Jean-Pierre Rosso
Former Chairman and CEO, Case Corporation and Case New Holland
Jean-Pierre Rosso served from 1994 to 2004 as Chairman and CEO of Case Corporation and CNH (Case New Holland), the world leader in farm tractors and construction equipment with annual revenues of $10.7 billion.
Prior to joining Case, Rosso held several executive positions at Honeywell, such as president of the worldwide Home and Building Control business of Honeywell Inc., president of Honeywell Europe, group vice president of Information Systems International, vice president and general manager of Honeywell Medical Electronics Division, and vice president of business development and operations for Honeywell Europe.
Rosso began his career at Honeywell France in 1969, advancing from positions of finance and administrative manager, to director of Honeywell’s Africa business, and then director of sales operations for Honeywell-Bull, France. Rosso left Honeywell in 1975 to become president and chief executive officer of Rossignol Ski Company Inc. Under his leadership, Rossignol Ski Company grew from $11 million to $100 million between 1975 and 1980 and by 1998 had become the number one ski company in the United States. He returned to Honeywell in 1981
Rosso is a native of France and holds both U.S. and French citizenships. He received a civil engineering diploma from the Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne in Switzerland and a master’s degree in business administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Rosso is a member of the Board of Directors of ADC Telecommunications, Eurazeo Holding and Medtronic. He is also a member of the Wharton Board of Overseers and of the Lauder Institute Board of Governors. He has been a member of President Bush’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy & Negotiations (ACTPN), of the Business Roundtable, and the U.S. Export-Import Bank.
Prior board memberships include: Credit Lyonnais, Crown Cork & Seal, The Principal Financial Group, Inland Steel, Ryerson Tull, Case Corporation and CNH Global.
Jean-François Boittin
France Minister delegate in Washington for Economic & Commercial Affairs
Jean-François Boittin is Minister Counselor for Economic and Commercial Affairs at the French Embassy in Washington DC.
Prior to this appointment, he served as Deputy Under Secretary at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, in Paris.
From 1992 to 1995, he was in charge of trade policy and in that capacity negotiated, within the European Union, the final phase of the Uruguay Round and was a frequent spokesman for France in the 113 Full Members Committee in Brussels. At the same time he served as French representative to the OECD Trade Committee. He was actively involved in the launch of the ASEM, the TABD and the NEA negotiations. In 1996 and 1997, Mr. Boittin headed the trade finance division at the Ministry of Economy, supervising Coface, the French export financing agency, and managing the tied aid program.
From 1986 to 1992, Mr. Boittin was the French representative to GATT in Geneva.
In 1985 - 1986, he served on the staff of the Minister for Trade and Industry, Edith Cresson. He was previously posted to Washington (1984-1985) and New York (1980-1983).
Mr. Boittin was born in 1949. He is a graduate of Ecole Normale Supérieure, where he eamed advanced degrees in classics, and Ecole Nationale d'Administration. He is married and the father of four daughters.
Thomas Puetter
CEO, Allianz Capital Partners
Mr. Puetter is the Chief Executive for Allianz Capital Partners GmbH, the private equity arm of Allianz AG., one of the world’s leading integrated financial services providers. Allianz Group is a global leader in insurance, asset management and banking. In addition to its three core industries, Allianz is a significant investor in areas such as real estate, private equity and venture capital.
Mr. Puetter's career has covered a wide variety of business and responsibilities. Prior to coming to Allianz Capital Partners, Mr. Puetter was an Executive Director with Goldman Sachs International, working in Private Equity and Investment Banking for German speaking Europe. Prior to Goldman Sachs, he was the CFO for the Matuschka Group in Munich as well as holding senior positions in Investment Banking with both Deutsche Bank and Swiss Bank Corporation International in London.
A graduate of The Queen’s College at Oxford University, Mr. Puetter holds a Bachelor’s Degree with Honours in Politics, Philosophy and Economics.
Harvey Sawikin
Founder, Firebird Funds
Harvey Sawikin is a principal of Firebird Management LLC and Firebird Private Equity Advisors LLC, and co-manages Firebird’s four funds dedicated to portfolio investment in Russia , the former Soviet Union , and emerging Eastern Europe . Prior to Firebird’s inception, he was a mergers and acquisitions lawyer at the firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz, and before that he clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals. He is a graduate of Columbia College (Magna Cum Laude) and Harvard Law School (Cum Laude 1985), where he served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He is also the author of a novel, The Education of Rick Green, Esq. (Simon & Schuster).
Oliver Betz
Executive Director & Business Unit Manager, Private Wealth Management, Goldman, Sachs & Co. Switzerland
Oliver joined Goldman Sachs in 1997 in the Private Wealth Management division in Frankfurt where he worked as Financial Analyst. In February 2000, Oliver moved to Zurich where he joined Private Client Asset Management (PCAM) as Portfolio Manager. In 2002, Oliver was promoted to Executive Director and Business Unit Manager for PWM Switzerland. Oliver studied in Germany, Spain and Canada and graduated with honors in business in 1997.
Peter Chase
Director, Office of European Union and Regional Affairs, The U.S. State Department European and Eurasian Affairs Bureau
Mr. Chase was appointed Director of the Office of European Union and Regional Affairs in the U.S. State Department’s European and Eurasian Affairs Bureau in August, 2004. For the year prior to this, he was the State Department’s Special Negotiator for Biotechnology, having taken that position after two years as Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs.
Between 1997 and 2001, Mr. Chase was posted to the U.S. Embassy in London , first as Economic Counselor and then as Minister-Counselor for Economic Affairs. He worked on the 1997 G-8 Denver Summit and US-EU economic issues for the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs from 1996 to 1997. At the U.S. Mission to the European Union between 1992 and 1996, Mr. Chase covered macro-economic as well as internal market issues.
Mr. Chase was Director of Investment Affairs in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative from 1990 to 1992, and Legislative Assistant for Foreign and International Economic Affairs for then Senator Bill Bradley (D-NJ) between 1998 and 1990. Previous postings with the State Department include China , Taiwan , Germany and the Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs.
Mr. Chase received his Masters degree in International Affairs from Columbia University in 1978, and his Bachelor of Arts in Chinese Language and Literature from the University of Washington in 1976. He is married and has three daughters.
Cédric Duchamp
Associate, Goldman Sachs
Cédric joined Goldman Sachs in Paris in 2001 from Microsoft Corporation, where he was a Senior Program Manager responsible for operating systems and internet products, after graduating from a Master of Business Administration at the Wharton School of Business. At Goldman Sachs, he worked on several M&A assignments including most recently the creation of Thomson's television JV with China's TCL, the sale of French leading retailer Vivarte to PAI Partners, the defense of Aventis against Sanofi, and the financial restructuring of Alstom.
John Esposito
CEO, Schieffelin & Co
John Esposito is President and CEO of Schieffelin & Co, the leading luxury wine and spirits importers in the United States. A fully owned Moet Hennessy Company, Schieffelin & Co markets some of the industry’s most recognized names: Moet & Chandon, Hennessy Cognac, Dom Perignon, Grand Marnier and Ruffino. During his 27 years in the wine and spirits industry, John has held numerous executive positions in management and sales around the country. Prior to taking on the role as President and CEO of Schieffelin & Co in early 2004, John led the Schieffelin & Somerset joint venture between Diageo Plc and LVMH, the Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton luxury goods company (1999-2004).
John started his career in the industry when he managed his family’s retail store in New York City. In 1989, after serving as Vice President, National Sales Manager of the Seagram Wine Company, he went on to W.A.Taylor & Co., a division of Allied –Domecq, Plc in Miami to become their Vice President, Director of Sales. Before moving back to New York in 1992, John was President of Premier Beverage Company of Florida, a division of Charmer Sunbelt. In 1999, John completed the Harvard Advanced Management Course for International Senior Managers and returned to S & S Co. as CEO.
Today, John continues to be actively involved in charity fundraising and has been honored as “Man of the Year” by The Boy Scouts of America and the United Jewish Appeal. He has also received the industry’s American Cancer Society’s Dr. Louis Berger Memorial Award. In 2002 he received a Doctor of Laws Degree from Medgar Evers College for his work in supporting education. He is currently the Corporate Chair and board member of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Foundation.
Jason Ghassemi
Reporter, FactSet Mergerstat, LLC
Jason Ghassemi is an analyst and corporate finance reporter for global merger and acquisition information specialist FactSet Mergerstat LLC, a division of FactSet Research Systems Inc (NYSE: FDS). Stemming from his research and coverage of mergers and acquisitions and other related topics, Jason has written over 200 published articles, including regular contributions to FactSet’s Flashwire Weekly e-magazine, as well as Bank of America Business Capital’s Capital Eyes publication. He is also a recognized M&A authority providing expert commentary to the Los Angeles Times newspaper as well as the M&A information providers at The Deal. He regularly interacts with and interviews investment banking managing directors, private equity partners, Fortune 1000 CEOs, and a host of various industry experts and equity research analysts. Jason graduated in 2000 with a degree in Business/Economics from the University of California Los Angeles.
Bulent Gultekin
Associate Professor of Finance, The Wharton School
B.S.C. in Mechanical Engineering from Robert College, Istanbul (1969); MBA from Bogazici University, Istanbul (1973); Ph.D. in Finance and Statistics from the Wharton School (1976).
Bulent Gultekin is the Co-Director of the Wharton Center for Quantitative Finance. He is the former Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey. He serves as senior advisor and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the GlobalEuroNet Group, a private equity fund, on the invesment committee of the Accelator Fund of the Port of Technology of the University City Science Center in Philadelphia, and as a director on the boards of the Grossman Currency Fund Ltd, the Grossman Macro Hedge Fund, Ltd., TEB Private Capital, the GlobalNetFinancial.com.
Bulent Gultekin has taught at the University of Chicago and Dartmouth College. He has also served as Visiting Professor of Finance at Koח University in Istanbul Turkey from 1993 to 1995 and at INSEAD in 1999 and 2000. He was the Founder and first Director of the Wharton Emerging Economies Program, the Director of the Weiss Center for International Financial Research at the Wharton School, and a faculty member of the Nomura School of Advanced Management in Tokyo.
In 1986 he was appointed Director General for Research and Planning at the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, and in 1987, he was appointed Chief Advisor to Prime Minister, Turgut ײzal and President of the Housing Development and Public Participation Administration. He was also Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sumerbank Holding A.S. and member of the Board of Directors on Emlak Bank, fourth largest bank in the country.
He was the chief advisor to the Plenipotentiary of Ownership Changes at the Ministry of Finance in Poland (November 1989-August 1990) and later to the Minister of Privatization (August 1990-July 1991). In this capacity he designed the first privatization program of the Polish government. Dr. Gltekin returned to Turkey in July 1991 to serve as Chief Advisor to the Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz until November 1991.
He has advised a number of governments, government agencies, and policy makers, including the Ministry of Finance in Indonesia, Governments of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, the State Property Fund of the Russian Federation, the Capital Market Board of Turkey, Istanbul Stock Exchange, United States Agency for International Development, and the Governments of Ukraine and Belarus before the breakup of the Soviet Union. He was an advisor of the late President Turgut ײzal, President Nursultan Nazerbaev, and President Islam Karimov. Professor Gultekin has served as a senior advisor to the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and advised numerous organizations and corporations around the world.
Witold Henisz
Assistant Professor of Management, The Wharton School
Witold J. Henisz is an Assistant Professor of Management at the Wharton School. He received his Ph.D. in Business and Public Policy from the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley and previously received a M.A. in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. His research examines the impact of political hazards on international investment strategy, with a focus on the magnitude of, the technology employed in, and the market entry mode chosen for foreign direct investments. He considers both the political and economic determinants of government attempts to redistribute investor returns to the broader polity as well as the determinants of the success of individual firms in withstanding such pressure. He currently focuses on such politically salient and capital-intensive sectors as telecommunication services, electric power generation and semiconductor fabrication. His research has been published in such scholarly journals as Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Economics and Politics, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Law, Economics and Organization and Strategic Management Journal. He has served as a consultant for the World Bank and The Inter-American Development Bank and previously worked for The International Monetary Fund. He is currently a principal in the political risk management consultancy PRIMA LLC.
Val Kogan
President, Mid-Atlantic - Russia Business Council
Val Kogan is the Founder and President of the Mid-Atlantic - Russia Business Council (MARBC), formerly known as the Pennsylvania – Russia Business Council. The Council’s goal is to facilitate the involvement of U.S. companies based in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and Delaware in the expanding markets of Russia and the Newly Independent States, as well as to attract Russian businesses to the Mid-Atlantic region. Among other activities, the MARBC plays the leading role on the East Coast in the promotion of U.S. – Russia business cooperation through events and seminars. Since 1995, Mr. Kogan has been the Chairman of the Mid-Atlantic – Russia Business Opportunities Symposium, the region’s major biannual event dedicated to promoting business opportunities in Russia and the NIS. Since 2003, Mr. Kogan has also been the Chairman of the Russian-American Innovation Technology Weeks, the premier Russian-American technology events held semi-annually in the Mid-Atlantic Region.
In addition to his work at the MARBC, Mr. Kogan has served as a member of the international committees of several Pennsylvania and New Jersey Chambers of Commerce and as a “Team Pennsylvania” Ambassador. He is also a member of the International Council of Delaware, World Trade Center Institute in Delaware, World Trade Center of Central Pennsylvania, Foreign Policy Research Institute, World Affairs Council, Eastern Technology Council, HUBS Partners in Progress Program, Global Business Roundtable, Federation of International Trade Associations, United States Industry Coalition, and American Chamber of Commerce in Russia. Mr. Kogan is Head of Committee for the Moscow Entrepreneurs Association, the oldest non-government business association in Russia. Mr. Kogan has also served as Chairman of the Board of the Creative Collective Arts Center, a Philadelphia non-profit organization organizing Russian cultural events throughout the Delaware Valley.
Mr. Kogan was born in Moscow, Russia. He is a graduate of the Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics and Information.
Elena Poptodorova
Bulgarian Ambassador to the US
H.E. Elena Poptodorova has served as Ambassador of Bulgaria to the US since February, 2002. Prior to this appointment, she was the Director of the International Organizations and Human Rights Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sofia. In August 2001 she was additionally appointed as Spokesperson for the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
From 1990 to 2001 Mrs. Poptodorova had been a Member of Parliament, where she had worked on the boards of several committees: Committee of Foreign Affairs and European Integration; National Security Committee; Committee on Radio and Television; Committee on Human Rights and the Committee on Agriculture.
Prior to that, from 1987 to 1990 she served as Minister Plenipotentiary in the Bulgarian Embassy in Rome, Italy, and Consul General of Bulgaria to San Marino.
In January 2002, Mrs. Elena Poptodorova was distinguished as Honorary member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in recognition of services rendered to the European cause.
Mrs. Poptodorova was born in 1951. She is married and has one son.
James Seppala
Associate, Investment Banking Division, Goldman Sachs International
James first joined Goldman Sachs as a summer intern in 2000. He later returned as an analyst in 2001 in REPIA, and was promoted to associate in 2004. James graduated from Harvard College in 2001 with a BA in Romance Languages and Literatures.
Diane Sias
Head of North America Post Merger Integration Practice, McKinsey & Company
Diane Sias leads McKinsey & Company’s post merger management practice in North America. Her work involves counseling senior management on how to avoid the failure of their merger or acquisition after the deal has been announced. She often works as an integral part of the integration management office.
Recent projects include:
- Designing the merger architecture and advising the CEO and Integration CEO for a global agro-chemicals merger from announcement to close – major geographies involved Germany, France and United States
- Guiding the integration architecture development for a merger of equals between two European banks involving team set up and launch, organization strategy, vision and structure, branding issues, IT integration and integration office management
- Designing the merger architecture and setting up the integration management for a major petroleum industry merger involving two global players
- Developing the overall integration process and project management routines for a full service bank merger in South Africa
- Advising on customer retention processes and network rationalization management for a financial merger of equals in Asia
Diane is the author of McKinsey’s Journey series guide on Tailoring Merger Integration. She is a regular speaker on post merger management topics and lectures to the full MBA program at INSEAD as part of the M&A course.
Before joining McKinsey, Diane was a senior executive in operations management at Westpac Banking Corporation, one of Australia ’s major banks, for almost 10 years after spending the previous 10 years consulting in Australia and Asia. At Westpac Diane was the merger integration manager for 2 major mergers and a Steering Committee member for a third.
Carl Wheeldon
Former COO, Bristol Myers
Carl Wheeldon is a seasoned global leader with extensive experience as a driver in the strategic and business decision processes of big Pharma executive teams. He has been president of Bristol-Myers Squibb Technical Operations, a Vice President for Global Pharmaceutical Manufacturing for Warner-Lambert, and a Director and Vice President of Technical Services for SmithKline Beecham PLC.
He has a B. Tech in Chemical Engineering from Loughborough University , and the Senior Executive Program, London Business School. He is a member, Institute of Chemical Engineers & Honorary Vice President of I.S.P.E.
