German rocketry meets German-American business

The week before last, the GACC South brought together over a hundred members and chamber guests to its Annual General Meeting at the Westin in Huntsville, Ala. Attendees heard a series of speakers and panels discuss business relations between Germany and the United States and economic forecasts specific to our region during the all-day event on May 7.

Keynote speakers included John Norris, Managing Director and Head of Wealth Management at Oakworth Capital Bank, and Vice President of Operations Assembly at Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, Inc. Mr. Rolf Wrona, amongst others.

The evening’s Executive Dinner reception took place at the U.S. Space and RocketCenter, where the GACC South’s Board of Directors election results were also announced. We would like to send our congratulations to the following new additions to our Board: 

• Mr. Thomas Ginschel
  President & CEO of Hettich America, LP
• Dr. Eike Jordan
  President of Jordan Inter Consult
• Mr. Michael G. Sauer
  Senior Vice President of BVT Real Estate Development, Inc.
• Mr. Felix von Nathusius
  President & CEO of IFA Rotorion North America, LLC
• Mr. Russ Wheeler,
  President of Hansgrohe, Inc.

The Vice President of Research at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, Dr. John Horack, also made some informal introductions before the dinner, commenting on the important scientific relationship our two countries share and that began in Huntsville some 60 years ago.

Shortly after World War II, a wave of German scientists immigrated to the city in the north of the Heart of Dixie to continue their rocketry research. The team, led by now-celebrated scientist Wernher von Braun, put American astronauts on the moon in 1969 and laid the foundations for the work that eventually gave Huntsville the nickname “RocketCity.” Huntsville has become a mecca of engineering and space research over the past six decades, and currently has one of the highest concentrations of scientists and engineers in the country – giving this year’s AGM attendees a bit of a history lesson as well.

Some members of our Board of Directors outside of the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, from left: Peter Halphaus; Russ Wheeler; Thomas Harrold, Jr.; Dr. Christian Kissinger; Martina Stegmeier; Martin Richenhagen; Dennis Wagner; Rudi Herbst; Thomas Ginschel; Dr. Eike Jordan; Traute Malhotra; Teri Simmons; and Wolfgang Hartert

The U.S. Space and Rocket Center got its start with renowned German scientist Wernher von Braun, who immigrated to Huntsville in the 1950s.

To see more pictures from this year’s Annual General Meeting, please visit our web album here. A complete list of the GACC South’s Board of Directors can also be found here.

The asparagus has arrived!

Thanks to the hard work of our Membership and Events Manager Friederike Munzinger and her steadfast Events team, 220 kilos of white asparagus have arrived safely in our Atlanta office all the way from Germany in preparation for our upcoming celebrations of Spargel season. The asparagus will be distributed to sites in South Carolina, Alabama, Dallas and Houston amongst others to be served at our annual white asparagus dinners around the region. Two months of diligently filling out paperwork and following up with customs agents has officially paid off. Happy eating everyone!

 

For more information on the tradition surrounding Germany’s white asparagus season, or Spargelzeit, please go here.

We are “Website of the Month”

Last week, we were chosen as the “Website of the Month” out of all AHK (German Chambers of Commerce around the world) websites in the monthly AHK newsletter, which was sent out by the AHK service-provider CPS-IT (CPS provides the technology for all AHK websites). At the beginning of 2012, CPS-IT started this new campaign by choosing their favorite website for each month. Criteria are:

• The general look and design
• The use of CPS-IT provided tools and the implementation of these features
• The use of social media and usability-friendly features

Previous winners were the UK (www.grossbritannien.ahk.de/en/) and the Netherlands (www.dnhk.org).

The “face” of the GACC South website went through some significant changes throughout the last year. The front page look was completely revised last fall, the news-ticker, an event calendar and plenty of other CPS-IT tools were implemented. In addition, the main menu structure and subpages were simplified go give our users an easier and better overview.

Also, as a big project at the beginning of 2012 we merged the GACC South and GACC Texas websites into one. We are constantly working on a more user-friendly and smarter structure, trying to catch up with the continuously progressing online evolution.

The GACC South is proud of this acknowledgement and we are hoping to improve usability for our website visitors as much as we can! We always welcome any feedback and comments regarding our website and other online activities.

To view the article, please click here.

Atlanta’s new International Terminal

Yesterday evening, Friederike Munzinger, Manager of Membership & Events, and Silke Miehlke, Director of Consulting Services, along with a few of our Board Members, were able to attend the grand opening of the Maynard H. Jackson, Jr. International Terminal at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. It was a grand affair, with hundreds of representatives from the business and international arenas from Atlanta and the state of Georgia.

Friederike and Silke posing with the portrait of Maynard H. Jackson, Jr.

Speakers included Louis Miller, Aviation General Manager, who was instrumental to the planning and completion of the international terminal. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin also spoke at the ceremonies.

The most touching moment came from Valerie Jackson, widow of Maynord H. Jackson Jr., for whom the international terminal was named. Mr. Jackson was a visionary leader in Atlanta, serving three terms as Mayor over the span of three decades. He was the youngest and the first African-American mayor of a major Southern city and was a champion of equality, economic investment and internationalization in the city of Atlanta. Ms. Jackson recounted her husband’s years of leadership and spoke about the Maynard Jackson Youth Foundation, which provides scholarships and support for Atlanta youth.

Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal, Aviation General Manager Louis Miller, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and Valerie Jackson cut the ribbon to officially open the International Terminal

The Maynard H. Jackson, Jr. International Terminal was completed with the aid of hundreds of contractors, which fueled economic development in the state. It is a beautiful terminal and we know our international colleagues, members and friends will feel welcome when arriving there.

A year just passed by…

When I first arrived over nine months ago in July 2011, I was incredibly excited to be abroad for an entire year. Although I had already held a six month internship in Sydney, Australia, working abroad for twice as long seemed to be such an extensive time. I realized quickly how fast time is ticking – be it from working or enjoying my weekends. Now I wish to jump back and do it all over again, because working with the GACC South and such a dynamic, young, but also very professional team encourages me to get up every morning to go to work.

Deejaying at former President & CEO Kristian Wolf’s going-away party last year October

I’m working in the PR & Communications Team with Pamela Jackson as my supervisor. Basically, I was introduced as the “Web-Guy” responsible for the GACC South website, newsletters and social media activities.

In addition, I was able to get involved in several design projects due to previous design skills I had gained throughout my studies and internships. The opportunity to have the freedom to develop my own design ideas gave me increasingly more confidence in my work as a designer. In particular, bigger design projects such as the 2011 Annual Report, a completely new newsletter layout and some contracted work for some of our member companies has made me proud throughout the year here at the Chamber.

My tasks have always been very versatile and challenging since I started here. I am still learning new things from day-to-day too, which allows me to possess new skills and enhance my existing experience.

For the cultural aspect, I would say working in a bilingual environment with both Germans and Americans is a great mix between “laid back” and very organized. Also to switch between two languages, sometimes even in the middle of a sentence, is a good way to prove your language skills and ability to be engaged 100% of the time. It is the cultural mix which makes this company so wonderful!

Germans and textiles: a match fostered in Atlanta

Our Manager of Business Development, Carsten Jacobi, speaking at the 2012 Techtextil German Evening Reception

More than 30 German textile manufacturers, suppliers and researchers showcased their work at the 2012 Techtextil North American Expo this week, which ran at the Georgia World Congress center from April 24-26. After Wednesday’s festivities at the Expo, the GACC South hosted a German evening reception at the neighboring STATS restaurant and brought together around a hundred chamber members, friends, and expo attendees for barbeque and drinks.

Attendees to our German Evening Reception enjoying STATS' outdoor patio

The German pavilion at this year’s showcase was sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology in cooperation with the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry. The Expo as a whole had companies from all over the world, including some very far away from home, like China, India, Taiwan and Pakistan, just to name a few, and is the only trade show in the Americas dedicated to technical textiles and nonwovens.

GACC South employees helped work the reception, and have been at the Expo throughout the week meeting with companies from all around Germany. You can find more pictures from our German Evening Reception here. For more on the German exhibitors that presented at this year’s event, please go to the Techtextil German Pavilion website here.

Row, row, row your boat…

Post written by Ann-Sophie Luz

A few weeks back, we came into contact with the SC Magdeburg Flatwater Sprint team who hails from the state of Sachsen-Anhalt in Germany. This team consists of men and women who are currently in the process of training for the upcoming Olympic trials and games. They specialize in the sport of sprint racing in either canoes or kayaks, going distances of up to 1,000 meters.

Recently, they traveled to Lake Lanier near Gainesville, Georgia for a training camp where Silke Miehlke, Director of Consulting Services and Britta Lipke, Events Coordinator, had the opportunity to meet the team. The training took place at the Lake Canoe and Kayak Club, one of the many locations of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.  Here, the team was training diligently in preparation for the German Team Olympic Trials, which took place in Duisburg, Germany, in the hopes of members securing a spot.

Their trainer was Eckhard Leue, a Bronze Medal winner during the 1980 Olympics. Silke and Britta were invited to join Mr. Leue to ride along in his boat while the athletes trained in the waters alongside them.  Their talent showed as they rowed at around 100 strokes per minute over a distance of 500 meters, all the while making it look effortless.

These athletes are incredible and deserve a lot of support and credit for all of their hard work. We, at the GACC South, wish them the best of luck and look forward to supporting our new friends in the 2012 Olympics as well as their future endeavors in the world of canoeing and kayaking.

Off to Germany they go!

Every year, we host an orientation for Halle Fellowship students who will be heading to Germany to work for this summer. The orientation provides these students with information about the German-American business community in the South, provides a little insight as to why it is so important to gain work experience in Germany (come back and get a job with one of our MANY German companies in the South!) and some things they may need to know about living abroad.

So what is the Halle Fellowship? Organized by Cultural Vistas and sponsored by The Halle Foundation, the fellowship provides students from Georgia-based universities the opportunity to live and work in Germany for their summer term. The experience allows these students to gain international work experience, improve their German language skills and experience German culture.The students are placed all over the country at a wide variety of companies and organizations based on their interests and skill sets.

While we love having students in our office and would support the program anyway, our tie to this organization started because the GACC South’s founder, Dr. Eike Jordan, serves as the Chairman of the Board of The Halle Foundation. It’s easy to say we’re one big happy family, and we are glad to lend our support to such an important program.

On October 16th, we’ll be hosting a welcome-back reception for the students. We’ll also be inviting you, our members and friends, to speak with the students about their experiences, lend them some advice for the working world and enjoy some lovely food and drinks while we’re at it. To make sure you receive information about this event, sign up for our newsletter.

Bringing Germans together in the Heart of Dixie… again

Over the past decade, the thriving international investments market in Alabama has created almost $20 billion in jobs and manufacturing around the state. German presence in the region has also grown tremendously in recent years, and has played a huge role in the expansion experienced there. Manufacturing giants Mercedes and Thyssen Krupp established precedent-setting homes here not too long ago, and have since enticed other foreign companies to follow in their footsteps.

March 29 marked a celebration of all of the above and then some at the 14^th Annual Alabama Germany Partnership Dinner held at the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum in Birmingham. The event brought together some 250 German investors and executives from around the Southeast for a night of dining, dancing and due recognition. Six German companies were honored for their expansion in Alabama in 2011, and included GACC South member companies BLG Logistics, Inc.; MB-technology NA LLC; and Mercedes-Benz U.S. International.

The GACC South was also a sponsor of this year’s event, to which we donated a Corporate sponsorship for the silent auction. President and CEO Martina Steigmeier helped open the evening’s program, which consisted of two auctions, dinner and a number of guest speakers – all put together with the assistance of a generous handful of German-American companies sponsors and volunteers.

The AGP and the GACC South are partner organizations with a long history of working together. We always enjoy being able to celebrate together at events such as these after lots of hard work. For more on the AGP and their network around Alabama, visit their website here.

The five degrees of the GACC South Intern

Being an intern in the GACC South offices is a unique experience. Galas, business seminars, market research and collection services are just the beginnings of what we help facilitate here. Interns are exposed to a little bit of everything that makes the international wheels of the Chamber turn, and many have gone on to pursue opportunities related to their work at the GACC South after their time here. American interns Nicholas Bunce from our Houston office and Emily Jackson from our Atlanta office are doing just that over the next few months, and will be doing so with members of our Chamber network.

In Nicholas’ case, networking got him the gig. After hosting directors of a German consulting firm visiting our Houston office, Nick was asked by a delegation member to apply for an internship they have in Berlin – and got it. The Texas A&M graduate said the past year with the GACC South, which he described as “having a little Germany in the office with the comforts of home” (amongst many other positives), has not only improved his German, but helped him realize his goal of working and living in the country he’s studied since high school.

Emily, on the other hand, was awarded a fellowship through The Halle Foundation with the help of her German professor at Georgia Tech (Dr. Bettina Cothran, who also happens to be a long-time friend of the Chamber). The Halle Foundation sponsors a prestigious fellowship program through Cultural Vistas that works with Georgia universities to provide students international work experience in Germany, and every year our Atlanta office hosts several events with the program to allow students access to our international business community here in the southeast. Emily will be interning with a soon-to-be determined company for three months this summer and hopes to be placed in Berlin.

It just goes to show… the hop across the Atlantic isn’t such a big one around these parts.

Congratulations to Nick and Emily on their hard work, and best of luck in Germany!

Please click here for information on The Halle Fellowship program, and here for information on how to intern with the GACC South.