Greetings from the President Claudio Riedi
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A Word From The President
The U.S. News and World Report compiles rankings of all kinds, including the ten Most Economically Stable Countries, Ranked by Perception. Economic stability is one of nine equally weighted attributes for U.S. News and World Reports’ Quality of Life ranking. It is based on a survey of more than 20,000 global citizens from four regions to assess perceptions of 80 countries on 75 different metrics. Economically stable countries are often the overall leaders in the Best Country ratings.
And where did Germany end? Where we all expected it. At or near the top. Germany came in 2nd, and Switzerland first. So what is it that makes Germany and Switzerland so economically stable and thus so attractive to conduct business?
First, Germany’s work force is highly skilled. The German government invests significantly in education and training, and the pool of workers is large. Second, while the German work force is aging, migration fills in the gaps. As everyone interested in the German economy knows by now, immigration has been crucial, but also problematic for Germany. Replenishing the labor force is one thing, but losing identity and social unrest another. Germany has fast become a test tube to determine whether migration can lead to stability. The answer remains to be seen.
For now, we all benefit from the stability of the German economy, and it behooves all of us to observe, discuss, but also support the efforts of the German government to preserve the country as one of the premier business platforms in the world.
For those interested in rankings – and who is not? – check out this link, with all the details on Germany: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/germany. Germany is ranked #4 overall for The Best Countries In The World -- #1 in Entrepreneurship , but only #50 in Adventure… . Thus, do business in Germany. Live your adventures in South Florida!
Claudio
President
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When: Thursday, February 6th 2020
9:00 am - 12:00 am
The DSX program can help you create and implement an integrated and measurable digital strategy and provide you with a solution that meets your organization's objectives.
How do you get there?
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When: Wednesday, February 12th
6:00 - 8:00 pm
Where: Platform by Sogol Decor
Please join us at our Bi-Monthly Stammtisch at Platform by Sogol Décor. The concept of the Stammtisch is that everyone pays for themselves. This time, Sogol will prepare some snacks and provide us with drinks. Therefore, we will charge a small fee of $22 for each attendee which will cover her costs.
Admission: $22
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Article submitted by
Antje Zgrzebski
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Article submitted by
Ellen von Geyso
Attorney-at-Law und Rechtsanwaeltin
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Welcome Our New Board of Director Member
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Antje Zgrzebski
Antje Zgrzebski relocated to Florida in 2015. As a DAF/DAZ language trainer she taught German in the Sarasota County School District before she moved to the Greater Miami area one year later, to pursue the opportunity to teach DEA agents and help them reach a proficiency level in the German language that enabled them to fluently communicate during their mission in Germany.
Upon completion of her teaching assignment, Antje decided to continue her career in finance. She got fully licensed and registered as a Financial Advisor in Florida and is now building her holistic wealth management practice with Merrill Lynch Wealth Management in Boca Raton, Florida. Antje has experience helping clients with the challenges of important transition events like retirement, inheritance or the sale of a business. In addition, she works with clients’ attorneys, accountants and other advisors to help coordinate their financial and legacy strategies.
Prior to her relocation to Florida, Antje lived for 25 years in Luxembourg where she raised her three children next to serving as an International Business Consultant. She represented and managed Tivoli Investments, an affiliate of The Madison Companies, an alternative asset management company based in New York City. In the early 90s, she advanced her career pursuing various positions in the fund industry such as financial analyst and financial advisor, and in the private mortgage and corporate lending business.
Antje also has a passion for language coaching and during her time in Luxembourg, she taught various immersion and intensive Business English classes to professionals in financial institutions, and German to executives of the ESM in Luxembourg.
Antje was born in Salzgitter and raised in Wurzburg, Germany. She gained her Bachelor’s degree in Banking, Finance and Investing from the University of Applied Sciences in Wuerzburg
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Welcome Our New Corporate Member!
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Trulieve
Trulieve is a vertically integrated “seed to sale” company and is the first and largest fully licensed medical cannabis company in the State of Florida. Trulieve cultivates and produces all of its products in-house and distributes those products to Trulieve branded stores (dispensaries) throughout the State of Florida, as well as directly to patients via home delivery.
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Media Query is a full-service software development and design agency based in Miami. At every step of your project, we make sure to develop solutions tailored to the reality of your business.
We provide one-stop solutions that cover all your needs from software development, visual identity, video production and marketing. Our client portfolio is extremely diverse and covers sectors as Media & Advertising, Technology, Luxury, Hospitality, Real Estate & Property Development, Law, Education & Training, Tourism, Startups and more.
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Welcome Our New Individual Members!
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Margit Winter
Margit Winter worked for many years in Marketing at Unilever in Austria, Germany, Japan and Hungary before she started her own international Consulting and Trade business.
Trying to work less she sold her businesses last year and now focusses on Real estate and lecturing International Marketing at different Universities.
She is still mainly located in Vienna but spends more and more of her time in Miami.
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Carolina Echeverri
Carolina Echeverri is a sophomore pursuing a bachelors in international relations and PRAAC (public relations, applied advertising and communications) at Florida International University (FIU).
She was born in Boynton Beach, but she has also had the opportunity to live in Houston, England and Colombia. She graduated from a British School in Bogotá, Colombia in 2018 with a British (international baccheloriote), American and Colombian high school certificate.
She will explain some of her leadership positions from school all the way to university:
“I have had many leadership positions, including Model UN delegate, president and finally secretary general. This taught me how to be present in all of the positions, until I finally organised a whole Model UN from scratch (logistics and preparation). I also was a part of the values committee in high school and the service committee in which I attended many volunteering events and spoke in front of my whole school about the importance of having values and love within our community. I was selected to go to La Guajira and help design a project to better the lifestyle of the Way Indigenous tribe. With this, I met many students from schools all over Colombia, and designed strategies to implement short term and long term solutions to their problems. Our short term solution consisted of a soccer field (to entertain themselves), made with ecobricks (since they had a lot of waste all around their community) and in this way we taught them how to build with these ecobricks. In terms of the long term solution, we each fundraised in our schools by selling indigenous merchandise, food, making an art show, etc and raised money to build a bathroom (which they lacked). Likewise, I was chosen to attend a couple of UNICEF meetings in Colombia, where I got motivated to open a UNICEF club on campus. I opened the club with another friend, and organised many events.
In university, I have been the marketing chair for MIIndS, where I learned how to control Social Media, and engage new people. In the present, I am the co-president of UNICEF at FIU, which is a lot of responsibility, but I have learned and grown from the experience. It is a lot of work to keep a whole Eboard working and making sure that the events and fundraisers come out on point. I am also the Youth Representative for UNICEF UNITE Miami, where I make sure to keep in contact with the different universities around Miami in order to make sure they have a UNICEF club and to help them in any way that I can. I also attend monthly meetings.
I have worked in the Spanish Ministry of Education as an intern, and this is my second semester working in the German American Business Chamber of Commerce. These two have taught me to be responsible, organised and adapt to all kinds of situations and jobs.
In addition, during my lifetime, I have learned to get out of my comfort zone by travelling and meeting new people. I am a person who used to be extremely timid, but as time went by, I started getting out of my shell and getting involved in academic, professional and social atmospheres. I travelled for a month to Nice when I was 15 and learned the importance of independence, but how hard separation from family and friends can be at first. I have traveled to many countries, and have experienced a lot of cultures and experiences that have taught me to be more mature and always be on the look out and learning something for others and from myself.”
She explains that she is interested in working for a company where she can pursue public relations, communications, fundraising, or any kind of job where she can learn something new or help out in any way. Likewise, she is passionate about non-profits, as she enjoys helping others and would love to make a change in the world.
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Welcome Our New Student Member!
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Katharina Bader
Please join us in welcoming our new student member Katharina Bader.
"My name is katharina Bader and I am 29 years old, I studied law in Munich at the Ludwig-Maximilian’s Universität and graduated in 2017, started working in 2018 as a corporate lawyer in the legal department of a company in Munich. After one and a half years, I decided to get some more international experience and education and therefore I am currently enrolled as a LL.M (master of law) candidate at the Florida international university in Miami. The LL.M. Program is a 10 months graduate studies program for foreign lawyers from all over the world to learn about US, transnational and international law and to provide us with more broad and international legal skills. The program will be finished in May 2020. After that I am planning to work here in Miami."
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Sogol Afsharjavan, Owner and Principal Designer at
Sogol Décor
has been a GABC member since 2017. In addition to regularly participating in GABC events and continuously introducing new members to GABC, Sogol Décor has been a continuous supportive donor to our annual auction. Sogol has also graciously hosted our bi-monthly Stammtisch events at her newest local project –
Platform by Sogol Décor
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Speaking of which – please don’t forget to
REGISTER
for our gathering on February 12
th
at her cozy South of Fifth gallery and venue.
Platform by Sogol Décor
, which opened in 2018, is a lifestyle gallery, and also home to Sogol’s Interior Design Studio. Sogol Décor is a premier full-service interior design and lifestyle firm specialized in residential and commercial projects. For the past two decades Sogol Afsharjavan and her team have been offering clients an inimitable high-touch service, harmonizing the lines of traditional and modern living to create original schemes with materials of impeccable quality and craftsmanship.
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Their mission is to create beautifully-crafted, functional spaces that represent a client’s heart and mind. Be it the creation of an engaging, productive work space, boosting the value of your property for sale or the need to fall in love with your home all over again, Sogol Décor will translate your personal vision into an immersive, functional environment. Sogol and hear team focus on the design of cost-effective interiors that combine the client’s personality, an artist’s creativity and the handcrafted touch of local artisans and worldwide brands. Her vast array of experience reflects into interiors that are accessible and well-defined, with a unique worldly appeal. Clients are motivated to live better, richer lives full of daily inspiration.
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Born in Iran, Sogol Afsharjavan got hooked on design and aesthetics at an early age, watching her grandfather’s work as a design-build architect for projects ranging from family homes to the Grand Palace in Tehran. During that time she developed a passion for image, textures, color and mixing media. In 1979, Sogol moved to Koblenz, Germany, where 11 years of exposure to European art, designs and trends enhanced her interest in interior design and helped shape her individual eye for style. According to Sogol, she is “proud to be able to pick the best elements of each culture I have experienced to curate a unique taste and style in lifestyle and design."
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Dear GABC members,
We are happy to announce our new and updated GABC Benefits for members
!
What GABC Benefits?
All registered GABC members receive special discounts or promotions from our member/partner companies. With discounts for legal consultations to your restaurant bill, make sure you take advantage of these exclusive offers!
Who participates in the program?
How can I participate?
If you would like to promote your product/service and have a benefit you can provide our members, please contact us at
[email protected] to be included in the program.
Should you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to reach out back to us.
Kind regards,
The GABC Team
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European Networking Cocktail
Thursday, November 21st 2019
1100 Brickell Bay Drive, #106
Miami, FL 33131
The European Chambers invited everyone to our European Business Networking Event at Jaxson Maximus. We had around 150 attendees and one of our members even won a price from the raffle. Congratulations!
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The Annual Holiday Gala
Tuesday, December 3rd, 2019
50 Alhambra Plaza 50,
Coral Gables, FL, 33134
We had our Annual Holiday Gala on December 3rd 2019. We spent a wonderful night together with the GABC members and friends as well as our guests of honour the Consul General of Germany Andreas Siegel as well as News Anchor Constance Jones and her husband and famous artist Troy Simmons.
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European Networking Conference and Cocktail
Thursday, January 23rd 2019
1677 Collins Avenue,
Miami Beach, FL, 33139
The European Chambers invited two lawyers from the
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The GABC offers job postings and internship assistance.
Companies and employers can publish their vacancies on our Facebook page, as well as in our upcoming newsletters.
For more information please contact the GABC by email: [email protected] or telephone 305-371-4282.
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Prices:
Members: free
Job Seekers - $50 per post
Companies and Employers - $100 per
post
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Publish Your Advertisement in our Newsletter
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If you are interested in publishing an advertising in the next GABC newsletter, please contact us at [email protected] or call us at 305-371-4282.
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FOR GABC MEMBERS:
Price per section is:
$ 75 for business card size (approx. 5x9 cm / 2x3.5 inch)
$ 125 for third page ad (approx. 10x18 cm / 4x7 inch)
$ 135 for half page ad (approx. 14x21 cm / 5.5x8 inch)
$ 175 for 1 full page ad
Run ad for 2 Newsletters – receive 10% discount on second ads
Run ad for 3 Newsletters – receive 15% discount on second and third ads
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FOR NON-MEMBERS:
Price per section is:
$ 125 for business card size (approx. 5x9 cm / 2x3.5 inch)
$ 150 for third page ad (approx. 10x18 cm / 4x7 inch)
$ 175 for half page ad (approx. 14x21 cm / 5.5x8 inch)
$ 215 for 1 full page ad
Run ad for 2 Newsletters – receive 10% discount on second ad
Run ad for 3 Newsletters – receive 15% discount on second and third ad
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Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau
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German American Chamber of Commerce
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German International Parents Association
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German American Social Club
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Stay Connected with the GABC
Dear GABC members and friends,
We are excited to announce we are increasing our presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. We will come back with more stories and events for your joy!
We would love to connect with you and get your feedback.
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Claudio Riedi
President
Lehtinen Schultz, PLLC
Attorney at Law
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Lydia Harley
Vice- President
Kelley Kroneberg
Attorney at Law
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Timo A. Becker, J.D.
Treasurer
Becker International LAw
Attorney at Law
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Alexandra C. Peters
Secretary
Senior Global Real Estate Advisor
ONE Sotheby’s International Realty
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Dr. Volker Anding
Director
Ambassador (ret.)
International Consultant
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Monika Böhm-Fandiño
Director
LifeCann MD
Co-Founder
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Alexander Evans
Director
Alexander J. Evans C.P.A.
Certified Public Accountant
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Nickel Goeseke
Director
Cervera, Realtor
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Svenja Hammerstein
Director
Toscana Divino Hospitality Group
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Madhu Mehta
Director
India Silk USA,
Vice President
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Ellen von Geyso
Director
Ellen von Geyso PA,
Attorney at Law
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Christian Riehl
Director
TV Productions
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Antje Zgrzebski
Director
Merril Lynch,
Financial Advisor
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Jan Heck
Director
Miele USA
President
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Michael Claus
Founding Member of the GABC President Emeritus and Honorary Director of the Board
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Peter Jacobs
Founding Member of the GABC and Honorary Director of the Board
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Christa Green
GABC President Emeritus
and Honorary Director of the Board
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The GABC is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization founded by local business men and women in Miami. For over 30 years, the organization has promoted business and trade between Germany and the US, particularly in South Florida. The objective of the GABC is to support commercial and personal relations between its members and to promote economic, social and cultural relations between the USA and Germany.
The GABC promotes communication between companies, individuals, organizations and associations that share the same interests.
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Leonie Vallerius
Executive Director
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German American Business Chamber of South Florida
141 NE 3rd Avenue | Suite 1000 | Miami, FL 33132
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