, CA. The company was the first one to develop artificial intelligence products for the Apple Macintosh: a Lisp compiler and a series of expert systems which were used by companies and agencies like US West, Lockheed, NASA, CIA etc.
- Ronald Kravitz, Liner Yankelevitz sunshine & Regenstreif LLP
Ronald S. Kravitz is a partner in the San Francisco office of Liner Yankelevitz Sunshine & Regenstreif LLP. He is a co-chair of the Civil Procedure sub-committee of the ABA Employee Benefits Committee and a chapter editor for the ABA publication Employee Benefits Law. Mr. Kravitz received his J.D. from Temple University School of Law in 1986 and began his legal career as an Attorney Advisor for the U.S. Department of Justice. With more than 20 years of experience as legal counsel in complex business litigation matters, his practice has been focused primarily on ERISA, employment, intellectual property, and securities-related matters since 1992. He has represented numerous fiduciaries, third-party plan administrators, broker-dealers, and registered representatives in connection with plan administration and investment matters. Mr. Kravitz has served as lead or co-lead class counsel in numerous ERISA class actions throughout the country.
- Francine Kuipers, CEO, Accent on Languages
Francine Kuipers is the founder and principal of Accent on Languages in Berkeley and Berkeley Language Institute. She is accredited by the French Consulate.
Accent on Languages provides translation and interpreting services in 120 languages. Berkeley Language institute offers language and cultural training as well as workshops for students who wish to become translators and/or interpreters.
- Chloé Soroquère, SVP Marketing, Vera Vista Solutions, LLC
Vera Vista Solutions, LLC provides management consulting services to entities operating in a wide range of sectors, and has particular expertise with financial services institutions, service and retail companies, philanthropic and community organizations, and colleges and universities. We lead projects of all sizes, from working with an entire company, division, department or site, to projects with a single focus such as, for example, expense reduction, marketing strategy, branding, customer service, or corporate culture.
Prior to Vera Vista Solutions, Chloe was a Fortune 500 executive with over 25 years of marketing and business development expertise and experience in consumer banking, financial services and student loan industries. Chloe’s management career includes key senior positions with firms such as wells Fargo Bank and Fleet Bank. Chloe also has entrepreneurial, start-up and change management experience, using her expertise to build small and mid sized businesses.
Chloe has a proven track record of increasing sales, reducing costs, enhancing corporate image while supporting sustainable business practices, and streamlining operations in a wide range of situations.
Last but not least, Chloe is skilled in all areas of executive management, including developing new teams, managing change, creating innovative marketing and advertising campaigns, and expanding into new markets. She possesses strong P&L experience and has consistently exceeded company objectives, achieving double digit gains in revenues and profits.
- Greg Lartilleux, Avenir Mortgage Planners
He has been a Mortgage Consultant since August 2002 and has enjoyed every single minute of it. The relationships he has formed with clients, business partners, and associates are the most important part of his daily business. He has a deep commitment to consistently living up to his word, and giving those relationships the attention and dedication they deserve.
Greg ranks amongst the most highly qualified and ethical professionals in the lending industry as he achieved the elite CMPS (Certified Mortgage Planning Specialist) certification in April 2007.
- Patrick Giacomini, Director of Product Marketing, TheGreenBow
According to partners such as solution makers, integrators and end-users, computer security requires strong, efficient technology... but fine state-of-the-art technology is not enough. User-friendliness of the programs is at least as important : we all know that complex or heavy solutions are rejected by the user, and worse : can be improperly configured, which would jeopardise the user's data.
- Eva Voisin, President & CEO, Law Offices of Eva Voisin & Associates
Eva E. Voisin Esq Attorney at Law, has been providing legal advice to the international business community since 1978. Her law firm has two international offices: one in the San Francisco Bay Area USA, and one in the heart of Paris, France.
Mrs. Voisin works within the corporation to ensure that your employees are able to work legally in the United States, and has many clients in the import, export, trade, science and high-technology fields.
The French-American Chamber of Commerce of San Francisco thanks its Benefactor Member: Barclais USA